Social business and community are two of the most transformative changes in the business world in recent years. But I think we all know that many companies came to these changes kicking and screaming all the way, or with an expectation that bolting on a community would be all the change the company needed.
Saul Kaplan and I wrote the following post about people who were searching for jobs that would allow them to participate in transformative innovation, or people who wanted to partner with companies interested in transformative innovation. However, community managers and social business leaders may also be struggling with how to get executive support to explore transformative opportunities, business model innovations, and other kinds of change that community and social can offer to companies willing to go beyond tweaks and bolt-ons.
So, here's the post:
If leaders don’t want to change, all the consulting jargon and fancy PowerPoints in the world won’t convince them to.
In those situations, no matter what lofty rhetoric the CEO uses in public or at company retreats about “creating an innovation culture” and encouraging everyone to think outside of the box, the best result will be incremental innovations to improve the performance of today’s business model.
The only way transformational innovation will happen is if a company's leaders want transformational change.
If the CEO isn't willing to take the steps and the risks necessary to move beyond tweaks to transformation, it won't happen. And if you work for this kind of leader, or if you partner with the company, you will never get the chance to develop transformational new business models. You'll always be frustrated if you were hoping for the opportunity to help create bolder change.
If you want to work in transformational innovation, or if you want to partner with a company on transformational innovation, you should find a company with a CEO who wants that too. Working for or with a company whose CEO talks transformation, but supports tweaks, will not be a fit for you.
The only way to find out is to ask the CEO: How serious are you about transformational innovation?
Here's what you need to know:
- Does the CEO agree that transformational innovation goes beyond breakthrough products to include business model innovation — entirely new ways to create, deliver, and capture value?
- Will company employees say that failure is a career-limiting move, or will they say that the company celebrates experimentation?
- How much time does the CEO spend strengthening and protecting the current business model, versus designing the next one?
- Does the CEO have clear and discrete objectives for both incremental and transformational innovation? Does the leadership organize differently for each?
- Does the organization invest in R&D for new business models, while it also invests in new products, services, and technologies?
- Is the CEO prepared for the organization to disrupt itself? Does the CEO have a vision for how that might play out?
- Do internal ideas and projects that threaten to cannibalize the current business model get squashed — or nurtured?
- Does the CEO have a process for allocating resources for transformational innovation projects that lies outside of the control of business units?
- Do executives with responsibility for exploring transformational business models report to the CEO, or to another line executive responsible for today’s business?
- Is the CEO willing to create a sandbox to explore transformational business models, even if it means carving out a part of the current business/market to serve as an ongoing real-world innovation lab?
A few words of advice about using these questions in the real world….Tread lightly, since no CEO likes to be put on the spot and drilled with a laundry list of questions! Take the risk of going down this path only if you want to discern how well (or not) the leader of the company you are considering working for, or with, shares your appetite for transformational innovation. If so, then pick a few of these questions and ask them in your own words.
After all, it's better to know in advance what kind of environment you’re going into than to learn painful lessons later.
