Resource Origin: Xonitek By Joseph Paris
“If you want your business to survive, you need to innovate. If you want your business to have a chance of thriving, you need transformation. Certainly, either innovation or transformation are no guarantees of success – but the lack of both almost certainly leads to doom. Need proof? Can you name one company or one industry (other than government) today that, when faced with a change in the marketplace, failed to innovate – and instead stayed with its traditions, and survived – not to mention, thrived? If you think of one, let me know. How about a company that faced a transformation in the marketplace – how did it fare over time?
But, what is innovation? And what is transformation?
Do people even differentiate between innovation and transformation? Do a series of innovations, introduced in rapid succession, result in transformation? It is easy to confuse the two or to blur the borders. For your consideration:
Transformation is the process of starting or ending a paradigm and involves a terminus. Think about the invention of the lightbulb (which marked the end for gas lamps), or the shipping container (which marked the beginning of globalization). Within a company, it means the complete redefinition of its core value proposition – for instance, IBM was a company whose founding and existence depended upon selling computers and related peripherals until it had a near-death experience in the early 1990’s and transformed into a business consulting firm (with an emphasis on information systems). And…
Innovation is the process of evolutionary step-changes in a product or service offering. Think about incremental releases (versions) of software – each designed to build from the previous, but adding various improvements in design and ability. In an enterprise (consisting of a company, and its value chain), innovation might take place in the form of a reorganization.
So, although innovation is necessary for survival, transformation is the big-bet. The go-big or go-home moment which has the greatest risk, but also the…”
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Contributors: Open SourceCategories: Industry Articles, SIG U Resource
SRC Type: Sourcing Management