Much has been made about how companies must clearly define the purpose of their business. Apparently such clear demarcation right from its corporate strategy to daily communication allows employees to greater levels of motivation at work. Yet purpose is something which may not always be defined by the founders and the top hierarchy alone but by professionals within the ranks. Purpose may also be a vague concept where the twisting of language can lead to ambiguity. Employees are more likely to choose value to customers over returns to shareholders. Yet shareholders may also be defined as people who have invested either directly or indirectly for social safety. This alters the viewpoint. Companies may choose to put greater emphasis on customers in its communication, yet the purpose ought to be that which is best for different stakeholders and not determined purely by emotional outpour.

Source: https://hbr.org/2016/09/thinking-clearly-about-your-companys-purpose

Contrary to popular perception, a lot of business innovation has taken place when developers have thought small rather than lofty aspects. Thinking small does not only entail the objects that appear smaller but indeed a microscopic introspection. An attention to detail is developed as a result. Pixar for example realized that rectangular tables impeded creativity so they changed over to square ones leading to much better results. Thinking small also enhances collaboration across departments as each one is best at what it does. A tiny detail enabled Polycom to revolutionize the way conference rooms are wired across the globe. Such habits or innovations do not happen overnight but take time often through trial-and-error.

Source: https://hbr.org/2016/09/how-i-built-a-2-billion-company-by-thinking-small

Product disruption is where a certain product achieves one of the top positions in an industry where it never existed earlier. This could be due to pricing, marketing or even better quality. However, it is platform disruption which is far more effective as it involves multiple products and services. Platform disruptions do not directly take on incumbents and thus do not bear direct attack as existing players get the luxury of workout out a different strategy. The former is very rare as it involves enormous funding, while the latter is mainly due to business innovation. Uber is a perfect example of product disruption. Also it is low-end disruptions such as Flash memory, the Boeing 737-200 or Uber itself that create greater benefits to more number of people rather than the high- end ones such as Chobani yogurt. Source: https://hbr.org/2016/04/why-platform-disruption-is-so-much-bigger-than-product-disruption

Large enterprises have equally massive bureaucracies which often slow down their work processes. This hinders growth when compared to lean startups which have very little delay in decision making or implementation. Thus big companies must take the example of Experian Data Labs which has a dedicated team of problem solvers to help them function with the swiftness of startups. They help out banks in assessing credit worthiness of clients by conducting due diligence.  While they often spot only a fifth of the potential troublemakers, it still sparks of the potential. Engineers help up in scaling up the technology once the product has been assessed. The product managers conduct detailed business analysis on its pricing, positioning and legal conformity. Sales personnel need to be able to answer customer queries and resolve their problems. The overall time to market is roughly between three to twelve months but such a dedicated team enables large companies to develop a sense of agility within its system.

Source: https://hbr.org/2016/08/a-dedicated-team-of-problem-solvers-can-help-big-companies-act-like-lean-startups

Platform businesses have proven to be some of the biggest success stories of the last decade. In order to successfully launch them, some business innovation methods have been deduced. One way is to leverage a non-platform business of its where already some level of success have been achieved such as Amazon which took advantage of its pipeline business which existed before the online retail chain was started. The ‘piggyback strategy’ involves connecting an existing user base from a different source to its own offerings. Just-dial created a phone directory using existing yellow pages with its own efforts of visiting businesses door-to-door. In the ‘seeding strategy’, the platform company takes on the responsibility of value creation itself. An example of this could be when Google developed Android, it generated interest from developers to create the best of apps.  In ‘marquee strategy’, platform developers provide incentives to attract members from various domains. The ‘single side strategy’ is where businesses create products or services which will be highly sought after by their channel members. Then there is the ‘producer evangelism strategy’ where producers are attracted to join the platform on the premise that their customers will then follow suit. In the ‘micro-market strategy’, a platform targets only a small closed group at the beginning. Once this group is captured, market expansion is planned as successfully executed by Facebook and Tinder. Source: http://knowledge.insead.edu/blog/insead-blog/eight-ways-to-launch-a-successful-platform-business-4834

Airbnb has long positioned itself as a low impact business which leverages already existing infrastructure. It has never wanted its brand to be clubbed with conventional tourism, yet increasingly people are viewing Airbnb as just another player in the travel and tourism industry. In Paris for example, Airbnb listings have gone up three times in only two years. The city centre of Paris is increasingly resembling several other tourist sites across the world- bereft of locals with only tourist population. Venice is one city that has apparently suffered the most with locals departing in greater numbers. There have been similar repercussions in places as diverse as Lisbon, Reykjavik and San Francisco. In Lisbon for example,business research shows that it is less than a third of hosts who account for two-thirds of the Airbnb rooms, implying they have commercially rented out their property and not simply making use of vacant space as advertised by the company.

