BUS604: Innovation and Sustainability

What?

This book is the first volume in a series on innovations and breakthroughs. We have researched a number of them across an exceptionally wide range of areas in order to understand the mechanisms that underpin them and the way in which they succeeded or failed in making an impact. We have done this with an international network of leaders, entrepreneurs, and scholars, and we have studied the worlds of business, diplomacy, geopolitics, philanthropy, economics, media, agriculture, logistics, technology, and healthcare. 

An innovation is something new - an idea, method, or product - while a breakthrough reflects the extent to which an innovation shapes new developments and makes an impact. But the extent to which an innovation becomes a success or failure depends heavily on the process attached to it and the environment and culture in which it operates. In the international context, this means it is essential to create environments where innovation is welcomed rather than seen as a threat by governments and institutions. If you wish to make such an environment durable it is not merely a technical problem but a human story and a matter of values.

The society we live in today is the result of many innovations in the past, such as the internet. We will continue to need new breakthroughs and innovations more than ever in order to achieve a sustainable world, which is why innovations and breakthroughs should be part of a continual discussion for improvement. They should be on the agenda of schools, institutions, business, politicians, and governments.

Why?

One of the aims of this book is to encourage such a discussion. To that end, we have engaged current and former leaders and innovators who were actually involved in breakthrough and innovation processes. They have valuable lessons from their experiences that we look to pass on to others. They were generous with their time and thought hard to reflect on their experiences in terms of the generic factors that we identified and which we define below. 

The aim of our project is broad. It takes into account the fact that we live in a world of interaction and great interdependency where no country can operate and succeed on its own. Indeed, no innovation will come about on its own either. Crossover activities between different disciplines are rapidly increasing, for example in healthcare and logistics, sectors that are both seeking to overcome similar challenges of delivery and efficiency. 

The form was semi-structured and left total freedom in composition and tone of voice, thus enhancing accessibility and authenticity. But we were also aware that this would make the assessments in the qualitative analysis (at the end of the book) more challenging. 

How?

If you want to change your environment and develop a space that stimulates innovation, then you need to understand the underlying structure of an innovation and breakthrough process. Assuming that breakthroughs and innovations are always related to processes, we chose to describe and examine each innovation or breakthrough process stage by stage to success or failure. We assumed that these process stages were generic and parallel to the stages of a normal implementation process. So we called them generic factors.

We identified the following stages:

The creative phase:

• Innovation and breakthrough.
• Idea and vision.

The operational phase:

• Concept
• Mission and strategy.
• Planning and execution.
• Iterative process.

We added three more enabling factors in the course of our research:

• Human factors.
• Environmental considerations.
• The window of opportunity.

The results of the research are fascinating. The generic factors are common, recognizable, instrumental, applicable, and present in each breakthrough or innovation within the contexts of business and institutions, from small to large in size, right up to governments operating on an international scale.

If we dig deeper to study and understand these factors, we are in a better position to transfer knowledge and experience and to develop cooperation and crossover activities to make innovations internationally successful.

Our different case studies, whether big or small, provide a rich bank of data to contribute to the goals of this project and to stimulate an ongoing discussion on innovations and breakthroughs, so that they enter the culture of governments, companies, universities, and schools - institutions that can translate these values and principles into reality.

The generic factors not only play a role as an analytical tool but can also be used as 'steering buttons' in the storage and transfer of experience. They point to the great value of being able to work together in a multi-disciplinary way and internationally, and show us how to create an environment that stimulates innovation and from which the future will benefit.

This success is not a given, because even though many institutions value innovation they do not necessarily prioritize the development of a strategy to build innovation into their internal processes. A 2013 study by Accenture offered a revealing picture. In a survey of 519 executives in British, French, and American firms with annual revenues of more than $100 million, 93 percent admitted that the long-term success of their business depends on innovation, yet only 18 percent of them had prioritized the development of a strategy for innovation.* Every company should develop a strategy for the development, acquisition, and implementation of innovation. For innovation and breakthrough have to do with mindset and, connected to that, impact.

We selected different types of innovations and breakthroughs. Some are driven from within the organization itself. Mayo Clinic is a good example. As one of the most advanced healthcare institutions in the world, it has developed a vision and long-term plan that includes managing internal innovation processes.

In the case of the Arctic it is quite literally the environment that is forcing businesses, countries, indigenous peoples, and international organizations to innovate. In the energy sector, innovations are driven by scarcity of resources. In logistics they are driven by global demand and the pursuit of efficiency and cost reduction. In agriculture, breakthroughs are driven by scientific discovery and by individuals and institutions devoted to promoting a scientific concept as national and international policy.

It is fascinating to see how generic and enabling factors can work towards success or failure. For example, German unification was enabled by geopolitical and social change (the environmental factor), but achieved by leadership (the human factor) which seized the opportunity (the window of opportunity). The establishment of Al Jazeera is a good example of the importance of the window of opportunity and leadership. Both cases were notable for very smooth execution (operational factor). But the Oslo Accords case is an example where it was difficult to transfer the concept into achievable sub-targets.

Each chapter holds valuable lessons for individuals, companies, institutions, and governmental entities. This knowledge can be beneficial for multi-disciplinary and crossover activities which are of great importance in today's globalized world. It is very helpful if you are able to see and understand the mechanisms involved in the different activities we describe. For example, health and logistics are both adapting to consumer-driven markets (concept, planning, and execution). The environment may be very important for the success or failure of a process. Different countries have different cultures. Society and governments can be decisive stumbling blocks, and understanding their role requires attention beforehand.

If the environment is not ready, you can work on creating a better one by promoting awareness of opportunities. The Responsibility to Protect case is a good example of a vision and concept making a diplomatic breakthrough in the United Nations, after the environment had been steadily prepared for it over a period of several years with discussions, papers, and advocacy. In other cases - whether in business, healthcare, or diplomacy - if you wish to bring a diverse set of stakeholders together, then you will need to show leadership (the human factor) and to 'press the button' of vision, because only a clear vision with a shared goal by leaders can translate into institutional partnerships between diverse stakeholders.

Very often an implementation gets stuck in the concept stage. If there is no proper transformation of 'the thinking' to 'the doing', the result is that there is no proper executive follow-up. The same applies in a situation where there are plenty of new ideas but no proper capacity to execute.

Source: https://archive.org/details/breakthrough-innovation-impact/page/n11/mode/2up?q=introduction
This work is in the Public Domain.