Obviously Hamel's theories have been proven correct to a certain degree. Many of Google's most beloved products, like Gmail, come from the 20% Time stipulation that says all employees must spend 20% of their time on their own projects. And pharmaceuticals such as Eli Lilly have used crowd sourcing to predict the selling power of a new drug. There is definitely merit to much of what Hamel says.
But. Of course there's a but. In his passionate pursuit for the power of the employee and crowd, he minimizes the importance of senior management. For example, when he talks about why CEO's fail to look to the wisdom of the crowds, he cites that they probably need to justify their salaries or have gotten lucky in prior decisions and think their good fortune will continue. I say, let's take it easy here. Senior management has had the vision, determination and know-how to grow the company (in most cases) and should be given more credit than that. Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates are smart cookies, and while they may benefit for looking to the crowds for insight, no one can argue their success (something he begrudgingly admits later on).
My bottom line: there's a happy medium (again, of course there is!). Hamel's ideas should be explored and when it makes sense, implemented. In other cases, it may just create a ruckus (ie. - an open blog on why a launch failed - eek!! I can see that causing chaos.).
My question to you, then, is: What idea of Hamel's could you see working nicely in a company that you have worked for in the past or are currently working for? Or on the contrary, what idea of his would be down right silly to implement?
Maria,
ReplyDeleteWhen i was reading this article, i was really interested in the 20% time concept that employees should spend 20% of their time on their own projects. When i learned this about google last year in Computers in Management, I thought it was such an interesting idea because I personally work best when I am interested in what I am doing.
I agree with your point that the author did not give CEOs enough credit. They have in a lot of cases done a lot to get to where they are, so they deserve more recognition and praise for their intelligence and shouldnt need to crowd source things they have proven to be good at. I dont agree that CEOs choose not to crowd source because they feel like they need to justify their salaries. While I haven't had any experience with this, I think I would have to agree with you that there must be some sort of happy medium. The options should be looked into but only implemented when it is necessary for the company.
I don't think people in a position as high and regarded as CEO's will ever look to crowds. A certain over confidence has to develop inside people that experience that type of success in their careers. My question is if you were on top, why would you feel like you had to look to others for advice?
ReplyDeleteZane, I think there is an advantage to tapping your employees insights, after all, they are doing the day in and day out work so they have access to information a CEO would probably never have. So I do think there is value in listening to your employees and in certain occasions, handing control to them. But for major decisions, while you can get your employees input, the ultimate decision should be made by that person (or people) who will be held accountable - and that's senior management / CEO.
ReplyDeleteMaria,
ReplyDeleteI think the second principle of amplifying human imagination is a feasible expectation of companies. Like Hamel pointed out, no one knows your customers better than those who are serving them... which are the lowest ranked employees of the company. By giving time and outlets for them to think of innovative ways to reach out to customers and respond to their needs, it creates better equity for the company as well as less need for consulting from outside firms. Setting up a forum for employees to post ideas and build off one another can be very powerful for a company.
I think that CEOs could use crowd sourcing in certain cases, such as testing markets or products. However, much of a CEO's job is managing those he works with. Some of the best CEO aren't geniuses, rather they are good generals that know how to manage and surround themselves with the best people. I don't think any amount of crowd sourcing could provide you with those extremely important intangible assets.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you -- CEOs deserve more credit than the authors of this chapter give them. I do, however, think that for certain projects, the wisdom of the crowd might be helpful. For instance, I'm working on a redesign of an intranet site and I think it would be wise to open up the project to the entire organization. Volunteers, who may be early adopters of technology, could help come up with features and after launch could show the slower adopters how to use the site.
ReplyDeleteHi Maria
ReplyDeleteNice post. I recently had the opportunity to further research internal innovation management solutions and became very interested in internal prediction markets. I think this could work well in many organizations, by simultaneously harnessing the wisdom of the crowd and boosting employee engagement. Companies such as Spigit offer such a solution for companies, and there are many others.