I experienced a strategic “innovation” transformation when I worked in Procter & Gamble’s (P&G) diaper business between 1996 and 2007. In my first assignment the name of the business was “Diaper Category,” later it became “Baby Care.” This was an indication of a significant change in the business strategy—the focus was no longer only on the product (the diaper) but also on the job-to-be done (caring for the baby.)
The journey that led to this change started with the realization that the manufacturing platform was limiting the product design space, and hence innovation. Projects were taking too long and costing too much. Once this reality was accepted, the organization went through a major transformation that started with understanding moms at a deeper, emotional level. Moms interact with their babies differently at each stage of development—newborns are cuddled in soft blankets, and toddlers are encouraged to be independent and active. Shouldn’t it follow that the diapers, like baby clothes, should be specifically designed for each stage of development instead of scaling up the same design based on baby weight and size, which was the practice at that point?
Concept diapers, process/equipment, and materials were designed, modeled, and tested. Hard technical problems were identified and solved. Eventually a new digitally connected, modular diaper manufacturing platform was implemented with more than $1B investment which led to a significant reduction in development costs and time-to-market. By managing a robust innovation project portfolio, over time the concept diapers were made a market reality. In parallel, new innovation strategies and capabilities such as Connect & Develop (Open Innovation), Modeling & Simulation, and Front End Innovation were implemented. The business grew at an accelerated pace behind these transformational changes.
Collaboration during this innovation transformation, which took about a decade, mostly happened through face-to-face meetings, emails, and calls. The knowledge and insights were generally captured in Power Point, Word, and Excel documents and stored on people’s computers, in emails, on network drives, and some were published to common databases. The importance of Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) became clear early on, but the journey and capability development was still continuing when I left P&G in 2012.
Could today’s collaborative innovation approaches and technology have accelerated this innovation transformation? I think so. Here are some use case ideas:
Crowdsourcing and co-creation within an enterprise:
- Instead of working only through hierarchical communication channels, business leaders could ask employees ideas and opinions on critical business questions and challenges.
- Large project teams can collectively be invited to contribute to critical management decisions through “prediction market” type approaches.
- Employees could engage peer networks / communities on problem solving. This is especially effective when management acknowledges the importance of these communities and offers incentives for people to participate.
- Employees can help identify business relevant trends and competitor activities based on their observations and network chatter. Easy access to cameras, mobile devices, and the availability of on-line communities make such sharing almost effortless.
Crowdsourcing and co-creation with consumers and enthusiasts:
- Nowadays consumers eagerly participate in social media and on-line communities, providing lots of feedback. Many companies have built their own communities to co-create with their consumers. These approaches are scaled, in some cases to huge crowds, as marketing campaigns.
Crowdsourcing solutions:
- Specific needs can be published to internal and external networks to seek solutions. This is the premise of Open Innovation, which is supported by services to engage targeted communities with a range of technical skills, demographics, and diversity of experience.
Team collaboration:
- Technology advances in Cloud, sensors, cameras, and user-friendly design tools makes team collaboration much easier. People can access their documents and designs anytime and anywhere, and are able to collaborate with their team members in context.
- There are many real world examples for each of these use cases, which I will speak about at an upcoming webinar on June 25. However, I have not yet seen many companies who have adopted these approaches as a systemic way of working. For this to happen a real cultural and strategic alignment across the enterprise is needed. This is hard to do… but not impossible.
The story remains the same: The future is here, but distributed!
What do you think?
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