RE: Challenge To Systems Thinking

["Ken Macur" <kmacur@virchowkrause.com>]

Two points:

1. Dr. Deming said that we should be grateful for a strong competitor; not because competition per se is good, but competition can keep us from complacency. We should not put time, energy, or money into "competing" but rather continually improving and innovating. 

2. Your points about "creating" reinforce the need to distinguish 'invention' from 'innovation.'  Invention is creating a new idea or product. Innovation is bringing a new idea or product to market. Some easy examples, the Wright Brothers were aviation inventors, but it was M-D thirty years later that innovated a viable commercial aviation system. Apple invented the PDA, but it was Palm who innovated it. Lots of folks invent in their garages, in consumer products labs, etc.  Many do so for the love of it, I agree. 

OK. . . three points   ;-)

3. As a follow-up to innovation, it is important to realize that the most important part of innovation is NOT the product or service that comes to market, but the SYSTEM and PROCESSES for doing so. If a company celebrates the PRODUCT's success too much, they will very likely be one-hit-wonders who like Hem and Haw (in Who Moved My Cheese) lament the declining environment, changing times, disloyal custoomers, etc. Gharajedaghi (in Systems Thinking) writes, "Ironically, the likelihood that an organization will fail to respond to a critical technological breakthrough is directly proportional to the level of success it had achieved in a previously dominant technology." 

Cheers!


Dr. Kenneth M. Macur, C.P.A.
Virchow Krause Consulting
115 South 84th Street, Suite 400
Milwaukee, WI 53214
414.777.5537 (office)
608.295.5012 (cell)