Change is less scary ...

Change is less scary...when you're driving it.

Author: Gavin Wedell

Who said it would be easy?

Innovation is the future of any organization. It is, however, more than hard work. Let's be realistic ...

Let's be realistic ...Less than 30% of change programs are successful. Factors responsible for failure of change (including innovation) initiatives are for instance management behavior which is not supportive, the high degree of employee resistance, and the lack of required resources. 

How can we improve our success rate?

When we are aware of the following elements from the start of our innovation initiatives, we might have a chance to be among the 30% successful change programs:

1. Innovation needs to be done when it goes well with the business: when it goes badly with the business, it is really too late to have time, money, people and other resources available for innovation initiatives. Especially when we know that in any innovation project, there is a chance that this initiative will not reach the finish line. On the other hand, in a business where it is going well, there is not enough pressure to innovate drastically. It ripples further based on the current successes and it makes little sense to innovate and change thoroughly. Therefore ... put always pressure on innovation projects by reducing available time and resources. 
2. Each innovation group contains intrinsically more or less innovation potential:  'super designers' no longer exist. Innovation happens in team. The team potential is determined by the presence of participants with different mental models (how they look differently at the world) and different backgrounds (academic , jobs, community), the willingness to work in a team and to learn collectively (also under pressure and when it goes badly). Preferably, the team may not only consists of creative people. Even more conservative people are needed in the team. Finally, they should be able to decide autonomously, how they will work together (no pre-assigned processes).
3. Welcome to the war zone: it is known that many successful changes and innovations have come only after a lot of struggle and after reaching the bottom. So if you realize that on the road to success, you will have to convince management and employees more than once, you will have to deal with conflicts in the innovation team which will need to be resolved, innovation and change will best be done with limited resources and by working under time constraints, that there will be a chance that even the current business model will be thoroughly shaken, and that indeed the company may have to opt for a comprehensive transformation rather than a small change, ...you're on the winning side. It is perhaps best compared with the mentality, entrepreneurship and the growing pains of a start up or scale up.

[Business Model Innovation] Revolutionise your business

Get more value out of your business

Business model innovation has additional innovation potential compared to process, product or technology innovation. Many of the big successes like Amazon, Apple, Holcim, Ebay, Ryanair or Ikea, are rather based on innovative business models than on new products. Through business model innovation, you can get more value out of your business. The number of business model innovations has increased significantly over the last 20 years (source: ITEM-HSG). More than 50% of executives believes that their business model will undergo fundamental changes in the next ten years (source: McKinsey, 2011)

Thrust helps to innovate through the Business Model Navigator TM

The Business Model Navigator (BMI-Lab / St. Gallen) is an action-oriented methodology that permits any company to break with its dominant industry logic and innovate its business model. It builds on the central idea that successful business models can be constructed through creative imitation and recombination. (Source: Oliver Gassmann, Karolin Frankenberger and Michaela Csik 2014). 90% of all new business models aren't actually new. They are based on 55 existing patterns. (source: Oliver Gassmann, 2014). These 55 patterns can boost the innovation of your business. It will help you in a creative way to  figure out where your business fits in, and which creative imitation and recombination is the most valuable for your business.

Thrust helps with innovation through the Business Model Navigator. We help our clients to analyze the current business model and ecosystem, in facilitating innovation workshops to develop new ideas through the 55 patterns applied to its own business, and/or in the phase of testing and implementation (change management). Or we we guide and facilitate the entire innovation process if desired.

If you are interested to see how THRUST can help you with this approach to innovate successfully your business,  contact THRUST

Welcome to our new website!

The importance of commercial innovation

Hello world, this blog is about commercial innovation, customer relationships and service design thinking, but also about personal and team coaching.

Digitization gives new possibilities but is also responsible for the current disruptive economy. In this disruptive economy, new powerhouses emerge as Google, Apple, Facebook and others. They ensure that even very old, large companies shake to their foundations and begin to question their existence. For example, banks and insurance companies, but also the automotive industry are all threatened by new entrants who use often IT and digital solutions and have often a fresh look at traditional challenges. Why doesn't drive a car independently? Why does a surgeon operate still manually? Why do we still use physical (paper) money to pay?  Therefore, it is important that any organization continues to innovate. Certainly 'commercial innovation' has become even more important. It is not just about product innovation, but also about everything we do in order to service the customer better and the added customer value we create in this way.  Read more about it next time.

Personal coaching to activate individual potential

In this blog and website, however, we will also write about the importance of human interaction, personal coaching and building teams. Especially in times of rapid change, the quality of human contact, personal performance and team functioning is more important than ever. Also striving for a better balance and to more happiness, both at work and in private life, deserve more attention. The demand for personal and team coaching is therefore rising.

Next time we continue with commercial innovation and different approaches.

For more information about  our services, click here, or contact THRUST

See you again!