As a leader, you’ve likely heard that you need to get all the right people on your bus to make progress.
It’s one of Jim Collins’ biggest lessons from his best-seller, Good to Great. But it’s not that simple—as Collins points out, “There are really three parts of this question of the right people. The first is the right people on the bus. Second is the wrong people off the bus. But third is the right people in the right seats.”
In this article, we look at five tips to launch your next innovation, using a proven framework for successful launch and scale.
I have spent a lot of time working with university and industry researchers throughout my career, and the challenge of how to scale and commercialize ideas always comes up. It is not an easy process, especially when pitching your ideas for funding or recruiting other team members. I recently spoke at the sixth annual Nairobi Innovation Week at University of Nairobi to share my framework for successful commercialization. For the students and researchers in attendance—and for any innovator—this framework will help scale ideas.
The approach in Optimizing Strategy for Results is unique in several ways. The book provides a simple, systematic, and structured approach to strategy. This approach is divided into three parts — preparing, creating, and optimizing strategy — and has seven stages. But this model is also dynamic at its core. Meaning that one can move back and forth between stages depending on the situation. Communication among stakeholders is emphasized throughout the process. The dynamism is critical in turbulent environments that are characterized by vulnerability, uncertainty, complexity, or ambiguity (VUCA).
Before you and your team begin the innovation process, you must understand what kind of innovator you are.
If you’ve followed along with The Innovator’s Advantage for a while now, you know one of my favorite things to remind people is that you are all innovators. Each and every person can innovate, but no one innovates in the same way!
By Dr. Evans Baiya
A good strategy is an innovative strategy. Without the flexibility provided by innovation, your strategy will grow stale and stagnant—and your organization will soon follow.
In my most recent book, Optimizing Strategy for Results: A Structured Approach to Make Your Business Come Alive, my co-authors Ron Price, Professor Tim Waema, and I outline seven stages for building an optimal strategy. Stage three is where the options come in because this stage is where you exercise creative strategic thinking to inform possibilities. This part of strategy is critical—organizations need to know what options are available to them to build the most successful strategy.
Read MoreHost Dale Dixon interviews the authors of the new book, “Optimizing Strategy for Results”, Ron Price; Evans Baiya, PhD,; and Timothy Waema, PhD. Through developing strategy for clients for over 20 years, the authors realized that companies needed an applicable and practical approach to create and optimize strategy with fresh prospective. They discuss the importance of building strategic intelligence, appropriately assigning roles based on talent, and incorporating communication within the seven stages of creating strategy. Each author provides their expert viewpoint to leaders charged with catalyzing results for their organization.
Dr. Evans Baiya, Hr.com, May 2022
Talent development is key to building a competitive organization.
A common mistake is to think your organization’s competitive advantage only comes from products and services, but this is not true. A competitive advantage is a result of superior talent—who are then able to make more contextual products and services and deliver them to the right customer, in the right context, and at the right time. Your talented employees are truly the ones who drive the success of your business.Read More
Part Two of a two-part interview with the Authors of Optimizing Strategy for Results: A Structured Approach to Make Your Business Come Alive
By the TCL Team
For authors Dr. Timothy Waema, Ron Price, and Dr. Evans Baiya, strategy is only one part of the work they do for clients across the globe. Together, they bring decades of knowledge on strategy, leadership, and innovation into cohesive teachings—which led them to collaborate on their latest book, Optimizing Strategy for Results: A Structured Approach to Make Your Business Come Alive.
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