Source: https://hbr.org/2016/07/airbnb-is-facing-an-existential-expansion-problem

Social media is typically associated with leisure, yet professional skill development and management training can be effectively weaned out of the same as well. Podcasts are a great learning tool as they have recorded sessions. Major industry influencers’ hash tags must be tracked on Twitter to listen to their inspirational points. Similarly one can be regular readers of key bloggers or blogging forums. Twitter can also help us to stay in touch with latest industry trends and to listen to what people generally have to stay about things. LinkedIn can be used to network with a wide variety of professionals. For networking with people sharing similar interests or skills, one can always go to Facebook, LinkedIn or even Slack. In case, professionals ever get bored by typical power point presentations or excel files, they can look up to Pinterest and see in what interesting manner, info-graphics may be presented. Source: https://hbr.org/2016/08/using-social-media-to-build-professional-skills

Digital businesses do not grow due to the sophisticated technologies but due to the ability to scale them up for millions of people to use. A certain mindset is needed where companies think of the bigger picture towards exponential disruptions and not just incremental ones. It is due to this approach that disruptors such as Google, Facebook or Airbnb have been able to implement so much of business innovation.Google has aimed at being a storehouse of all information, Facebook to connect all and Airbnb to ensure rooms for all travelers. Companies need to give away some form of control in order to develop the sense of agility such innovation require to bear fruition. Company personnel must occasionally be ready to even unlearn earlier maxims.

Source: https://hbr.org/2016/07/how-to-create-an-exponential-mindset

With baby boomers heading out of businesses and millennials taking over, a leader crisis is emerging across organizations. Not enough capable Gen-X-ers are there to help manage this chasm. Business research conducted by the Forbes publication confirms that majority of millennials are considered as not good team players. Also many of them apparently have aspirations way above their capabilities. Computer based simulations could be the ideal tool to reduce this gap and enable adequate management training for leadership positions. Simulations can also help by dividing trainees into teams comprising of leaders and aspirants. They work on real time issues. Such training is hands-on, engaging and allows millennials the one chance to rub shoulders with their retiring baby boomer colleagues.

Source: http://www.talentmgt.com/2016/07/19/use-simulations-to-develop-millennial-leaders/

The man synonymous with intelligence, Albert Einstein had failed to accept a new model for physics that he himself first proposed. In similar fashion, accepting and then adapting new trends is a challenge for several organizations. A perfect example for that will be Xerox which was renowned forbusiness innovation but the same quality somewhat brought out its downfall as well. Xerox continued producing high quality products even though cheaper substitutes had already been flooded into the market by the likes of Canon and Ricoh. These substitutes which Xerox viewed as inferior kept bringing down the company’s market share every year. Thus sometimes it is essential to unlearn and be open to new developments.

Source: http://innovationexcellence.com/blog/2016/08/02/the-art-of-the-shift/

Strategic alignment for any business means the ability to integrate the various operational processes and functions in a cohesive manner in order to deliver the end product. In order to test how well this works for any company, two questions need to be posed. Firstly one needs to know whether the corporate strategy of the business is supportive of what the company’s purpose is. Sometimes a mismatch may exist where the strategy does not make provisions for the proper servicing. Second question that needs to be posed is whether once achieved, the company applauds the performance in the right way or not. If a matrix is made for this alignment process, very few players will come out well. There will be others who will possess the best of intentions but the actual functioning makes them incapable of success. There are those who are sadly going nowhere. Others might get wiped out completely.

Source: https://hbr.org/2016/05/a-simple-way-to-test-your-companys-strategic-alignment