The Radical Approach to Innovation

Innovation has been recognised as the hallmark of successful organisations in the dynamic and uncertain globalised world. Today, organisations adopting best practices in quality, cost efficiency and knowledge management are no longer sufficient for sustaining competitive advantage as their strategies and business models tend to converge over time. Hence, organisations become less differentiated and less competitive.

To succeed in the dynamic and uncertain globalised world, organisations need to continuously reinvent themselves by creating new values for their customers and stakeholders and changing the basis for competitive advantage through innovation. Innovation is no longer an exception but a necessity to sustain an organisation’s long term competitive advantage. To innovate successfully, organisations need to adopt an integrated holistic innovation framework. The “RAdICAL” approach is an integrated holistic innovation framework that addresses the following six key elements of innovation:

Renewal refers to the organisation’s capacity and capability to change the industry basis for competitive advantage through organisation renewal.

Advocates refer to the innovation-centric people that the organisation employs, trains and develops; and the innovation-centric partners and customers that the organisation collaborates with to reinvent itself.

Intellectual property management refers to the process of identifying, documenting, protecting and commercialising of trademarks, patents, copyrights, trade secrets, registered designs, etc. to further the organisation’s business and innovation strategy.

Customer value refers to the explicit and implicit benefits derived from buying or using a particular product or service. It is a relative measure against the next best alternatives or tradeoffs. Customer satisfaction is achieved when the value of the purchased product or service is higher than the value of the next best alternatives or tradeoffs. Hence, innovation is about creating new or superior customer value that leads to higher customer satisfaction which in turn leads to higher sales and profitability. 

Approaches refer to the ways organisations manage their innovation efforts. Different approaches should be developed to manage incremental and radical innovation.

Leadership refers to top management commitment and leadership in leading the organisation in its innovation journey. Top management should create an innovation-centric culture that has no tolerance for NUTS (No U-Turn Syndrome). Mr. Sim Wong Hoo, the chairman of Creative Technology in his book "Chaotic Thoughts from the Old Millennium" coined the term NUTS to describe a rule-clad and creativity-stifling environment. He argued that in Singapore, the "no U-turn without sign" culture has promoted a way of life that is based on following rules. 

Innovation is not an end in itself. It is a journey with no finishing line. To succeed and compete in today’s world, organisations must make innovation a systemic capability rather than an exceptional and singular effort.