A global study by IBM revealed that today’s CIO spends on average 55 percent of his or her time on activities that help spur innovation, a process that is highly reliant on the organization’s business model. Innovation is the key to cultivating organizational development. The folks at Fast Company share three elements that are required for an effective business model, and therefore a more developed organization: a unique central idea that defines who you are, a grasp of future market trends, and profitability from either lower cost base or an offering that cannot be easily copied. Dean Crutchfield of Method, a business problem-solving organization, states that the secret of business innovation is to think big, act small, fail fast, and learn rapidly.
So what are the necessary steps for successful organizational development? From the collaboration of the strategy consulting firm Strategy&, Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School, and Philip Kotler of Northwestern University’s School of Management comes a six-step process tailored to the prosperous development of organizations.
- Know yourself. Analyze and assess your organization’s identity, purpose, and abilities. Once you have a grasp of your organization’s goals and capability of attaining those goals, you can develop a strategy for getting your people moving towards success.
- Business Innovation is more than just customer-driven. Businesses often make the mistake of assuming a customer-driven position. However, customers are not visionaries; they may know what they need and want, but they don’t have the experience and knowledge to think of the future of the products they make use of. Giving your products an edge and a leg-up in competition requires thinking outside the box in terms of marketing and developmental strategies—ideas that come from the minds within the organization, not from the customers outside.
- Aim past the target. Are your products geared towards satisfying your current customers, attracting new ones, or both? The ideal answer would be C, both. However, businesses often make the mistake of focusing so heavily on accommodating current customers that they often lack focus on driving in new business. Keep both categories in mind when developing your products and marketing strategies.
- Lead, follow, or get out of the way. This one is simple, really. An organization, even a successful one, cannot progress without an effective leadership team. Make sure your leadership team is effective with the help of Talexes’s customized products.
- Big results require big ambitions. Organizational development goals are beneficial, but be sure that these short-term goals do not distract from your organization’s overarching long-term goals. Methods implemented for innovation and development should not interrupt or negate methods that were already in place for the organization’s way of achieving their purpose.
- Speak your vision and achieve it. Do not let your organization’s pre-determined goals undermine your future success. Figure out what draws the company together to perform successfully, and implement that strategy—don’t just talk about bringing the company together. Being able to visualize your goals and share those with the company will compel others to help achieve them. Visualizing the success that comes from achieving the goal is an effective motivator for your employees to pour their efforts into your concepts.
The business and consumer worlds are developing faster than expected, causing a need to innovate faster and faster. These six concepts are meant to put you and your organization in the best position for innovation, organizational development, and success.
