Last week I covered the tension between efficiency and responsiveness and between coordination and motivation. I’ve hinted that I believe that the answer to the former cannot be an “either-or” solution. You actually need both.

It’s been interesting to see over the last year or so, how Steve Blank have gradually been shifting his focus from innovation in start-ups to innovation in large corporations. I’ve covered a few of Steve’s posts in this blog already. In one of his recent posts, he ties together many of the topics that he covered, into one cohesive framework. I’m sure that if you wait long enough, you’ll be able to read about it in a book, but in the meantime:

Innovation at 50x Companies and Government Agencies

For those of you who are familiar with Steve’s work, many of the concepts mentioned in the post and in the deck will not be new. The most interesting new piece is the “Innovation Cycle” outlined in this illustration:

As Steve describes it:

• Success starts by finding a new Disruptive Innovation
• Technical and Organizational debt are by-products of success
• Success means scale, and scale requires plans, procedures, processes, incentives, KPIs, etc. in order to be managed effectively
• Innovation becomes execution (business innovation becomes process innovation)
• Far-sighted companies then start the next cycle of looking for the next disruptive innovation

Therefore, companies need to be ambidextrous – be able to innovation AND execute in order to achieve long-lasting success.