Innovation has nothing to do with how many R & D dollars you have. When Apple came up with the Mac, IBM was spending at least 100 times more on R & D. It’s not about money. It’s about the people you have, how you’re led, and how much you get it. – Steve Jobs
Remember the reel character Phunsukh Wangdu from the movie “Three Idiots.” Of course, you do even if you’re not a mechanical engineer. No! It’s not just because of Aamir Khan you remember the character. What made the character set apart on the screen where his ideas and innovative gadgets much like his real life. The character was inspired by the real life hero Sonam Wangchuk. A 50-year-old mechanical engineer from Ladakh, who was honoured with the prestigious Rolex Award for Enterprise in 2016 for reshaping the world with his innovative thinking and dynamism.”
For long, the idea of being a creative among vox populi is quite a cliché- associated particularly with arts, music, and entertainment only. There’s no doubt, that creativity will always be the foundation of arts, but it was never limited to it. The true essence of being creative is the sheer ability to generate new ideas, alternatives, solutions, and possibilities in a unique and different way. And often misunderstood as a synonym for creativity, innovation is an act of executing and implementing the new ideas to create value for the society, businesses or at an individual level.
Enterprises in the Age of Creative Destruction
Thanks to the digital! Governments, Enterprises, and the Aam Admi are empowered by the Internet- And that’s no less than a revolution which has encouraged self expression. The big bang of digital has caused ripples across the world, and its impact is widespread. Digital Transformation, changing consumer demands, emerging new High tech, shift from traditional infrastructure, changes in business models and approaches etc – are nothing but a domino effect to this big bang. And like any other galactic event, the impact of this big bang will continue to reshape our world now, and for years to come. It’s just the beginning of a whole new virtual world with endless possibilities to create and innovate.
Enterprises across industries have well understood the fact that digital transformation is endless. And in order to thrive ahead in the digital world, innovation is the key to add a competitive edge. The concept of creativity and innovation is nothing new when it comes to economics of world or entrepreneurship. But what makes it crucial and so different today is the fast pacing business demands. Joseph Aloïs Schumpeter, one of the most influential economist of the 20th century was the one who popularized the term Creative Destruction in economics. Schumpeter identified innovation as a critical dimension of economic change.
According Schumpeter, economic change revolves around innovation, entrepreneurial activities, and market power. He sought to prove that innovation-originated market power can provide better results than the invisible hand and price competition. He argued that technological innovation often creates temporary monopolies, allowing abnormal profits that would soon be competed away by rivals and imitators. These temporary monopolies were necessary to provide the incentive for firms to develop new products and processes. Today in the 21st Century Digital Transformation is nothing but creative destruction.
The New age Tech leaders of the Digital Frontier
The creative destruction – digital transformation- has made it an exciting and challenging time for C-Suite across the globe. Leaders of the new digital frontier are embracing creativity and innovation as culture to lead enterprises to success. Culture, adds a context to life when considered on an individual and societal level. At the enterprise level too, it adds a narrative to each business function. This in turn binds and defines enterprises towards achieving their goals while delivering value.
That brings us to highlight, the ever evolving role of the master who are responsible to connect enterprises with neurons (consumers) using the gigabytes (technology). The CIOs/CTOs- The one’s responsible to drive innovation across all business functions using high tech. How they are responding to this massive creative destruction?
Being responsible to drive innovation, CIOs and CTOs are constantly, challenged to generate new ideas and add value to business by sourcing and implementing high tech. The 2019 State of the CIO report has well highlighted this fact. The reports say “to support the creation of new revenue generation projects, CIOs are learning about customer needs, creating teams focused on innovation and creating business case scenarios with defined costs and benefits”.73% of CIOs says that it’s challenging to find the right balance between business innovation and operational excellence.
The Enterprise Innovation Hubs
In the Digital era, IT ecosystems are more like innovation hubs to enterprises. As innovation continues to play a crucial role in business strategy, IT teams are compelled to think out of the box. CIOs and CTOs have to adjust their teams to deal with increasing expectations, responsibilities, and influence of customers and business.
Enterprises committed to creativity and innovation need dynamic IT environments in order to win the digital race. Loaded with new age high tech, IT teams are responsible to connect all business functions, bridge the gap between consumers and necessitate all that’s required for an enterprise to cultivate and execute new ideas. Critical to every function, modern IT today is multifaceted. It is no more works in silos, rather, it is the IT team’s responsibility to establish an organized and strategic approach to innovation. It’s here where CIOs and CTO’s practice artistry with new age technologies – Cloud, AI, SDN, Automation, IoT. In short, in the marvel world of enterprises, every Ironman (CIO) has his own lab (IT team) to practice innovation in assistance with a J.A.R.V.I.S (CTO).
Trending consumerization in an age of Digital Darwinism, demands dynamic IT teams with the ability to think logically and creatively as per business demands. IT today plays a crucial role in fostering creativity in businesses and implement an innovation framework in enterprises. In fact, transformation to digital requires leaders who can think “out of the box” and understand their business to implement strategic initiatives.
The CIOs and CTOs license to Creativity!
The letter C in all C-suite today refers to being a Creative operator, a Communicator, and Customer focused. The paradigm shift to digital has broken the stereotype thinking towards the roles and responsibilities of CIOs and CTOs. IT leaders today are not only logical in their approach but creative as well. With technology being the disruptive force behind information and innovation, CIOs and CTOs are in a unique position to drive enterprises digital transformation.
At the age of innovation; a flexible, agile and secure IT is the key to broaden enterprise Digital initiatives. CIOs and CTOs need to utilize their license to think creatively and logically implement strategies. They’re expected to be good at both developing and executing a comprehensive innovation agenda for their enterprise. This requires IT leaders to be proactive and get really creative about how they orchestrate and implement changes, and practice innovation in digital enterprises.
Therefore, CIOs and CTOs need out of the box lens, continuous learning, and a broader perspective to view the world and encourage their teams to be similar. You can either practice free thinking or encourage creativity to foster innovation like Phunsukh Wangdu. Or you can be like the other character Chatur Ramalingam who blindly follows the beliefs and norms of an outdated education system and hence even after being so competitive and studios achieve nothing. The choice is yours! No matter which approach you take, always remember- Teams are nothing but a reflection of their leaders.
Ideas don’t turn salutary overnight. Achieved in collaboration with diverse skill sets, it requires effort and dedication to transform ideas into innovation. At Lavelle Networks innovation – is the DNA – it excites us as much as networking. We’re living every moment of the climacteric in 21st century enterprise networking. Unified with a common purpose our hybrid team of thinkers and tinkerers are ready to help you to innovate and re-invent enterprise network. #Worldcreativityandinnovationday
