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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Creating More Competitive Organizations, November 28, 2001
This review is from: 24/7 Innovation: A Blueprint for Surviving and Thriving in an Age of Change (Paperback)
Mr. Shapiro argues that continuous innovation is the only possible source of competitive advantage in a rapidly changing business environment. Yet most companies organize themselves and their efforts in ways that will discourage the development and implementation of these necessary innovations. So rather than doing what you did yesterday better, he wants you to do something new today. This requires a major change in thinking from the typical "lower your costs" and "improve your quality" mentality of many companies. The book is enlivened by many examples from Europe, where Mr. Shapiro practices as a management consultant for Accenture. One of the things I liked best about this book was the figure on page 18 that describes the organizational progress that is typically followed to go from a functionally bound operation to one that is an alliance-based network of capabilities with partners performing many noncore roles. Many people have difficulty in grasping the different approaches, and this figure may well be helpful to some of them. The book's focus is around organizing new and improving on old capabilities. A capability is a holistic concept of something that enables "an organization to perform optimally in activities that typically require processes, people, and technology. Capabilities derive from an explicit strategy, and they deliver measurable results." It is in this context that innovation is conceived of as a capability. Mr. Shapiro wants you to focus on where outdistancing the competition will make a difference with the customer, and then use your innovation capability to enhance your capabilities in this differentiating capability. For a pharmaceutical company, this might mean improving the capability to generate new products to market. The main point here is that there is a combination of factors that need to be considered that is beyond what is contained in a single process. The best way to think in capability terms is to focus on some output of the organization that is meaningful to customers. He is also mindful of the problem of optimizing a system, rather than part of a system, as The Fifth Discipline has made us all sensitive to. One of the nice qualities of this book is that Mr. Shapiro has a sense of humor, something rarely found in business books. He tells a very funny story about buying airline tickets on-line as a counterpoint to his emphasis on the importance of information technology. Those who like to take an analytical approach to any problem will find Mr. Shapiro's thinking the most helpful. He has taken right-brained tasks and described them in left-brain terms. But be sure to pay attention to the Koch examples, which take a more right-brained approach to the challenge than most of the other examples do. For those with little intuition, this left-brained "connecting the dots" may be the only way to move forward. If you have also read nothing on improving corporate innovation, this is a good book to start with. While I admired the book, Mr. Shapiro seemed to have limited his thinking in two important areas that you should be aware of. First, he sees innovation as being most valuable in creating new business models, yet he pays relatively little attention to this specific form of innovation in the book. Instead, most of the book talks about enhancing capabilities where an organization needs an external partner or to blend individual processes better. Second, he sees using information technology as a critical element to improving innovation. My own experience in studying innovation has shown that using more information technology is seldom a critical element in creating a new competitive advantage. Creating better communication and mutual understanding are often quite important, and these can be aided by simply better organizing the communications that take place now. So take this part of the book with a grain of salt. I didn't know enough about the European examples to know how accurate they were. I was struck by many minor errors in the U.S. ones though. Since Mr. Shapiro worked in Accenture's New York office for 15 years and has many U.S. colleagues, I found these errors puzzling. The errors made me wonder how accurate the European examples are. If you have already been through The Fifth Discipline, The Fifth Discipline Workbook, and The Dance of Change, you will probably find this book more general than what you need to expand your understanding of corporate creativity that leads to successful innovations. If you are trying to decide whether to read Michael Hammer's The Agenda or 24/7 Innovation, take 24/7 Innovation. How can you continuously create improved business models?
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Innovate or Evaporate, April 4, 2002
This review is from: 24/7 Innovation: A Blueprint for Surviving and Thriving in an Age of Change (Paperback)
As Shapiro explains, when offering this "blueprint for surviving and thriving in an age of change," the term "blueprint" is a capability which combines people, processes, and technology that together "deliver business performance as defined by an organization's strategy. This is a key point, one which Bossidy and Charan emphasize in their recently published book, Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done. It is important to keep in mind that any "blueprint" provided in a book such as this must almost always be modified to serve the specific needs and objectives of a given organization. This is precisely what Shapiro has in mind when, in the Introduction, observes "in some respects writing a book that describes best practices for innovation that says that best practices are insufficient is slightly ironic. But to try and copy what another company is doing, lock stock and barrel, is just another form of box thinking. Instead, connect the dots. Make connections. Consider what some companies in this book have been doing and consider them in the context of your own business situation. And then try and use these to create new ideas for fostering innovation." Hammer wrote The Agenda to disabuse those who view reengineering as a "silver bullet." I'm certain that Shapiro hopes his readers will view the "blueprint" delineated in Part 1 of 24/7 Innovation for what it is while understanding what it is not...and cannot be expected to do. Change is inevitable. Long ago, someone divided people into three categories: Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen, and those who ask "What happened?" Shapiro views desirable change as as fundamental and pervasive. "It affects customers, suppliers, alliance partners, and anyone who touches [or is touched by] the company. But in today's age of change, success requires nothing less. That's why 24/7 innovation is the only way to achieve a unique and enduring competitive advantage." One of the words now having the loudest buzz is "convergence." (Not long ago, two of the loudest buzzers were "synergies" and "integration.") As Shapiro clearly demonstrates while examining four companies (GlaxoSmithKline, Invensys, The Real Estate Assessment Center of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and BC Hydro) in Appendix A, the most effective organizations are indeed those which achieve and then sustain an appropriate convergence of process, people, and technology. That is, they become and then remain what Shapiro describes as an "organic organization." In his book, he offers all manner of strategies and tactics as well as real-world examples to suggest HOW any organization (regardless of size or nature) can use the principles of "24/7 Innovation" to achieve that formidable objective.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Building continuous change., September 26, 2002
This review is from: 24/7 Innovation: A Blueprint for Surviving and Thriving in an Age of Change (Paperback)
Titles can be deceptive, particularly when chosen with an eye to capitalizing on fashionable jargon. 24/7 Innovation is primarily about building a climate of continuous organic change and is more about change management and organizational learning than innovation in the commonly used sense of product and service innovation. However, as the author rightly points out, change and innovation in all its forms tends to be seamless, and success depends on embedding a system of goals, relationships, attitudes, processes and technology that work together to support continuous challenge to the status quo in support of superior customer service. Shapiro argues for what others have called a 'tight-loose' structure, one within which a limited number of well articulated principles allow for substantial freedom of action at all levels and locations, with carefully selected measures and incentives to link endeavour to the core goals. The author's preferred metaphor is jazz, which encourages creativity within simple structures. He claims that his approach differs from others - particularly reengineering and TQM - in seven respects. While the attributes are not all as uncommon as he implies, they are worth quoting, as they are all important:
"* It is strategic. Innovation is targeted at the critical parts of the business that differentiate it from its competitors.
* It is pervasive ... permeat[ing] every aspect of an organization ...
* It is holistic, acknowledging the ... interdependence of all aspects of the business
* it is focused on creating value ... not ... cost cutting and streamlining without regard for the impact they have on customers and other stakeholders ... and customers in particular.
* It emphasizes governance ... referring to the leadership of a business that sets the standard ...
* It uses technology as an enabler, rather than an answer.
* It recognizes the critical role of people. Innovation is carried out by people for people. Success comes from an uncompromising commitment to an organization's people." A strength of the book is the structured way in which the elements required for success are set out and explained. This is a 'how to' - a blueprint - but not the simplistic 'seven step' framework that so many authors offer. It works logically through the various capabilities and attributes needed, with guidance on how to build them.
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