There is a continuing need is to build the management of innovation into a clear organizational capability, where innovation becomes a continuous effective innovation process.
To this end I have produced a conceptual model of what constitutes the ‘make up’ for providing an ongoing innovation performance engine- the innovation fitness landscape and the dynamics– that determine the appropriate capabilities and capacities available & required. I felt it needs a dedicated website to be the ‘go to’ source of reference. It is a work-in-progress so please recognize this when you visit it here: http://bit.ly/wX5q8R.
Generally, absorptive capacity should be focused on the capacity to make use of existing knowledge both internally and externally, placing the emphasis on the capacity to assimilate and transform it (often differently). It deepens the capacity that lies within an organization for exploring innovation further.
The importance is to develop the ability to achieve “new value recognition”in new and different ways.
How do you go about to recognize value when it is not linked to existing thinking? Absorptive capacity can be a paradox. You require more external knowledge to ‘push’ beyond your existing knowledge learning and so absorbing from it; you are demanding more absorptive capacity to be in place. Equally you need to combine this with the need to break down that “prior related knowledge” radically differently, so it can stimulate breakthroughs in your thinking. Absorptive Capacity can pose significant challenges to the organization. How you deal effectively with the absorption of knowledge determines it’s potential to be transformed for new innovative ability and this will be determined partly by how you structure the attractiveness for a learning environment so it ‘takes hold’ and can be absorbed differently, for different needs.
Absoptive Capacity- Knoweldge Adoption Framework.
Explaining the key components shown in the above diagram
These components make up the essential elements of a ‘knowledge adoption’ innovation system.
The moving space for innovation is to allow everyone to participate in being involved and wanting to get ‘fit.’ To do this you have to be opened up to a number of “possible paths” to allow it to flow and take hold. There is the need to explore multiple ways to learn and find the right pathway. This needs a dynamic social fabric to allow it to flow, it needs organizational engagement through active experimentation.
Previously I had discussed the difficulty of setting rules for innovation. What is required is a looser approach to mutual adaption and mutual adjustment. This arises from working through the same rules and resources to access, integrate, expand and recombine knowledge as part of everyday daily jobs. The understanding of absorptive capacity helps
Possible a starting point is through three simple rules and resources I came across but can’t find the reference to at present, regretfully but these are powerful in their intent and engagement:
The real need is for improving the business relevance of anything that is new.
To quantify this, in general this should include to enhance, reduce, eliminate or improve:
Increasing flexibility and efficiency.
Managing knowledge effectively through the adaptive capacity framework.
Increasing productivity and reducing time to market.
Facilitating teamwork.
Enabling on-line gathering of marketing information and strengthening customer dialogues.
Improving relationships with suppliers, partners and those within your extended network.
Integrating differing sources of customer information though social media designs.
Making client relationships more effective and engaged in two way flows.
Eliminating redundant processes and legacy systems on a consistent manner.
Reducing costs by implementing IT-based solutions that integrate and are highly visable.
Reducing bureaucratic tasks (those that did not add value).
Using e-learning to improve capabiities, investing the necessary discovery time.
Exploring through participating on platforms, external relationships to gain alternative opinions to challenge your own.
Increasing the market range of goods and services in consistent ways that deliever value to the customer to achieve the job they are wanting to be resolved.
Improving relationships with employees by deepening the trust, openness and recognizing the value contribution they are making.
Any selection must consistently focus upon what is going to increase the competitiveness and uniqueness and improve the value and investments made for higher returns.
Let’s mix the theory of fitness landscapes with your innovation objectives
By firstly mapping out your innovation capabilities to the task at hand enables you to understand and relate to what is needed- we call that the context for innovation. Innovation Fitness Landscapes helps in this task by identifying the opportunity spaces on where you need to focus your efforts‐ and applythe appropriate resources to navigate the terrain. The greater understanding of the ‘fitness points needed’ can transform your innovation landscape potential, or in business parlance, achieve your goal.
Achieving this fitness accelerates your opportunities into final tangible outcomes. Here is a little bit of the theory: you look for those critical factors that will give higher value potential or ‘peaks’ that are more valuable to your needs. The more ‘rugged’ the landscape, the tougher the innovation challenge, can also determine the greater fitness for the rate of innovation. The height of the peaks in these landscapes, the greater value placed upon them, illustrates how intense the innovation challenge is, and the number of critical peaks shows how diverse its potentially is to provide the appropriate resources.
The ability to identifying the emerging patterns provides the need to act and invest, making adaptive even exploratory walks toprovide the appropriate resources needed so as to move you to the higher fitness points where innovation viability is enhanced and needed to be so as to resolve the challenges faced. You need to experiment, to take these exploratory ‘walk’s to realize the potential and learn how to scale accordingly.
Finding practical capability identification requires a given approach:
Initially a more path dependency one is explored, searching for existing routines, capabilities and knowledge (more backward looking) for factors that seem to have affected the past success. This then allows us to explore:
Identification and classification of existing capabilities
Identification and classification of required future capabilities
Then, prioritization of these capabilities in light of the core capability criteria and strategic goals.
The Gap analysis (self assessment and external clarification/ comparison)
This is achieved in a mix of interviews to find the Strengths & Weaknesses and the nature of required future core capabilities felt necessary.
Achieving fitness you firstly have to know where you are and then what you want to achieve. Within our assessment to attain an understanding of your fitness for innovation we take two points of time, the present fitness and the type of fitness you want to achieve in the future. We have a structured method to make these assessments but we frame the ‘fitness’ around the different dynamics making up innovation.
These are both internal and external, they are seperate test and the internal one only can be undertaken. The external can always come later but as we move from a closed to a more open innovation organization, the external assessment has an increasing relevance but knowing your internal fitness has got to be the starting point first.
In any competitive situation, the survival of the fittest dominates (Darwinian). Knowing your innovation fitness is essential in this race. The question often raised is where do I focus my limited resource to achieve a better fitness to be successful at innovation?
Mapping out your innovation capabilities to the task at hand enables you to understand and relate to what is needed. Innovation Fitness Landscapes identify the opportunity spaces on where you need to focus your efforts- the appropriate resources to navigate the terrain. The greater the ‘fitness’ transforms your landscape potential into accelerating opportunities into final tangible outcomes.
These critical factors give higher value potential or ‘peaks’ that are more valuable to your needs. The more ‘rugged’ the landscape can also determine the greater fitness for the rate of innovation. The height of the peaks in these landscapes, the greater value placed upon them, illustrates how intense the innovation challenge is, and the number of critical peaks shows how diverse it potentially is.
