Responses to the top-down / bottom(s)-up thing
18 August 05
David McIntosh wrote me to object to "bottoms-up" innovation. He had
good points -- here they are:
I would suggest you call it "bottom-up"
innovation as opposed to "bottoms-up." The latter is the phrase one
uses when making a toast, and one wants to see the bottoms of
everybody's glasses. On the other hand, "bottom-up" is the opposite of
"top-down". (And, although it's not used, the phrase "tops down" sounds
like it involves either convertibles or girls gone wild.)
So I switched everything to "bottom-up" from "bottoms-up". You
won't find any bottoms in the GE or Best Buy updates.
Now I get a note about a blog that has switched everything from bottom to
bottoms, as you'll see below ...
So what is right?
Hi, Eric: A client of mine in London sent me an item about
innovation attributed to you via, I believe, a blog. I will paste it below. At
any rate, I have been involved with the innovation efforts of companies since my
years at McKinsey, in a joint venture partnership with Mitsubishi, at BCG and
now, for many years in my own companies.
I am interested in those who do more than just think about innovation and since
I work in Newton I am hoping I can lure you out to talk over a cup of coffee
particularly my belief that product innovation always chases needs.
I am also attaching an article I wrote on new product development. It will give
you an idea of how serious I am about this subject.
With good wishes,
Chris
Here is the cited item about you:
Eric Mankin, Executive Director, Innovation & Corporate Entrepreneurship
Research Center, Babson Executive Education, emankin@babson.edu in his August
8th newsletter has posed the very serious question of whether innovation is best
accomplished from the bottom up or the top down.
Ericıs premise is that the current industry attitude regarding innovation is
that it should be driven from the top down. According to Eric, this doctrine is
presently preached by management consulting firms such as Boston Consulting
Group and practiced by successful corporation like GE.
However, Ericıs evidence that counters the traditional tops-down approach is
that Best Buy, the giant electronics retailer, is starting to follow a
management practice of customer-centric, bottoms-up innovation. Best Buy sales
associates are encouraged to develop new, customer-centric merchandising
techniques and even create new service offerings. Eric reports, ³In its most
recent earnings announcement (on 15 June 05), Best Buy said that stores which
had been converted to a more customer-centric model delivered twice the
same-store sales gain, and a higher gross profit rate, than those which had not
yet been converted.²
Obianıs experience shows that successful innovation follows a sequence of:
1) Insight; 2) Development; 3) Positive Testing; 4) Senior Management Support;
and 5) Organizational Education in conjunction with Rollout. Insight and
development can occur anywhere within the organization and most often occur
outside the organization itself, are first reported by organization innovators
and then adopted inside. In the real world, profitable innovation is neither
purely tops down nor bottoms up.
Emagineeringıs Collaborative Program Management supports real-world innovation.
It allows any organizational user to:
1. Share an insight with others;
2. Collaborative develop the innovation with the very important assistance of
subject matter experts; 3. Develop the criteria for a successful test; 4.
Document the results of the tests; 5. Encourage active support and participation
by senior management as required throughout the innovation process; 6. Both
provide information to others regarding the innovation and reach out for their
input as part of the organizational educational process that must be conducted
parallel with a rollout of the innovation.
Successful innovation is a collaborative effort requiring the support of
numerous individuals located at different levels, functions and locations
throughout the organization. Using Emagineering for collaborative program
management, the results of the innovation program will be more successful, and
achieved both faster and at a lower investment cost than through either a
primarily tops-down or bottoms-up approach.
