Innovation & Startups
Before we delve deep into this narrative on Correlation of Innovation and Startups, let us first have a unified definition of the two terms itself that we are trying to tie together.
What is Innovation?
Innovation is a journey in excellence that continuously traverses from Innocence to Excellence. Please refer to the Illustration 1 below:
What is Startup?
An entity that has clearly established its role to the relevance of an economy. It can either be a Creator and / or a Sustainer. If it is the former, it automatically will encase the latter but not vice-versa. There is however room for both type of startups in the current economy. The question is whether that clarity exists with the Startup Entrepreneurs. Please refer to Illustration 2 below:
Structures, Synergies & Systems
These three S’ are fundamental to the construct of a Startup. Because the Digital Economy is very different from the previous Commerce Economy.
- Structures: Is the shift of the Power of Data from Enterprise to Individuals.
- Synergies (Culture): Is a Glocal Culture that works and produces outcomes in a Digital World that transcends the Physical and Virtual Glocally (Global + Local).
- Systems: Is a digital System that is Value (Potential) and Role (Aspiration) driven departing from Financial Metrics driven.
Human Ecosystems
Startups that continue to imagine extending the Financial Ecosystem Model are at great risk of being at the end of the tether. The Future of Workforce that is the Gen A (08–18) and Gen Z (18–25) have a very different idea of the world they want to live in as opposed to the Gen Y (25 -40), Gen X (40–60) and Baby Boomer (60+).
Is it too difficult to imagine that this Future of Workforce are the Customers and Consumers of Products and Services we Create and Consume? Shouldn’t we be preparing to respond to them before they raise a revolt? The big enterprises will find a way to retain the status quo with their money muscle but startups can create wealth in society; departing from the structures, synergies and systems that incumbent enterprises are thriving on, can’t they?
Startups must have this clarity on how they are building their enterprise with this scaffold of Structures, Synergies and Systems without which they will find hard to survive, leave alone thrive.
Future of Work
Visual Capitalist have Sponsored and Featured the Research by PWC on the subject of Future of Work. https://bit.ly/3h5o3LX
The narrative is flawed from the perspective that the three S’ are not taken into consideration. The place to start the conversation is to first address the Flow Of Work (FOW) in the context of Digital Economy.
Workforce Transformation
This is where the Flow Of Work (FOW) starts in the digital age and not from an enterprise’s strategy. Factors such as Work Flexibility, Resilience & Agility, Technology & Investments, New Ways to Serve Customers, Leaner Inspirations and Community & Societal Engagement that are leveraged into Business Strategy must be considered through the lens of Customer Universe and not just the enterprise. The Customer Universe includes Clients, Team Members (Workforce), Stakeholders, Shareholders, Business Partners, Vendors, Society and Technology (IOT, Devices, Sensors, Scanners and Wearables) which forms an enterprise ecosystem.
Talent is not a job description but the expression of the latent in an individual. The challenge of businesses is to make Work more Interesting and Challenging; offering the scope to Innovate at Work. And Collaborating intelligently with Machines and Ecosystems that move from Enterprise to Industry to Life.
Whether it is Talent Planning, Learning & Innovation or Employee Experience, the report continues to look at humans being employed in “Jobs” as opposed to “Work”. Where the former boxes people to consume and deliver to a prescription while the latter can liberate them to contribute based on the capabilities they acquire and drive work.
Distinctions between full time, part time, freelance, gig and so are wearing down. The point is how do we make Work Packaged for execution without these constraints. Doesn’t that change the way in which an enterprise gets work done in the future?
Most corporations and leaders do talk about innovation but will fail to qualify on the maps of Illustration 1 & 2 because of the Strategic and Technological debt that their enterprises are struck in. This is where the Individuals don’t find expression to their latent. Isn’t the “Great Resignation” enough evidence? How can we continue to extend the same context into the Future?
Workplace Transformation
Workplace Transformation is not just about location or the Flexibility of the individual. It is more about how Work and Innovation can be orchestrated. The Flexibility, Privacy, Security must all come together with adequate tools, methods and processes to support the independence of time and space to perform work.
The Future of Work is one that considers the Flow of Work to deliver both Transformational and Sustainable Outcomes. This can only happen when Data, Talent, Materials, Funds and Infrastructure are fused with Cognitive Intelligence and Digitally Orchestrated to Operate and Innovate; mutually inclusively.
