Concept Development and The Innovating Mode of Operation
A. Concept Development Growth Phase
Developmental Objectives: Develop and refine disruptive innovation, survival, and validation of business and products.
Typical Number of People Involved in Decision Making: Maximum of 10 people
Expertise Profile of Personnel: Some high expertise, some low
Important Customer Class: Pioneers
Characteristics of Customer Demands: Ability to do something new, to save time, to save money
B. Management Style of Ideal Leader: Commanding Visionary
C. Mode of Operation: Innovating
Product Strategy: Custom products and partner-like relationships with early customers.
Preconditions for Using Innovating Mode -
a) Less than 10 people involved in decision making, b) a small number of overriding issues that command the attention of the team, c) no critical need to attend to other issues, d) Direct contact between the decision makers and the external business environment
Organizational Structure: Focused Team of Generalists
Typical Themes: Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door. If you are not going to do the main thing right, don’t do it.
Cultural Priorities: Insight and new ideas, agility and action, informal decision making, defiance of conventional wisdom.
Important Controls: Loyalty-inspiring vision, direct interaction with the leader who is concerned with every detail.
Typical Impact of Control Levers - Innovating Mode
Personal Control Levers, subtotal: 80%
20% - Hands-on Doing and Spending
40% - Direct Supervision
20% - Vision and Mission
Organizational: Hard Control Levers, subtotal: 5%
5% - Specific Goals and Objectives
0% - Organizational Hierarchy
0% - Formal Plans and Processes
Organizational: Soft Control Levers, subtotal: 15%
10% - Expertise of Personnel
5% - Cultural Priorities and Game Rules
0% - Formal Evaluation and Feedback
100%
Ideal Management Style: Commanding Visionary (Carl Sagan, assisted by Admiral Rickover)
This management style can be thought of as a composite mix of two of the four decision-making and problem-solving approaches.
Dominant Approach: Carl Sagan
Elements that exemplify Sagan's decision-making and problem-solving approach:
<> Focus on future
<> Interpolate and extrapolate from a set of knowns to describe future possibilities
<> Hold a vivid qualitative image of ultimate goal
Sagan’s work as an astrobiologist required him to master scientific principles and to form visions and concepts of what other portions of the universe are like. He based his views on what could be determined in a reliable manner, but then went further. He extrapolated from what he could observe and imagined the broader implications of those “knowns” to provide continuity between what we currently know and a future possibility.
These elements make him a good representation of the Envisioning approach.
Some of his loftier words about his view of existence are found in his “Profound Words of Wisdom.”
“The Cosmos is all that is, or ever was, or ever will be. Our contemplations in the Cosmos stirs. There is a tingling in the spine, a catch in the voice, a faint sensation as of a distant memory of falling from a great height…
The size and age of the Cosmos are beyond ordinary human understanding. Lost somewhere between immensity and eternity is our tiny planetary home be Earth. For the first time, we have the power to decide the fate of our planet and our souls. This is the time of great danger but our species is young and curious and brave. It shows much promise. In the last few millennia, we have made the most astonishing and unexpected discoveries about the Cosmos and our place within it.
We wish to pursue the truth no matter where it leads. But to find the truth we need imagination end skepticism both. We will not be afraid to speculate but we will be careful to distinguish speculation from fact. The Cosmos is full beyond measure of elegant truths of exquisite into relationships of the awesome machinery of nature.”
Backup Approach: Admiral Rickover
Elements that exemplify Rickover's decision-making and problem-solving approach:
<> Focus on action, performing tasks, and achieving objectives
<> Personal interaction is an important method of influencing others
<> Persistence
By all accounts, the father of the US “Nuclear Navy,” Admiral Hyman Rickover is a memorable leader. Congress requested that he build the United States’ first nuclear submarine, the Nautilus, and set aggressive goals. Rickover held that goal in clear sight. He achieved his objectives and did so sooner than expected.
He disregarded standard Navy practices yet developed practices of his own and insisted others follow them. He insisted on stringent safety standards and was unwilling to compromise safety to advance the project. His attention to detail permeated the project and he insisted on imposing high standards for quality on suppliers.
These elements of his public persona make him a good representation of the Commanding approach.
As the New York Times described him upon his death:
“... He attacked Naval bureaucracy, ignored red tape, lacerated those he considered stupid, bullied subordinates and assailed the country's educational system. And he achieved, in the production of the nuclear-powered submarine in the early 1950's, what a former Secretary of the Navy, Dan Kimball, called ‘the most important piece of development work in the history of the Navy.’''
This mix of approaches describes the ideal leaders for this phase.
I suspect that Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple. fits this management style.
“Although it seems strange to have a phone without a touchscreen today, it was a big deal back in 2007. Everyone was used to physical keys before the iPhone, either because they were used to typing on a BlackBerry or a flip phone. The iPhone was the first phone to launch with an all-touchscreen form factor and no option for physical keys.
Apple had tried to strike a deal with Verizon first, but the carrier didn't like that Apple wanted to control the user interface for the iPhone, as Schlender and Tetzeli write in their book. AT&T eventually agreed, but it was a hard challenge to convince the carriers to give up a control of a mobile product. But Jobs believed he needed more control for the iPhone to be a hit.
The original iPhone had a ton of flaws when Jobs first demoed it on stage. It was filled with glitches, and it hadn't really been tested in the wild. But AT&T was getting antsy, so Jobs felt Apple had to put on a show.”
(https://www.businessinsider.com/steve-jobs-10-bravest-moves-2015-3, Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli document them well in their new book "Becoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader.")
