The Innovation Readiness Gap: Efficiency vs. Effectiveness
Most companies are not ready to innovate
This realisation hit me hard as I reflected on my experience trying to convince businesses to innovate.
Here's what I've learned:
Many organisations struggle with these key concepts:
1. Effectiveness which is doing the right things, and achieving desired outcomes. This is where strategy meets execution.
2. Efficiency which is doing things right, and optimising processes. This is where I spent most of my time.
3. Innovation which is about creating new solutions, challenging the norm. This is where I'd like to get them.
Organisations that excel at innovation:
- Use efficiency to free up resources for creative pursuits
- Streamline processes to enable rapid prototyping and iteration
- Use efficient systems to help scale innovations quickly
The lesson? To innovate successfully, companies must master efficiency without being constrained by it. They need to be effective in choosing the right problems to solve. Only then can true innovation flourish.