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Dealing with Extreme Ideas

Published in LaZOOZ - Strategy, Marketing and Innovation Newsletter, Issue 62, By Ari Manor, CEO, ZOOZ

In the previous article, we learned how to gather ideas for extreme innovation. This time we will learn how to deal with such ideas, and realize their potential. If you recall, these are ideas that the organization is not equipped to handle. In fact, in many cases, it is disruptive innovation, which actually conflicts with the organization’s business model and strategy.

1. Examine the extreme idea for the long term, and check whether it indicates a significant growth direction.

2. If you have decided to support it – allocate time, budget, an appropriate team, and a separate framework for realizing this idea:

  • Time – Don’t expect immediate results. Plan for two to five years, and know that only after this period you will (maybe) start making a profit.
  • Budget – Allocate a flexible budget to your extreme idea that grows with time. Plan exit stations where you can check whether the business reality still suits this idea, and whether it is reasonable to continue.
  • Team – Appoint your best manager to this team, and make several dedicated employees available to him. It’s impossible to lead extreme innovation and overcome the organizational opposition and the difficulties in development and implementation, with a mediocre team.
  • Isolation – It’s best to set up a separate business unit (Limited company) for the team to demonstrate that it is a separate entity, which can overlook the existing procedures.

3. Protect the team setting up the initiative from the organization:

  • Give them a separate physical structure – preferably in a separate building and cut off from the rest f the organization.
  • Appoint a member of management that likes the idea, to whom the team leader exclusively reports.
  • Ask the team members to develop and implement a work plan, goals and schedule as they see fit, including shortcuts that are not accepted in the organization.
  • Let them manage their own budget together with the team leader, and not according to what is accepted in the organization.

4. The member of management to whom the team reports must make it clear that he gives them free reign, supports them and protects them, and asks them for three things in return:

  • A clear schedule and goals for the various actualization stages
  • An effort and commitment to lead the enterprise, and thus also the future of the organization
  • Complete transparency (including reporting bad news, which may lead to the enterprise being shut down).

5. Let the enterprise run according to the plan, vis-à-vis the member of management that they report to. Let the member of management approve the continued budgeting and the enterprise, without requiring the approval of the entire management.

6. Present the outcomes to management only when they are clear, meaning – only when it is obvious that the enterprise is on the way to success and can be leveraged, or that it has failed and must be shut down.

7. Remember – This is an extreme idea and disruptive innovation. It doesn’t always work. It’s OK to fail sometimes. But the chance of succeeding is much greater if you follow the above steps.

The IAI already is currently successfully selling its unmanned armored personnel carrier. General Electric turned GE Capital, the financing company that it founded, into its greatest source of growth. You can also realize extreme and disruptive ideas in your organization, but only if you protect them from the organization itself. Good luck!