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Dr. Phil Samuel, writing in his Chief Innovator Online blog, recently posted about the need for continuous improvement and innovation. Unfortunately, he contends, most companies are good at one or the other, but rarely both. And he uses Motorola as an example.
Motorola has been focused on Six Sigma for many years, which has helped it to do things better. But where it seems to be falling down lately is doing better things or doing things differently. In other words, it would appear that the company's deeply embedded culture of continuous improvement may have been getting in the way of its ability to innovate. The problem is exacerbated by rapidly diminishing product life cycles, according to Dr. Samuel:
"Why is this so difficult, to keep hitting the innovation ball out of the park time after time? For starters, an organization or company has to selectively abandon the past, and that can be difficult – especially when that selective abandonment might entail cannibalizing a blockbuster product that went from high-priced market leader ($500 in the case of the RAZR) to free giveaway (after incentives) in the space of 36 months!"
What was needed was a successor to the RAZR, but the company just couldn't execute on that fast enough.
What's needed to solve this problem, Dr. Samuel concludes, is a culture that enables a company like Motorola to innovate quickly, "and as soon as that is done beginning the process of outdoing yourself as quickly as possible." |
