Innovation: Staffing

Govindarajan & Trimble , as mentioned in an earlier post, describe the Performance Engine and the Dedicated Team and why they should be distinct. The book also mentions the need to have a proper relationship between the two so that the resources, skills and knowledge of the Performance Engine can be effectively leveraged.

Context To Core
Geoffrey Moore, in his book Dealing with Darwin: How Great Companies Innovate at Every Phase of Their Evolution, speaks of the need to allocate from Context to Core. Context consists of whatever the company needs to do to stay in the game. Core is what the company needs to do to stay ahead in the game - and that is innovate. (Watch video of Geoffrey Moore on Context and Core in the Software Industry). However, Geoffrey Moore does not deal with the barriers to allocating from Context to Core and how to overcome them. Govindarajan & Trimble do that.

Moonlighting
Givindarajan & Trimble advise against trying to do worthwhile innovation with people working in their slack time. It is not as if such "moonlighting" cannot come up with ideas or small victories, or incremental improvements. What they fail at is, in the words of the book's title, "the other side of Innovation".

Concerning Startups: There are startups where the "entrepreneurs" are not entrepreneurial enough to quit their regular jobs. Such a startup is is not a place to be employed; nor are these people to be doing business with. At acmet we dealt with one such firm.

Missing Performance Engine
I mentioned in an earlier post that a startup, unlike an established organizatiion,  has a Dedicated Team with no associated Performance Engine. It has its advantages; it is not burdened by the past. But that is also a disadvantage. The startup does not have a brand. It does not have a set of customers who trust it.

Mitigation: These diadvantages can be mitigated, to an extent, if the entrepreneurs have worked in the industry in various roles - production, product development, marketing & sales. They should be known within the industry and to customers who use the products and services of the industry.

When RR & I started Ergo Electronics we lacked this. We could have overcome this disadvantage. I suppose hubris prevented us, both then, and later at acmet, from never really being able to so.

Postscript
With this post I have ended my current set of takes on Govindrajan & Trimble's book.

If you work at an established company, the book will help you understand what your company needs to do if wants to innovate. Maybe you could suggest what needs to be done, and why.

If you intend to start a venture, or are already in one, I hope my posts would have motivated you to read the book.

Thank you for your attention.