During May and June 2023, I worked through and concluded my thinking on why we needed to change our Innovation approach from far to often a linear one, and consider a new, more up-to-date, and dynamic solution for managing innovation, one that recognises the non-linear nature of so much of our undertakings today in innovation, from discovery to commercialisation.
I have called this the Composable Innovation Enterprise Framework– here is why and what went into this proposal that I feel should be adopted for managing innovation in the future.
As the investigation, validation, and viewpoints were built up over several posts, I felt summarising the series here gives you the appetite to delve into the posts themselves.
We need to shift our innovative thinking from static to dynamic.
We have been in very static, traditional approaches to innovation, very segmented and often insular, and as so often happens in innovation, it has complexities that seemingly grow and multiple changes, partly from what we discover in the development of new solutions but partly from far more rapid changes in the business landscape and our current innovation process often breaks down and limits the ability to manage this across the whole development to delivery lifecycle.
We need systems and processes that are flexible, adaptable, and can enable continuous improvements but are fully connected, transparent, and integrated across the entire business. We need to approach innovation differently through connected agility, have speed and automation more central, and provide roles for a great diverse set of participants.
A system that encourages forming strategic alliances, partnerships, and knowledge sharing to drive innovation and create shared value in open, thoughtful, and collaborative ways. This is where technology enables these connections and triggers different thinking in the quest for moving toward more extraordinary valuable solutions—the “connected” value of behaviours thinking ecosystems and operating on collaborative platforms.
This comes through the power of innovation ecosystem thinking, where highly collaborative environments and organisations can consistently leverage the collective intelligence of many, find and draw in a variety and diverse set of resources, both inside and outside the organisation, and access different expertise all working within the same ecosystem and platform configuration.
The principles of this Composable Innovation Enterprise Framework are the recognition and value of having a building block and innovation stack design. These blocks and stacks house the fundamental thinking through elements and capabilities required and enable the interconnected layers of process, technologies, and resources to leverage and support the innovation efforts from concept to commercialisation and beyond on sustainable approaches.
The shift to platform thinking gives the potential for scalable and flexible foundations for collaboration, integration, and value creation. The platform enables organisations to connect different stakeholders, leverage external resources and facilitate the exchange of ideas and solutions.
We need a radically different comprehensive innovation system solution.
Innovation design does need a comprehensive solution to address the complexities of modern innovation. You gain the ability to integrate the principles of dynamic thinking, ecosystem collaboration, building block, and innovation stack thinking in their approaches where technology plays an essential role, and the foundations of a platform design to enable organisations and the individuals involved to navigate challenges and seize the opportunities in a more robust and vigorous innovation management approach.
The Composable Innovation Enterprise framework aims to overcome the limitations of current traditional approaches to innovation (software) design. It focuses on collaboration, interconnectedness, and shared value creation within an innovation ecosystem. This encourages a significant shift in mindset, culture, and potential within software solutions. It allows organisations to dynamically assemble (and reassemble) and reconfigure their innovation processes and resources constantly to adapt to the knowledge and discovery of innovation as it reveals itself in new insights ad potential. The beauty is it scales, allows scope, and encourages speed in knowledge exchanges and activities from its technology design.
The build-up and validation in the Composable Innovation Enterprise Framework.
In my series of posts, I went through the approach and built up in this order towards the conclusion of recommending a Composable Innovation Enterprise Framework so it can be understood in the detailed exploration of this design:
- The need to change our thinking about innovation: The initial post highlights the necessity of shifting our mindset towards innovation. It implies that traditional approaches may not be sufficient in today’s rapidly evolving business landscape.
- The challenge faced by innovation software: The post “Innovation Software, is it Facing the Innovators Dilemma?” raises concerns about whether existing innovation software can keep up with the changing needs of innovators. It suggests that innovative software might be facing a dilemma due to the pace of technological advancements.
- The future of innovation management software: “Where will Innovation Management Software go?” explores the potential direction of innovation management software. It indicates a need for a more dynamic view of innovation, implying that future software solutions should be adaptable and flexible.
- The value of an Innovation Ecosystem: “What value does an Innovation Ecosystem offer?” emphasises the importance of an innovation ecosystem. It suggests that collaboration, interconnectedness, and a holistic approach are vital for successful innovation.
- Embracing innovation: “Are we EVER going to embrace innovation?” questions whether organisations are truly embracing innovation. This post implies that a shift in mindset and culture is necessary for organisations to leverage innovation’s potential fully.
- The power of ecosystem thinking: “The power of ecosystem thinking for resolving the innovation complexity of today” further explores the benefits of ecosystem thinking. It suggests that organisations can address the complexity associated with innovation by considering the larger ecosystem and its interdependencies.
- Understanding the innovation ecosystem: “What makes the innovation ecosystem different?” delves deeper into the innovation ecosystem concept. It highlights the unique characteristics of an innovation ecosystem, such as the diverse participants, collaborative nature, and shared value creation.
