More flexibility please
One of the reasons I think Project Red Stripe exists is because, in general, companies are slow at doing anything other than normal business - and they are probably slow at doing that. It’s just that they have competition that is also slow so they get away with it.
We are here to take something to market. We are six people in one room who can actually make decisions and move forward.
We have been trying to work with various Group companies to get various things sorted to help speed the project along. It has been tough. We have been making requests through all the correct channels etc.. Most of our colleagues think the project is a great idea and want to help. Then we slowly trudge up and down the slow command chain of the companies in the Group to find problem after problem. Surely it’s not so hard to do these things.
I hope that whatever Project Red Stripe produces can change the mould for Economist Group companies and produce a company that is more responsive. Basically a company that can do, rather than might do, or perhaps even says they will then doesn’t.
Economist Group companies should start thinking. Perhaps even follow some of the advice the newspaper actually prints. Our competitors might just figure out how to empower their staff to make decisions without constantly seeking management approval.
March 8th, 2007 at 3:57 pm
As Friedman said, the social responsibility of business is to increase its profits (and this is how many top managers still see it). So tie something in with current or potential revenue streams and they will listen. That could be the only way to make the project a success within your timeframe. But of course how you deem the project to be a success is really up to you.
I also think it is key to ensure the sustainability of the product/solution after the 6 months are up. The team should be able to walk away and the Group itself have such belief in the product that it is taken on and tied so closely with the core beliefs of the Group (as they are now or as you have re-written them) that the ‘thing’ organically grows.
The project I am currently working on is due to run for 3 years. I’m only just now beginning to realise how short that timeframe is. I can’t even imagine a six month project! The clock is not with you. To get things moving perhaps choose some champions from each group company. Get them so enthusiastic about the project that they can’t stop telling everyone about it. Bring them in and metaphorically wine and dine them. Perhaps look at people from the different group companies who applied for the project but for whom there weren’t enough spaces for. I’m sure they’d relish such an opportunity - who wouldn’t?
Hopefully that may have given you some ideas.
March 9th, 2007 at 10:22 pm
Six months is undoubtedly an ambitious target but Terry M’s ideas are good ones. If you can, you might also want to check out Harvard Business Review article “Innovation: the Classic Traps” by Rosabeth Moss Kanter (November 2006). Six months is not impossible as a timeline for a great idea but the article states that MIT researchers have found it usually takes at least two years for R&D team members to be truly productive.
The article also discusses how tight organizational process controls (like the ones you’re experiencing?) can kill innovation and contains other innovation lessons related to strategy, structure, and skills that might be helpful to your team. Another recent project that reminds me a little of your large scale community input initiative is the www.wearesmarter.org project created by MIT, Wharton, and other business leaders reaching out to the public. Finally, I’m not a Finance expert but I do know it’s never too early to be thinking about the four “S factors” of innovation: startup costs, speed, scale, and support costs, from Andrew and Sirkin’s new book “Payback: Reaping the Rewards of Innovation.”
Your project is incredibly exciting - I stumbled on it when I was researching work that’s been done by your project consultant Gerard Fairtlough and Andrew Carey’s research on the project mentioned on the Triarchy Press website. I’m just beginning a project related to innovation in organizations for my MBA degree and will continue to follow your project with great interest.
Hope you find this comment useful and good luck to you all.
A fellow Meyers-Briggs INTJ.
March 13th, 2007 at 5:05 pm
How about this for innovation - get rid of 90% of managers
March 23rd, 2007 at 2:10 am
I can’t figure out if this is an elaborate con by a bunch of Business School Graduates who can’t think of anything themselves? If someone submits an idea do they get part of the profit? Creativity=Profit without it you just break even.
March 23rd, 2007 at 6:54 am
The best
April 30th, 2007 at 1:39 am
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Hank