This talk was given by Steve Gladstone, Director of Applications and Services for Panasonic Avionics. It focused on how, given that you’ve identified a change that you think would do your company good, you can get C-level support for your change, and put it into practice.
There are all kinds of change you can drive, some good, and some not ready for prime time. So, how do you want to have an impact? Think deeply and personally about what “impact” means to you.
In engineering centric organizations, you have an uphill battle from the marketing side. Many companies struggle with product management. (Here there was some discussion of Steve Jobs as product management hero. Steve Jobs as hero appeared at several points in the talk.)
An intrapreneur is like an entrepreneur, but working within an established organization to sell innovation. How do you get C-level support for your idea?
Be an agent of change. Evidence deep understanding to C-levels. Show why you can deliver results: the highest success probability, crisply branded, with not very many words to a slide. (Steve Jobs appears again as an example of someone who did this well.)
Use only “joined up” thinking. Get everyone on the same page. People will feel more “sense of urgency” if you can build centers of excellence, not siloed support for the idea in just one part of the organization.
It’s not just what you don’t do, but what you do. If software developers put in too many features, quality suffers.
You need to build resilient trust with executives/C-levels to get past the quarterly focus. Think of the consigliere in the movie The Godfather, who was consulted on every decision, not leaded, but trusted. The down side of the consigliere is that your seasons of influence will rise and fall. Convince and make offers that people can’t refuse. Capitalize on human weakness.
Execution and Communication in Context: Gladstone showed a photo of a dollar bill in front of different backgrounds, as an illustration of the effect of context.
Understand industry trends and stakeholders. Decisions are not data driven. True genius sees differently. Try creating personas of customers to get a better picture of what they need.
Projects vs. products: Companies can be driven by sales, engineering, or project management. In engineering centric businesses that go around sales, the CTO and CEO may be the same person.
You need to balance tactics and strategy. Don’t only listen to customers. If you have genius, vision, and a feeling in your bones, you may be able to see farther than your customers (Steve Jobs again appears as a positive example).
Know your personal and company culture. Do you have both responsibility and authority? It’s bad to have one without the other.
Is your company a Project, Product, or Solution based company? In Project based companies, the customer says “Jump,” and the company asks “How high?” [LG: Here I thought of Lucky Strike in Mad Men, after Draper et al spin off a newer, smaller agency, and Lucky Strike supplies more than half of their business.] Product based companies are market driven, and can gently say no to customers after polling the market. Solution based companies emphasize people, process, and technology, and offer professional services to customize the product for those customers who don’t want what’s out of the box. They are seen as “end to end.”
If Projects and Products are mixed, Projects will always win, and Products will be fractured. [LG: This is where I hark back to the opening key note address, in which Peter McLachlan described a woman who, on being told that you should design with the customer in mind, firmly said, "No. It's all about the process, not about the customer." She was, of course, as McLachlan said, wrong; what good is process if it doesn't ultimately lead to something a customer would actually want? But, listening to Gladstone's talk, it occurred to me that she might be reacting to the downside of mixing Projects and Products, that perhaps she had seen the desire to satisfy some single Lucky Strike lead people to trample all over the process in ways that broke a product for the other customers who might have bought it.]
What type is your personal sweet spot? Your company’s?
“Joined Up” Thinking: Understand current company projects, products, and solutions. Is your innovation realistic for your company? What are the risks? Think like a technician if you’re a marketing person.
Politics of Change:
- Create buy in. Appeal to the “arrogance” of others. Engineers have to think it’s their idea.
- Create a “sense of urgency.”
- Partner with marketing for communications. Be like Steve Jobs, crisp, clear, and elegant.
- Use external and internal communications.
- Finally, claim your seat at the table.
Change and innovation rollouts are high stakes, and can be career making or carry stigma if they fail. Assert your authority, but not (as in The Godfather) with a horse’s head.