In this post I will discuss two HBR articles from an Enterprise Architecture point-of-view and possible usages of Capgemini's Technovision from the conclusions made in the articles.
“Teaming Up to Crack Innovation and Enterprise Integration” – James Cash, Michael Earl and Robert Morison, HBR November 2008.
Innovation and Integration are two compelling sources for growth within organizations. Innovation is the process of creating new products and services that delivers a measurable value for customers including new generations of products and more importantly conceiving new business processes and methods. Integration is making disparate parts of the organization work better together and identifying opportunities for cross-functional improvements and collaboration that are only visible when you look across functions.
The article discusses how large corporations can move from a situation where IT is just a catalyst of business innovation and cross-functional integration to systematically leveraging technology. In a study of 24 US and European businesses it was revealed a method for systematically approaching innovation and integration efforts coordinating theses two critical processes. Through a distributed innovation group (DIG) that combines internal efforts with the best of external technology creating new business variations working across boundaries and organizations. An enterprise integration group (EIG) folds yesterdays new variations into the operating model of the enterprise aligning with and extending the platform for execution in use. The two groups works together enabling better identification, coordination and prioritization of the most promising projects as well as spreading technology, tools and best practices across the enterprise.
Through the article I learned a method where one can combine innovation and technology nicely to spur new innovations and at the same time plan, structure and integrate those new variations into the existing platform for execution possibly extending it if necessary. In Capgemini our Technovision serves as a great example in how technology can be used to inspire and drive innovation at ourselves and our customers. Through the article you will also gain new methods and approaches how to integrate that innovation in a systematic way driving cost-optimized execution platforms while fostering and driving innovation which in some organizations can be viewed as opposing ideas. Innovation injects novelty and variety; Integration battles against fragmentation. A company pursuing growth must excel at both.
“Investing in the IT That Makes a Competitive Difference” – Andrew MacAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson, HBR July-August 2008.
The authors have studied all publicly traded US companies in today’s economy from the 1960’s through 2005. They looked at relevant performance indicators and found some striking patterns. The competitive dynamics have changed dramatically from the mid 90’s about at the same time as IT investments sharply increased and the use of internet grew. This change is visible in the number of new companies that grow and the speed with which they grow. The difference between leaders and laggards have also increased showing the importance of being market leader in an industry. This has previously been mostly visible in markets for digitized products like music or software. Now IT is accelerating this change in the traditional industries as well. Why? It is not because more products are becoming digitized, but because more processes are. Through digitized processes an innovator with a better way of doing things can scale things up with unprecedented speed and dominating an industry.
