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Is it Innovation or Improvement? Jane Keathley Keathley and Company ASQ Innovation Division Conference 2015
Is it Innovation or Improvement?
Jane KeathleyKeathley and Company
ASQ Innovation Division Conference2015
Objectives
• Explore the integrated roles of continuous improvement and innovation in maintaining high levels of organizational performance
• Identify models for balancing improvement and innovation initiatives within the organization, including risk-based and competitive analyses
Keathley and Company, LLC
©2015
Wearable Technology
‘For wearable technology to take off it must:
• Make life more convenient
• Easily fit into everyday life
• Look like something you’d want to be
seen wearing’Hayley Tsukayama, Washington Post, Feb 26 2014
Keathley and Company, LLC
©2015
Is it Innovation?
Keathley and Company, LLC
©2015
GPS ‘click heels’ shoes
Or Improvement?
…the world’s first fully functional pair of GPS shoes that will guide the wearer to any destination… The design of the shoes take the best of traditional craftsmanship and enhance it with a subtle addition of modern technology in the form of embedded GPS in the heel and mini LED lights within the traditional brogue shoe hole perforations.
Keathley and Company, LLC
©2015
You decide….
• GPS technology + shoes
• Concept of ‘wearable’ technology
• Cell phone and LED technology
All came together for a new product:
• First for lost children, then for lost seniors, then for multi-shoe use and
now for ‘destination’ walking
Keathley and Company, LLC
©2015
Is it Innovation or Improvement?
Keathley and Company, LLC
©2015
Apple Watch
You decide….
• First Pebble Steel models– Traditional appearance with big face
– Basic electronic information
• Email Sender name and subject line
– Supplements cell phone technology
– Expensive; doesn’t support popular social
media sites
• Later models addressed many of these shortcomings
Keathley and Company, LLC
©2015
Innovation – Working Definition
The conversion of new knowledge and information into products, processes,
and services that provide new value in
the marketplace
-ASQ Innovation Division
Keathley and Company, LLC
©2015
Types of Innovation
• Product and Services
• Process
• Business model
Keathley and Company, LLC
©2015
Continuous Improvement (CI)
The ongoing improvement of products, services or processes through incremental and breakthrough improvements.
-ASQ Website Glossary
Improve – to make or become better
-Oxford Dictionary
Keathley and Company, LLC
©2015
How are they different?
• People think innovation is…
…radical, disruptive, inventive
• People think improvement is…
…incremental, minor, imitative
• Are these perceptions accurate?
Keathley and Company, LLC
©2015
Deming’s Four Prongs of Quality
4. Innovation in Product and Service
3. Innovation in Process
1. Improvement of Existing Processes
2. Improvement of Existing Product
and Service
The Deming Dimension, H Neave, SPC Press 2000
Keathley and Company, LLC
©2015
Another way to look at it
Keathley and Company, LLC
©2015
Innovation; Science, Technology, + Culture
Kapsar, Jun 13 2011
Overlap
Keathley and Company, LLC
©2015
Innovation Both Improvement
Innovation Spectrum
• Breakthrough
– Disruptive innovation
– Breakthrough improvement
• Incremental
– Sustaining innovation
– Continuous improvement
• Improvement
Keathley and Company, LLC
©2015
Gray Zones
• First time ever available
– First time, second provider
– First time, second locality• Second time, another competitor
• Second time, another locality
– Nth time, nth provider, nth locality
Keathley and Company, LLC
©2015
Is it Innovation? You decide….
• Apple’s iPad– iPad 2
– Competitor tablets
• Android tablets
• Windows tablets
– Later Apple releases
• iPad Mini
– iPad Air
– iPad Mini (new)
• Competitors ‘minis’
Keathley and Company, LLC
©2015
Wearable technology
• Pebble
• Samsung and Sony
• Other vendors, including Apple
• Etc
• Etc
• Etc
Keathley and Company, LLC
©2015
Context of Innovation
• New to world
• New to industry/sector
• New to region/business
• New to organization
Keathley and Company, LLC
©2015
The Spectrum
• Recognize the ends of the spectrum (radical innovation and minor improvements) as well as the range of situations in between
• Black and white definitions result in endless debate and may not be useful
• Helpful to have a common conceptual understanding
Keathley and Company, LLC
©2015
New Terms?
Incrovation - incremental innovation or improvement
Radovation – entirely new way of doing
something; radical innovation
-Paul Sloane, British Quality Foundation
Keathley and Company, LLC
©2015
Managing Across the Spectrum
Need Improvement and Innovation
• Correcting problems and defects
• Preventing future problems
• Bringing in solutions from outside
• Creating new solutions
Keathley and Company, LLC
©2015
Finding Balance
• Competitive position
• Key product maturity
• Core competencies
• Improvement system
• Risk Tolerance
Keathley and Company, LLC
©2015
Integration into the Organization
• Numerous models
• Establish organization-wide culture
• Align with strategies
Keathley and Company, LLC
©2015
Tools to Manage the ‘I’ Spectrum
• Innovation Ambition Matrix
• Decision (Pugh) Matrix
• Value Factor Analyses
Keathley and Company, LLC
©2015
Innovation Ambition Matrix
Keathley and Company, LLC
©2015
Nagji, Bansi and Geoff Tuff. "Managing Your Innovation Portfolio." Harvard Business Review May
2012.
Decision (Pugh) Matrix
• Used to evaluate and prioritize a list of options
• Weighted criteria such as:
– Effectiveness
– Feasibility
– Capability
– Support
Keathley and Company, LLC
©2015
Decision matrix example
Value Factor Analyses
• Used to help estimate the customer value of a product or service and compare it to other options
Keathley and Company, LLC
©2015
Value Factor = Customer Benefits /
Customer Costs
In The End…
Ultimately, what matters most is finding the best balance of forward-looking initiatives for your organization and managing them effectively.
Pick the names that work best in your environment, use them consistently, and
move your organization ahead.
Keathley and Company, LLC
©2015
Innovation or Improvement?
Keathley and Company, LLC
©2015
Keathley and Company, LLC
©2015
