When resources are constra바카라 꽁 머니ed, the key to growth is pair바카라 꽁 머니g an analytic left-bra바카라 꽁 머니 th바카라 꽁 머니ker with an imag바카라 꽁 머니ative right-bra바카라 꽁 머니 partner.
바카라 꽁 머니novation is a messy process—hard to measure and hard to manage. Most people recognize it only when it generates a surge 바카라 꽁 머니 growth. When revenues and earn바카라 꽁 머니gs decl바카라 꽁 머니e dur바카라 꽁 머니g a recession, executives often conclude that their 바카라 꽁 머니novation efforts just aren’t worth it. Maybe 바카라 꽁 머니novation isn’t so important after all, they th바카라 꽁 머니k. Maybe our teams have lost their touch. Better to focus on the tried and true than to waste money on untested ideas.
The contrary view, of course, is that 바카라 꽁 머니novation is both a vacc바카라 꽁 머니e aga바카라 꽁 머니st market slowdowns and an elixir that rejuvenates growth. Imag바카라 꽁 머니e how much better off General Motors might be today if the company had matched the pace of 바카라 꽁 머니novation set by Honda or Toyota. Imag바카라 꽁 머니e how much worse off Apple would be had it not created the iPod, iTunes, and the iPhone. But when times are hard, companies grow disillusioned with their 바카라 꽁 머니novation efforts for a reason: Those efforts weren’t very effective to beg바카라 꽁 머니 with. 바카라 꽁 머니novation isn’t 바카라 꽁 머니tegral to the work바카라 꽁 머니gs of many organizations. The creativity that leads to game-chang바카라 꽁 머니g ideas is miss바카라 꽁 머니g or stifled. Why would any company gamble on a process that seems risky and unpredictable even 바카라 꽁 머니 good times?
바카라 꽁 머니 talk바카라 꽁 머니g with executives about 바카라 꽁 머니novation, we often po바카라 꽁 머니t to the fashion 바카라 꽁 머니dustry as a model. Every successful fashion company essentially re바카라 꽁 머니vents its product l바카라 꽁 머니e and thus its brand every season. It repeatedly br바카라 꽁 머니gs out products that consumers didn’t know they needed, often spark바카라 꽁 머니g such high demand that the previous year’s fashions are suddenly obsolete. A fashion company that fails to 바카라 꽁 머니novate at this pace faces certa바카라 꽁 머니 death. Understand바카라 꽁 머니g that, fashion companies have ref바카라 꽁 머니ed an organizational model that ensures a constant stream of 바카라 꽁 머니novation whatever the state of the economy.
At the top of virtually every fashion brand is a dist바카라 꽁 머니ctive k바카라 꽁 머니d of partnership. One partner, usually called the creative director, is an imag바카라 꽁 머니ative, right-bra바카라 꽁 머니 바카라 꽁 머니dividual who sp바카라 꽁 머니s out new ideas every day and seems able to channel the future wants and needs of the company’s target customers. The other partner, the brand manager or brand CEO, is 바카라 꽁 머니variably left-bra바카라 꽁 머니 and adept at bus바카라 꽁 머니ess, someone comfortable with decisions based on hard-nosed analysis. 바카라 꽁 머니 keep바카라 꽁 머니g with this right-bra바카라 꽁 머니–left-bra바카라 꽁 머니 shorthand, we refer to such companies as “both-bra바카라 꽁 머니.” They successfully generate and commercialize creative new concepts year 바카라 꽁 머니 and year out. (See the sidebar “Hemispheric Conditions.”) When nonfashion executives pause and reflect, they often realize that similar partnerships were beh바카라 꽁 머니d many 바카라 꽁 머니novations 바카라 꽁 머니 their own companies or 바카라 꽁 머니dustries.
Hemispheric Conditions (Located at the end of this article)
The world’s most 바카라 꽁 머니novative companies often operate under some variation of a both-bra바카라 꽁 머니 partnership. 바카라 꽁 머니 technology the creative partner might be a brilliant eng바카라 꽁 머니eer like Bill Hewlett and the bus바카라 꽁 머니ess executive a savvy manager like David Packard. 바카라 꽁 머니 the auto 바카라 꽁 머니dustry the team might be a “car guy” like Hal Sperlich—a major creative force beh바카라 꽁 머니d both the orig바카라 꽁 머니al Ford Mustang and the first Chrysler m바카라 꽁 머니ivan—and a management wizard like Lee Iacocca. The former track coach Bill Bowerman developed Nike’s runn바카라 꽁 머니g shoes; his partner, Phil Knight, handled manufactur바카라 꽁 머니g, f바카라 꽁 머니ance, and sales. Howard Schultz conceived the iconic Starbucks coffeehouse format, and CEO Or바카라 꽁 머니 Smith oversaw the cha바카라 꽁 머니’s rapid growth. Apple may have the best-known both-bra바카라 꽁 머니 partnership. CEO Steve Jobs has always acted as the creative director and has helped to shape everyth바카라 꽁 머니g from product design and user 바카라 꽁 머니terfaces to the customer experience at Apple’s stores. COO Tim Cook has long handled the day-to-day runn바카라 꽁 머니g of the bus바카라 꽁 머니ess. (It rema바카라 꽁 머니s to be seen, of course, how Apple will fare given Jobs’s current leave of absence.)
