Digital Innovation: ‘Just start’
Innovators go All In On Digital. That is the message of the BCG 2018 edition of Most Innovative Companies, the Top50. The study has a large number of interesting learnings. Both from the leaders but also from the laggards. The study shows for instance, which improvements innovation leaders are actively targeting. One striking learning in my view is that ‘speed of adopting new technologies’ climbed to 3rd from 14th place (dead last) in 2017.
Speed of adopting new technologies
Why is that? Obviously, technologies are changing rapidly, especially for companies that are not digital natives. Furthermore, effectively getting a new technology incorporated throughout a company’s portfolio of products and services or throughout its operations, is a major effort and speed is of the essence.
Digital innovation needs momentum
When looking at the difference in ‘speed of adopting new technologies’ between the leaders and the laggards the difference is even more staggering. Leaders reported focusing on this over 2.5 times more than laggards. Laggards do not go after speed, while they need it the most for their digital innovation.
So how can you speed up your digital innovation?
Whether you are a leader or a laggard, the answer is: ‘just start’. Kick-start your digital innovation. Or if you have already begun, spread it to all your businesses and organizational entities. Create digital initiatives, resource them, and get them to produce new value propositions.
How can you best kick-start your digital innovation?
The report shows seven Digital Organization Design Principles. Six of them you can start straight away in digital value proposition development projects. They include things like:
- Customer centricity
- An agile way of working
- Being experimental
- Using ‘lean, simple and standard’
- Being cross-functional
- Having ‘empowered and accountable teams and managers’
This may sound daunting but in earnest it is not. It is just a matter of starting to do it. See how we have incorporated these design principles in how we develop innovations with winning business models to create digital propositions.
Looking to ‘just start’ with your digital innovation?
Find more information about developing innovations with winning business models, one of the focal areas of Industry Consulting, and check out our services in innovation management: