Only People Can Innovate – The Blue Ocean Strategy
April 30th, 2008 by Lois MelbourneAt the recent SHRM Global HR conference, W. Chan Kim spoke as a keynote. He is the co-author of The Blue Ocean Strategy . This is an interesting book that I read a few years ago. Its subtitle was very interesting to me, too, How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant. That will be fodder for another blog some day.
I’d like to share my take-away from Chan Kim’s speech. He talked about innovation and doing things differently. It is what he said about HR and this strategy that I found gripping. The number one thing that HR can do for the strategy of the company is to create an environment in which the workforce can innovate and stimulate innovation. He repeated it several times, and it really struck me as the best advice I can give our customers. If Human Resources or Human Capital departments would design themselves around the mission that everything they do must enhance the workforce, its intellectual environment, and its tools to foster innovation, HR would be at every strategic discussion in the company.
As a CEO I get to help influence and foster innovation throughout the organization. My team is incredibly innovative, continually inventing new solutions and new software categories to solve customer problems. I see clients who have truly innovative organizations, and they are more spirited and energetic than organizations that do not thrive on innovation. In the press, Dot.com organizations get all kinds of buzz about their lively and engaged workforce. But, if you want to experience an innovative, engaged, and lively workforce, have lunch in the corporate cafeteria at Lilly in Indianapolis. When I was there, it felt like you were having a meal before going into a rock concert. The conversations were animated, the energy level was contagious, people were greeting each other and waving to one another from across the room (and it’s a big room). It felt great. Lilly is a VERY innovative organization. We have medicines and medical treatments in this world that we can thank them for everyday. They have an environment that fosters innovation in all areas of the organization, not just the research and development departments.
If HR knocked down barriers to innovation so that employees could do the best for the company at every turn, HR would be heroes. Outsource the transactional stuff, if you can, and get your hands dirty in the creation of value through innovation. There are a lot of rewards in that, both personally and for the organization. It means that HR needs to be seen as innovative, too. It may take a lot of innovation to find the barriers to innovation in your organization and then knock them down. Changing the industry name from HR to Human Capital Management is the shift towards the spotlight on employee value, as capital for the organization. Only people can innovate. So it is your job to foster, development and encourage those people to bring innovation to fruition in your organization.
There are MANY books on innovation, some better then others. I often find innovation inspiration in the least likely materials. However, if you want to look into the more current thoughts and ideas about innovation here is a decent book list for you to explore:
- Payback: Reaping the Rewards of Innovation
- Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die
- Giants of Enterprise: Seven Business Innovators and the Empires They Built
- The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
- The Ten Faces of Innovation: IDEO’s Strategies for Defeating the Devil’s Advocate and Driving Creativity Throughout Your Organization
- Innovators Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Companies to Fail
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