Introducing changes in an organisation is a process that must involve a series of variations and changes in the ways of proceeding. When we wish to introduce an external or disruptive innovation, it is essential to adopt a series of positions that allow us to achieve a complete and effective development of the innovation.
One of the biggest mistakes that are made when it comes to incorporating these innovations is to reason as if we were the organisation itself. This immediately leads us to try to square this innovation by following the traditional methodologies and business model that were being used until now. In this way, the only thing we will achieve will be to put up barriers to the new step forward we are trying to take.
An external or disruptive innovation forces us to think as if we were our own competitor. It does not respect our barriers to entry, our organisational structure or our financial structure. This is why it is impossible to achieve efficiency if we are not able to adapt this new business designed to create a new, eventually scalable value proposition, prioritising independence from the rest of the organisation’s activities at the outset.
How to execute this disruptive innovation?
Once we have realised the importance of adopting a competitor’s perspective to integrate this external innovation, it is time to proceed. The first thing to do is to take the team involved out of business as usual, at least partially and temporarily. It is important that they act with agility and that they, too, adopt a new vision. In this case, it will be important that they behave as if they were a start-up, i.e. they must go to the market in search of the best channels and suppliers and create a new business model based on the metrics they have just discovered and can refine.
Deliveries, at the beginning, should prioritise speed and frequency, always with the intention of improving procedures as the team and the work activity adapt to this disruptive innovation.
The second phase will be the moment of convergence with the rest of the organisation, when we are piloting and that will be the moment to take advantage of all the levers of the organisation, of all the processes that have worked over time and that are effective but that should not be mixed at the beginning with this innovation.
