updated view on how we have been threading innovation across the teams and changing the culture of News Corp Australia

1. how we are developing a culture of
innovation at
@markdrasutis

2. @markdrasutis
hello
mark drasutis
chief product officer, digital

3. @markdrasutis
what I am going to cover today:
1/ disruption & innovation:
what do these mean for your business
2/ complex adaptive systems:
a whole of business challenge & approach
3/ evolutionary edge:
lessons from the startup world applied within a corporate
4/ key takeaways:
elements for you to test & learn in your world

4. @markdrasutis
how do you set yourself
up to counter disruption?

5. @markdrasutis
to understand innovation
you first need to
understand disruption

6. @markdrasutis
Morgan Stanley - Australian Media 2015
1970 2015 2004 2015
$$s time

7. @markdrasutis
mobile has eaten our world
mass media moving to masses of media
time is our primary competitor
curation has huge value but now distributed
trust is fluid but people trust news & media brands, just
on their terms & their preferred platform

8. @markdrasutis
disruption (noun): an
event that results in a
displacement or
discontinuity

9. driving disruption isn’t necessarily about developing something entirely new.
it can be about assembling already existing elements into a disruptive whole.
disruption isn’t only about technology.
it can also mean developing new ways to deliver value through a new business
model.
technologies don’t simply replace other technologies.
rather, systems replace systems.
customers don’t care about inventions or innovations.
What most customers care about is what job a product or service enables them to
do that they couldn’t do, or do well enough, before.
@markdrasutis

10. @markdrasutis
do you need to counter
disruption or embrace it?

11. @markdrasutis
ThoughtWorks - Oct 2015

12. @markdrasutis
ThoughtWorks - Oct 2015

13. @markdrasutis
you are not a startup, but
that doesn’t mean you
can’t start to think &
operate like one

14. @markdrasutis
what does innovation
mean in your business?

15. @markdrasutis
innovation (noun):
introduction of new things
or methods

16. @markdrasutis
be honest about what you
are striving for and can
realistically achieve

17. @markdrasutis
at News Corp Australia we
are currently focused on
incremental innovation

18. Recombining
content, people &
process in new
ways for growth
@markdrasutis

19. @markdrasutis

20. @markdrasutis

21. @markdrasutis
but what is needed for
breakthrough innovation?

22. @markdrasutis
moonshot thinking
choosing to be bothered
by the fact that you can’t
teleport to Japan
Astro Teller - Google<x>

23. @markdrasutis

24. @markdrasutis
can you be audacious as a
whole business?
is 10x right for you?

25. @markdrasutis
10x better or 10% better?
are the fixed costs more?
are your teams less engaged?
are you going to make a
difference by optimising?

26. @markdrasutis
but how do you make
innovation part of your
whole business culture?

27. @markdrasutis
disruption & innovation =
a whole business challenge &
therefore needs a whole
business approach

28. @markdrasutis
what are the 7 most
expensive words in your
business?

29. @markdrasutis
“we have always done it
that way”

30. @markdrasutis
“we have always done it
that way”
the 7 most expensive words in
any business

31. where people focus everyday
where eureka is possible
the work of innovation
@markdrasutis

32. horizon 1 - everyday
horizon 2 - someday
horizon 3 - one day!
@markdrasutis

33. where people focus everyday
where eureka is possible
the work of innovation
@markdrasutis

34. @markdrasutis
what are the essential
ingredients of corporate
culture?

35. @markdrasutis
what drives the people
focused on everyday
work?

36. values/beliefs
the philosophy for everything a company does, essentially what it stands for
stories/myths
stories about how leaders/employees get over obstacles, win new orders…
heroes
what gets rewarded and celebrated, how do you become a hero in the organization?
rituals
what and how does a company celebrate?
@markdrasutis

37. @markdrasutis
how can you cultivate a
culture of innovation that
drives exponential
growth?

38. @markdrasutis
you need to hack your
corporate culture & reset
the essential ingredients

39. values/beliefs
assess your company’s current values and beliefs as understood by the employees
stories/myths
communicate the need for new values and moving employees to a new way of thinking, is
hard. It starts with thinking through the new values and beliefs the company wants to live by
heroes
plan a concerted effort to create a new set of stories, heroes and rituals around those values
rituals
simultaneously with the creation of new culture, align the company’s incentive programs
(compensation plans, bonuses, promotions, etc.) to the new values. (Failure to realign
incentives doom any new culture change.)
@markdrasutis

40. @markdrasutis
yet, always remember
your whole business is a
complex adaptive system

41. flocking
adaptivity of teams to react to change
& steer in the same direction to
counter disruption
@markdrasutis

42. your ability to change at
the pace of the disruption
is now your competitive
advantage
@markdrasutis

43. @markdrasutis
you need to reset your
strategy, systems &
structures to drive a
culture of innovation

44. @markdrasutis
strategy (noun): a plan of
action or policy designed
to achieve a major or
overall aim.

