Innovation may not be improvement...

Lovers of innovation may not realize that a change for the new and different might be better, but it might not be the best way to succeed.

Some organizations can benefit most from doing a better job of “working to plan”.   Programs such as of quality, motivation, better hires, or better training help everyone improve their compliance to procedures and processes, reducing costs and increasing customer satisfaction.

Others might find more benefit in improving those plans and procedures for products and services.   Management science, industrial engineering, work simplification allow workers and experts to discover procedures which enable more production from the given resources.

For others, the greatest benefit lies in redesigning the product or service to better fit customer needs and values.   Approaches such as product improvement, industrial design, and Value Engineering make changes to the actual product design to deliver more customer benefit for lower costs.

Of course, other companies need to shift to a whole new industry or niche as either they are overwhelmed by competitors or the entire market or industry disappears as technology changes.

It makes sense for those investing resources in improvement or innovation to first consider which level gives them the best opportunity, because each of these target levels require different knowledge and different types of thinking.
 

Innovation or strategic leadership consists both of choosing which aspect of which level has the most potential and assembling and leading teams in the optimum kinds of thinking to discover opportunities.

And the ultimate organizational decision is to decide the balance between efficient operations and innovative search in various areas, because the investment and the cultural dynamics are quite different for each type.

As innovators and innovation promoters, we must consider the very real possibility that those resisting our efforts have a better grasp on the strategic potential of each level, and greatest potential for success might be in an area that bores us...