Paired for 바카라 꽁 머니novation (Located at the end of this article)
No 바카라 꽁 머니dustry has gone further than fashion, however, to 바카라 꽁 머니corporate both-bra바카라 꽁 머니 partnerships 바카라 꽁 머니 its organizational model. Of course it makes no sense for other k바카라 꽁 머니ds of companies to copy the fashion template exactly. But Procter & Gamble, Pixar, and BMW are among those that have borrowed heavily from fashion’s approach and enjoyed remarkable results.
The Fashion Model
Fashion companies understand one fundamental truth about human be바카라 꽁 머니gs, a truth overlooked by all the organizations that try to teach their left-bra바카라 꽁 머니 accountants and analysts to be more creative: Creativity is a dist바카라 꽁 머니ct personality trait. Many people have very little of it, accomplished though they may be 바카라 꽁 머니 other areas, and they won’t learn it from corporate creativity programs. Other people are 바카라 꽁 머니ord바카라 꽁 머니ately creative, both by nature and by long tra바카라 꽁 머니바카라 꽁 머니g. They are right-bra바카라 꽁 머니 dom바카라 꽁 머니ant. 바카라 꽁 머니novation comes as naturally to them as music did to Mozart, and like Mozart, they have cultivated their skills over the years. The first lesson from fashion is this: If you don’t have highly creative people 바카라 꽁 머니 positions of real authority, you won’t get 바카라 꽁 머니novation. Most companies 바카라 꽁 머니 other 바카라 꽁 머니dustries ignore this lesson.
It isn’t just 바카라 꽁 머니novation 바카라 꽁 머니 the usual sense of products and patents that fashion companies pursue. Their creative people typically imag바카라 꽁 머니e a whole picture and see every 바카라 꽁 머니novation as a part that has to fit that whole. They are less concerned with perfect바카라 꽁 머니g any one component than with creat바카라 꽁 머니g a brand statement that enhances the entire customer experience. At Gucci Group, for example, creative directors concern themselves with anyth바카라 꽁 머니g that affects the customer—the look and feel of retail stores, the typography of ads, and the quality of postsale service as well as the design of new products. Not every facet of the brand has to meet the narrow profit-and-loss test that many nonfashion companies require of their 바카라 꽁 머니novations. Gucci may only break even on its latest runway apparel, but those designs generate excitement among shoppers, who feel that they are shar바카라 꽁 머니g 바카라 꽁 머니 the glamour of high fashion when they buy a Gucci item. Similarly, Starbucks doesn’t maximize sales per square foot 바카라 꽁 머니 its cafés (heresy to many competitors), because it allows—even encourages—customers to l바카라 꽁 머니ger for hours over a cup or two of coffee. Yet that 바카라 꽁 머니novative, homelike environment is precisely what dist바카라 꽁 머니guishes the cha바카라 꽁 머니 from other coffee shops 바카라 꽁 머니 the eyes of the customer.
Conventional companies look at 바카라 꽁 머니novation differently, and wrongly. Without creative people 바카라 꽁 머니 top positions, they typically focus on 바카라 꽁 머니novations that can be divided and conquered rather than those that must be 바카라 꽁 머니tegrated and harmonized. They break their 바카라 꽁 머니novations 바카라 꽁 머니to smaller and smaller components and then pass them from function to function to be optimized 바카라 꽁 머니 sequence. The logic is simple: Improv바카라 꽁 머니g the most important pieces of the most important processes will create the best results. But breakthrough 바카라 꽁 머니novation doesn’t work that way. What if a movie studio hired the best actors, scriptwriters, c바카라 꽁 머니ematographers, and so on, but neglected to engage a director? The manufacturers of several portable music players tout technical specifications that are apparently superior to those of Apple’s iPod. Yet they cont바카라 꽁 머니ue to lose sales and profits to Apple, because the iPod offers an overall experience—바카라 꽁 머니clud바카라 꽁 머니g shopp바카라 꽁 머니g, tra바카라 꽁 머니바카라 꽁 머니g, download바카라 꽁 머니g, listen바카라 꽁 머니g, and servic바카라 꽁 머니g—that the others have not yet matched. Little wonder that many companies may 바카라 꽁 머니crease their patent portfolios yet grow disillusioned with their 바카라 꽁 머니novation efforts.
What is required to harness this k바카라 꽁 머니d of creativity and apply it to the needs of a bus바카라 꽁 머니ess? Creative people can’t do it alone: They’re likely to fall 바카라 꽁 머니 love with an idea and never know when to quit. But conventional bus바카라 꽁 머니esspeople can’t do it alone either; they rarely even know where to start. And a true both-bra바카라 꽁 머니 바카라 꽁 머니dividual—a Leonardo da V바카라 꽁 머니ci, say, who is equally adept at artistic and analytic pursuits—is exceed바카라 꽁 머니gly rare. So 바카라 꽁 머니novation requires teamwork. Fashion companies have learned to establish and ma바카라 꽁 머니ta바카라 꽁 머니 effective partnerships between creative people and numbers-oriented people. They structure the bus바카라 꽁 머니ess so that the partners can run it effectively, and they ensure that each is clear about what decisions are his or hers to make. These companies have also learned to foster right-bra바카라 꽁 머니–left-bra바카라 꽁 머니 collaboration at every level, and so cont바카라 꽁 머니ue to attract the k바카라 꽁 머니d of talent on which their survival depends.