- Recognising the building blocks of innovation: “Recognising the Building Blocks of Innovation” focuses on identifying innovation’s fundamental elements or building blocks. Understanding these building blocks is crucial for designing effective innovation strategies and processes.
- Building the innovation stack: “Building the innovation stack” expands on the concept of building blocks and introduces the idea of an innovation stack. It implies that synergistically combining different building blocks can drive innovation success.
- Identifying key component relationships: “Identifying key component relationships of Innovation Stacks and Building Blocks” emphasises the importance of recognising the relationships, connections and interactions between different components of an innovation stack. It suggests that understanding these relationships can optimise innovation outcomes.
- Gaining a different perspective on innovation: “Gaining a Different Perspective on Innovation through Platforms, Blocks, and Stack Designs” proposes a new perspective on innovation by introducing platforms, blocks, and stack designs. It implies that these concepts can provide a fresh and comprehensive lens to approach innovation.
- The final perspective: “The Final Perspective: A Composable Innovation Enterprise Framework”, concludes by recommending a Composable Innovation Enterprise Framework. This framework integrates the concepts of platforms, blocks, and stack designs, allowing organisations to assemble and reconfigure their innovation processes and resources dynamically. It suggests that this framework offers a solution to the challenges and complexities of innovation management.
The final perspective proposes the Composable Innovation Enterprise Framework as a comprehensive approach to address the complexities of innovation management, and then I went into a new post-launch series.
POST LAUNCH I then took this final perspective and built it out as follows
Firstly my summary of the Composable Innovation Series: Building on the series where it introduces a novel approach to enterprise-level innovation management, advocating for a shift from traditional methods to a more flexible and adaptable framework. The concept revolves around breaking innovation into modular building blocks, enabling organisations to achieve greater agility and efficiency in their innovation efforts.
So building this out in this post-launch series of content summaries.
13. Building Up to Composable Innovation: This post explores the foundational elements of Composable Innovation, emphasising the concept of breaking innovation into smaller, modular building blocks. The flexibility and reusability of these components empower organisations to adapt and experiment with various combinations, fostering practical innovation.
14. Potential Returns of Composable Innovation: This post examines the potential benefits of implementing Composable Innovation. It enables faster experimentation, reduced time-to-market, and increased efficiency in innovation efforts. Additionally, it highlights how this approach can enhance collaboration among different teams and stakeholders.
15. Implementing the Composable Innovation Framework: This post delves into practical considerations and challenges when integrating the Composable Innovation Framework within an organisation. It discusses identifying and creating the right innovation building blocks, establishing governance structures, and seamlessly integrating Composable Innovation into existing processes.
16. Planning Composable Innovation Adoption: Focused on the planning phase, this post explains how organisations can align their innovation strategies with Composable Innovation. It involves creating a roadmap for successful adoption, defining key success metrics, and setting implementation milestones.
17. Visualising Composable Innovation: The final post visually represents the Composable Innovation Enterprise Framework. This visual aid helps stakeholders grasp the overall structure, flow, and interconnectivity of the innovation building blocks, enabling them to explore potential combinations effectively.
Conclusions and Recommendations to You
Following this series of posts gives readers a comprehensive understanding of Composable Innovation as an Enterprise Framework. I hope it does lead to recognising its potential benefits and how to implement and visualise it within their organisations practically.
To bridge the gap and simplify the terminology, I highlighted how Composable Innovation draws inspiration from software development’s modular nature. As software development relies on assembling reusable modules to create diverse applications, Composable Innovation involves assembling building blocks to create diverse and impactful innovation outcomes.
By framing it this way, the concept becomes more relatable and understandable, making it easier for stakeholders to grasp the benefits of Composable Innovation as an Enterprise Framework.
The emphasis is its ability to revolutionise traditional innovation practices by providing a dynamic, scalable, and agile approach. Using modular components allows organisations to experiment, learn from failures, and optimise their innovation efforts continuously.
Advocating a radical shift in our designing the way we manage Innovation
The Composable Innovation series advocates for a radical yet practical change in innovation management. Organisations can unlock their true innovation potential by adopting a Composable Innovation Enterprise Framework.
This approach enables adaptability, scalability, and continuous learning, propelling businesses to stay ahead in today’s fast-paced and ever-changing market landscape. Embracing Composable Innovation is the key to future-proofing innovation efforts and driving sustainable growth in the digital age.
Recommending a Composable Innovation Enterprise Framework– its different solution layers.
After this build-up, I trust you, as the reader as those empowered with making innovation work, will seriously consider this concept of recommending the adoption of the Composable Innovation Enterprise Framework. It aims to unlock the true innovation potential.
While this recommendation may initially appear radical and unfamiliar, hopefully, the logical progression in the posts brings the gaps and clarifies the needs and flow of logic.
I believe it becomes increasingly evident that a Composable Innovation Enterprise Framework can provide a radically new and more modern approach to driving successful and adaptive innovation in today’s rapidly changing business landscape. Combining the technology solutions allows human ingenuity to finally connect, combine and emerge in better, more valuable, impactful and sustaining solutions to tackle the level of tough challenges and complexities we are presented with today.
