The locus of corporate innovations has been product development. But in times of rapid and unpredictable change, the creation of individual products becomes less important than the creation of a general organizational aptitude for innovation.
Interpretation
In a rapidly changing environment, developing a capability for innovation is more crucial than just creating new products.
The quote emphasizes that in today's fast-paced and unpredictable business landscape, organizations must focus on fostering a culture and capability for innovation rather than solely concentrating on producing new products. This shift in focus recognizes that adaptability and the ability to innovate continuously are essential for long-term success.
In practice
In a keynote presentation on corporate strategy, this quote can highlight the importance of building an innovative culture.
It's never enough to just tell people about some new insight. Rather, you have to get them to experience it a way that evokes its power and possibility. Instead of pouring knowledge into people's heads, you need to help them grind anew set of eyeglasses so they can see the world in a new way.
People need to know more than what a piece of information means. They also need to know how the information matters.
If you can design the physical space, the social space, and the information space together to enhance collaborative learning, then that whole milieu turns into a learning technology.
The international community spends much more time and resources managing crises than preventing them. But TV cameras are seldom there when a conflict is avoided, so it is difficult for governments and international organizations to make prevention a priority.
As much as people say they love change, they love it when you change - not when you want them to change. Even when it comes to processes they don't like, they're afraid of change.
You can’t mandate [cultural change], can’t engineer it. What you can do is create the conditions for transformation. You can provide incentives. You can define the marketplace realities and goals. But then you have to trust. In fact, in the end, management doesn’t change culture. Management invites the workforce itself to change the culture.
It's really weird how your life changes. Tonight I'm drinking water. Four years ago? Opium. Night and day, you know?
The moment of change is the only poem.
... the spring, the summer, The chilling autumn, angry winter, change Their wonted liveries; and the mazed world By their increase, now knows not which is which.
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