METIS and Forevision
There are many reasons I wanted to start an Innovation practice (in the new lexicon: Innovation Lab) inside a large corporation that is at the front end of dealing with the digitally-based disruptive onslaught. The initial co-founder and I suggested such a practice to our management in response to a lunch we had with an Innovator from Nokia back in 2006 and the pre-iPhone era. (Yes, the same Nokia that is now fighting for its life.)
There are huge lessons learned just from that lunch that may explain why Nokia finds itself in the situation that it is in. I will expound on that lesson at a latter date, for now to the subject of this post.
I wanted to learn and feel what it would be like to go against the grain, delve into emerging new ideas and to institute new thinking. In retrospect this is what I had always done in my career and thus wanted to put those abilities into a "legit" environment where that was "the" job.
Now in its 6th year, the practice has changed considerably and certainly evolved in ways that are somewhat predictable and similar to what others have experienced. There has been successes and failures. There has been acceptance and rejection. There has been positive and negative intent. Most of all there has been a massive consumption of emotional intelligence from all of us that have remained.
It turns out that we think differently and we deploy much more of our emotional DNA in the pursuit of new thinking frameworks and ideas.
It is akin to being and entrepreneur (they call us "intraprenuers") with the additional weight of having to soldier on and fight against overwhelming odds inside a more "constrained" marketplace, as it were. An entrepreneur has the entire World to enlist on their pursuit. They have investors (which for the most part have positive intent), they have hand picked board members, advisors, advocates, communities, family members, friends, etc…Intrapreneurs do not have any of these allies. We have executive support which can be there when needed but can also disappear with the latest reorganization.
Not easy being an intraprenuer and more so in organizations that do not truly understand how to do Innovation.
There are huge lessons learned just from that lunch that may explain why Nokia finds itself in the situation that it is in. I will expound on that lesson at a latter date, for now to the subject of this post.
I wanted to learn and feel what it would be like to go against the grain, delve into emerging new ideas and to institute new thinking. In retrospect this is what I had always done in my career and thus wanted to put those abilities into a "legit" environment where that was "the" job.
Now in its 6th year, the practice has changed considerably and certainly evolved in ways that are somewhat predictable and similar to what others have experienced. There has been successes and failures. There has been acceptance and rejection. There has been positive and negative intent. Most of all there has been a massive consumption of emotional intelligence from all of us that have remained.
It turns out that we think differently and we deploy much more of our emotional DNA in the pursuit of new thinking frameworks and ideas.
It is akin to being and entrepreneur (they call us "intraprenuers") with the additional weight of having to soldier on and fight against overwhelming odds inside a more "constrained" marketplace, as it were. An entrepreneur has the entire World to enlist on their pursuit. They have investors (which for the most part have positive intent), they have hand picked board members, advisors, advocates, communities, family members, friends, etc…Intrapreneurs do not have any of these allies. We have executive support which can be there when needed but can also disappear with the latest reorganization.
Not easy being an intraprenuer and more so in organizations that do not truly understand how to do Innovation.
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