Comments on: Can innovation tunneling help organizations survive disruptive change?

By: Andrew Maynard

Andrew Maynard — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 23:05:20 +0000

Clearly a gal ahead of your time, Ruth

By: Ruth Seeley

Ruth Seeley — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 22:38:19 +0000

@Rob Don’t I know it. Sometimes those antibodies merely represent inertia. You should have seen the way people looked at me when I suggested a Speaker’s Corner for employees to have their say via video (pay $1, get to spout off, money goes to charities of employees’ choice, clips to be used in part to create internal communications TV channel) in 2001. You’d have thought I had three heads. Now I hear there’s a thing called YouTube….

By: Rob Shelton

Rob Shelton — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 19:10:52 +0000

I think the kernel of newness in this is that organizations– businesses, non-profit, government– can manage their way to new ways of doing things that used to be nearly impossible to do. It takes the right combination of leadership, culture, and processes– and never underestimate the power of organizational antibodies. More good ideas have succumbed to those devils than almost any other innovation predator. Knowing how to envision and develop the alternate a business model, manage the transition of the people, culture and processes, and mitigate the antibodies takes skill; however we have a growing body of thinking and experience on how to do it.

By: Ruth Seeley

Ruth Seeley — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 17:44:50 +0000

When I read Rob’s examples I immediately thought of other ways the value proposition has been changed: making personal printers highly affordable (loss leaders, almost), and making money on replacement cartridges instead; digital cameras, which require high initial investment compared with film cameras, but eliminate the processing costs (I’m thinking you can probably say the time spent digitally ‘processing’ the photos equals the time and energy it would take to drop off and pick up the rolls of film). But the best example I can come up with of this tunneling of which you speak is the HippoRoller, the device designed in part by Engineers without Borders that allows far greater quantities of water to be transported with far less physical exertion, an innovation that is truly as remarkable as the difference between travelling by horse and buggy vs by car, although it may seem only incremental and the device fulfills the same purpose as a more humble vessel like a jug or plastic handheld container.

By: Andrew Maynard

Andrew Maynard — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 14:09:44 +0000

Rob, brilliant addition to the piece – thanks. I had a friend say she couldn’t make out the tunneling stuff, until she read your comment!

I would be interested in your perspective on whether the antibody/tunneling metaphor is simply a different way of describing an established view of how businesses succeed, or whether it genuinely represents a kernel of new insight into challenges and opportunities by organizations in a rapidly changing world.

By: Rob Shelton

Rob Shelton — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 17:43:49 +0000

The tunneling metaphor works on many levels; let’s mine it.

Shifting to a new mode of operation can be accomplished by adopting a new business model. We have identified several archetype business model shifts including:

1. Change the Value Proposition
Bundle products and services to provide a more complete solution– GE Power by the Hour
Change the scale of the offering–Eclipse Aviation’s light regional jets
2. Change How You Deliver Value
Partner aggressively– Intel+GE recent joint foray into home health care
Build and monetize social networks –Nike
3. Change the Targeted Customer
Find unserved customers–Intuit
Find non-consumers–Tata Nano automobile

Of course there are more.

These companies tunneled their way to significantly larger and more profitable market potentials by shifting key elements of their business model.

That raises two questions: How did they do it? Why do other companies find it so hard to tunnel to the new potential in response to these leaders?

Organizational antibodies are the main reason the shift is so hard. Organizational antibodies fight change and are well developed forces that exist in every organization — the problem is that the antibodies can’t tell good change from bad change. Mitigating organizational antibodies to make the shift to a new model requires among other things, clear leadership to support the change and new performance metrics and innovation motivators. Otherwise the antibodies block and corrode the model changes and old behaviors win out.