45. awareness
devised (and adapted) through perception of the environment around you and in anticipation
of probable conditions of disruption
alignment
delivered in harmony among teams and individuals
scared cows
defining the level of risk you are willing to take & what are your sacred cows then challenge
them
mutually beneficial
defined as a shared outcome with customers, partners and employees
supported
embraced by individuals, fed by resources and budget
@markdrasutis

46. @markdrasutis
structure (noun): the
arrangement of and relations
between the parts or elements
of something complex.

47. consumer obsessed
teams designed around explicit and measurable customer facing outcomes; over channels or
disciplines that deliver value & impact
lean & autonomous
teams populated with only the members essential to the work; that value & impact (e.g. pizza
teams); are diverse & able to operate without interference or interdependence and able to fail
safe
porous
internal structures which are permeable to additional resources, communities, partners, and all
other teams
self-organizing
teams granted the authority and resources to assemble, adapt, or disband based on evidence
@markdrasutis

48. @markdrasutis
system (noun): a set of
connected things or parts
forming a complex whole

49. simple
systems which are intuitive, uncomplicated, and interoperable. every team is part of the same
system
transparent
systems which are explicit and distributed
plastic
systems which are malleable in pursuit of the organization’s strategy and in support of the
organization’s structure. disruption can trigger quick change
automated
beneficial systems which initiate or take place without conscious human action. they are not
forced, they are fluid & natural
@markdrasutis

50. @markdrasutis
but how do I go about all
of this?
some lessons from us to
help you start the journey

51. steer towards the upset or emerging needs of your customer
if there is no identifiable internal or external customer, disband the project
steer towards reducing internal misalignment
listen to the business, spot the misalignment. move from a telling business, to a
listening & telling business
steer towards being more autonomous teams
can the team alone take an idea to the customer and validate it/test the hypothesis
steer towards simplifying structures & systems
stop getting in your own way, and if you do, change the system & adapt the
structure to reduce friction
@markdrasutis

52. Future Focused
@markdrasutis

53. focus on customer
needs & improving
people’s lives
@markdrasutis

54. actionable insights
real data from real customers to form a
hypothesis
@markdrasutis

55. swift, collective action
driven by the insights, test the hypothesis
& build the product
@markdrasutis

56. more experiments
execute more often & quicker across
the business
@markdrasutis

57. organisational
endurance
set yourself up to sustain this, self-
disrupt & repeat over & over again.
@markdrasutis

58. we call this:
quiet change
@markdrasutis

59. think & operate like
a lean startup
@markdrasutis

60. make it real
“a prototype is worth a 1000
meetings”
@markdrasutis

61. you have to provide the
tools to drive innovation
through business as usual
@markdrasutis

62. @markdrasutis

63. listen & adapt
get out of the office, the
customers are giving you
signals everyday. get closer to
your disruptors
@markdrasutis

64. simple execution
put the product into the hands
of your customers & learn
from the data & fail fast
@markdrasutis

65. SuperFan
Understanding the needs
of an NRL & AFL fan
Recombining the best from
all News Corp Australia
brands around a passion
@markdrasutis

66. startup connection:
we fund the spaces where
startups grow & are incubated,
allowing us to track & operate
like our disruptors ...more to
come here
@markdrasutis

67. NewsFoundry:
an environment where ideas
can grow, risks can be taken &
new heroes/stories created for
the business
@markdrasutis

68. @markdrasutis

69. quiet change & whole business challenge
don’t tell people what to think, show them the path & take them on the journey
adaptability & evolutionary edge
create strategies, structures & systems which are plastic & can respond to change
flocking & steering
smaller teams, tighter focus, tangible & measurable outcomes, then move & scale
quickly
customer fixation
focus on the customer need, improving their lives & the ‘jobs to be done’
acceptance of failure
create a culture which is happy to take risk, fail fast & learn from every action &
reaction
@markdrasutis

70. thank you
@newscorpaustralia
@markdrasutis
@markdrasutis