Verizon India leader Kanakasubramaniam Krishnamurthi explores what separates the good from the great.
You can only improve what you measure. Sounds simple and as obvious, right? However,this is what separates the good from the great - and it also drives innovation!
We recently sat down with Kanakasubramaniam Krishnamurthi, Executive Director, Verizon India who shared his thoughts on the best measures of success.
The connection between measurement and innovation
Any organization or an individual who measures the right things will find ways to improve. Innovation often sounds like out-of-the-blue ideas, discoveries, and creative achievements that are at odds with everyday business. For an organization to build a culture of innovation, innovation needs to be measured against performance objectives and the competitive landscape.
Why innovate?
Sustainable growth and long-term development are impossible without innovation. Innovation is essential for making the most of what you have, creating new practices, growing business skills that will open up new opportunities, responding to competitive trends, becoming future-ready, and adding value to any task, process, or product. This is what builds a unique selling proposition that is intrinsic to organizational growth.
Building a culture of innovation.
Innovation is never just one great idea. It’s a synthesis of multiple strategies: ask the right questions, define the right approach, expand capabilities, and then engineer solutions. The outcome is a collaborative action plan that integrates diverse talents across the organization who are empowered to experiment and quantify their work. This is why figuring out where value lies plays such a critical role.
Challenges along the way.
The road to innovation is never an easy one. Disruptive innovation is a great example. The future value of such innovation can’t always be measured in the present since it might defy existing business models. Therefore, opportunities are often missed. On the other hand, overanalyzing ideas in the search for the perfect one also leads to stagnation of innovation and employees eventually losing interest.
A strategic approach.
An innovation framework offers a balanced approach that not only nurtures and harnesses employee ideas, but also provides a way to act on them. To begin with, investment in a good idea management tool is important, this will give employees a platform to document and share their ideas. Organizations can focus on targeted innovation through ideathons etc. to solve existing business challenges thereby increasing the chances of immediate adoption. Besides, recognizing and implementing good ideas and celebrating employees who championed these help nurture an innovation culture in the workplace. Building on these steps will help ensure innovation is collaborative and scalable.
Innovation fuels growth. The most organic and sustainable path to this coveted goal is to apply a long-term perspective to problem resolution and process improvement. This will help unlock possibilities at every level. Creating a culture of innovation is possible only when innovation isn’t seen as a disruption. It’s a journey that involves seeing a task through to its most perfect version. Only then can innovation permeate all actions and all layers of an organization.
Learn more about Verizon India.
