Project Management for Continuous Innovation

Management by Project Mapping

Kern Peng

• Publisher: Pike Publications
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781733555715
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Project Management
• Index: Business

Traditional project management overwhelmingly focuses on techniques and procedures for planning and controlling. This creates a framework to confine project team members to operate within a set of processes and measurements. However, most projects require project team members to be innovative and creative. It is difficult to ask employees to think outside of the box while using a “box” style system to manage projects. In addition, much of the focus of such system is to achieve a success result in every project. Such emphasis discourages risk-taking because employees may not want to initiate projects unless they feel the chance of success is high. Inhibited risk-taking constrains learning opportunities and innovation.

This book presents a strategic approach called “Management by Project Mapping” (MBPM), which systematically utilizes project management to transform a company’s organizational system, culture and capability, creating a foundation upon which to achieve long-term sustainable innovation. It then presents situational practices and tools to manage different types of projects since no single project management approach is suitable for all projects. Emphasizing effectiveness and velocity with reduced administrative processes and activities in project management, this book introduces a new approach formanagingpeople, information, tasks and schedule in projects.

Chapter 1

Corporate Innovation

Defining Corporate Innovation

The world is changing, and the business world must changing along with it.

Corporation must innovate to keep up.

"Innovation is everything..." by Robert Noyce

The Main Entrance of Intel’s Headquarter Building

Innovation is not just simply means inventing something new.

There are many ways to measure corporate innovation. Go to Chapter 1 M section (M1) for details about measuring corporate innovation.

It is rare and difficult to consistently achieve innovative results. Go to Chapter 1 L section (L1) for details about the challenging journey of innovation.

What is corporate innovation?

Innovation is achieving breakthrough results!

… but breaking through what?

Innovation Defined

The answer is:

customer and market expectation.

A company would not be considered innovative if it only meets the customer and the market's expectations. It is the "wow" factor and the surprise elements that contribute to innovativeness in the eyes of the consumers.

It is important to understand customers' expectations will not stay the same… the more you innovate, the more the customers expect from you and thus, the more difficult it is to be innovative. Continually exceeding the expectation of the customers and the market is key.

Effectively mapping and managing projects will enable a corporation to achieve continuing innovation. Go to Chapter 2 T section (T2) to understand the importance of the relationship between project management and innovation.

Chapter 1

Corporate Innovation

Measuring Corporation Innovation

Could you name some of the innovative companies?

Perhaps:

Apple,

Google,

Tesla…

Why do you consider these companies innovative?

Perhaps:

New products,

New markets,

New way of doing business…

What criteria are you using?

Perhaps:

Creating values,

Making money,

Changing our lives…

Now let's look at how some of the most reputable organizations and media measure corporate innovation. Boston Consulting Group, Fast Company and Forbes all publish an annual list of the world's most innovative companies [1] [2] [3].

The World’s Most Innovative Companies Lists 2016 Sources: The Boston Consulting Group, Fast Company and Forbes

Remarkably, however, only 2 companies appeared on the top 25 spots of all three lists. If we only consider the top 10 companies, then not even one company shares all three lists!

Why do these organizations measure innovative so differently?

These organizations of course all use comprehensive criteria to generate the lists as objectively as possible and they can certainly defend what they used with reasonable logic.

Why does the difference in measuring corporate innovation matter?

If you ask your employees to innovate, they might ask you a question in return -

"Which Innovative Companies list are we targeting?"

How would you respond? Telling employees to just do it and hopefully we will get onto one of the lists? Innovation should not be just a word in a slogan. If you are not clear, how can you ask employees to execute? Without a specific direction, you cannot expect your employee to achieve the desired results.

From the business perspective, a company needs to make profit to survive. For those who focus on the financial results, corporate innovation should reflect on the bottom line business performance of the company. The profitability of the company, however, is obviously not a key criterion for measuring innovativeness, at least not on those three lists. Tesla Motors, the only company placed within the top 3 in two of the three lists, has yet to make a profit since it was founded. On the Fast Company list, where Tesla Motors was not in the top 3, BuzzFeed took the first place, which is clearly not due to profitability either.

From a technical perspective, the word innovation is probably associated the most with high-tech industries. For those who focus on R&D and technical results, corporate innovation could be measured by the number of patents granted. However, innovation is not just simply gathering a group of technical experts and developing something that no one has done before. Many technically genius ideas do not make it to the market.

The World’s Top 25 Patent Generating Companies 2012-2016

Source: IFI CLAIMS [4]

Let's examine the patents granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and the list of companies with the most patents granted. Since the patent application and granting process requires a rather long period of time, a five-year period is used and the top 25 patent generating companies from 2012 to 2016 are listed [4]. It is quite different from the other three lists shown earlier. With the addition of this new list, there is not even a single company that appears on all four lists. Why are most of these technically aggressive companies, investing huge amount of money in R&D and demonstrating excellent results in patent generations, failing to be considered innovative?

If corporate innovation isn't measured by profitability, or technical capability, then how is it measured?

It is simply the perception of the customers and the market. Companies that are considered innovative must have a great focus on their customers and the markets. They understand the needs of their customers and markets and, more importantly, not just meeting those needs but exceeding the expectations of their customers.

Innovation requires a lot of effort. It is not an easy journey, especially if a company is aiming at maintaining innovativeness and building long lasting enterprise. Understanding the journey itself will gain more in-depth knowledge about innovation.

Continue reading the next section to find out more about the journey of innovation and how to plan for it or go to Chapter 2 for the importance of project management and its relationship to innovation.

Chapter 1

Corporate Innovation

The Journey of Innovation

Innovation means achieving breakthrough results and more specifically breaking through customer and market expectations, which is difficult to maintain constantly. The process of achieving these results continuously is defined as the journey of innovation.

The Journey of Innovation

As shown in the above figure, the first innovation gets the customer's attention and several consistent innovations are then needed to achieve customer loyalty. Customers also expect more as a company innovates so the bar is rising for the next generation of products or services offered. Simply coming up with a product that is better than the previous generation will not be considered innovative if it just meets the customer expectations. Engineers may feel that a new product incorporates many technical breakthroughs and exceeds management's expectation as well. However, exceeding the company's own expectation does not count: only exceeding the expectations of the customers and market is considered innovative.

Using the analogy of dating that leads to engagement and marriage, one must act gradually to exceed the expectation of the targeted sig...