- Why innovation?
- What differentiates innovation from R&D?
- What's happening in the Utilities industry?
- A case study on the Space Plane
- Key challenges to sustain innovation in organisations
- Key lessons learnt from other organisations
6. 6
PACE IMPACT SOURCES
THE CASE FOR INNOVATION
Disrupt, or be disrupted
Measured in weeks,
not years
Can kill giant
companies
%
of S&P 500 firms will not
exist in 10 years
50
Market of a million
solutions
7. 7
“ R&D was technology looking for a home,
innovation is solving real-world problems,
using technology.
”
10. 10
AN END-TO-END FRAMEWORK
Capgemini Applied Innovation Exchange
DISCOVER DEVISE DEPLOY SUSTAIN
Discover and explore relevant
emerging technologies and
determine how these can
address your business
challenges and achieve
strategic goals
Leverage Design Thinking,
Lean Start-up, and rapid
iterative test & learn approach
to quickly advance and
validate technology concepts
or develop working
prototypes
Establish the necessary
innovation strategy, culture,
Labs, governance, measures,
funding model or processes
to innovate sustainably
Guide executive alignment
and deployment to ensure
innovation is adopted at
speed and scale and
anchored in the problem it
solves
11. 11
WHERE TO FROM HERE?
Key learnings from other organisations
Put recipients
at the heart of
the process
Attract top
talents
Establish a
clear vision
Measure
learnings, not
outcome
Meaningful,
sustained
investments
Trust, trust
and trust
12. Sylvain Emeric
Senior Manager – Digital & Innovation Advisory
sylvain.emeric@capgemini.com
@sylvainemeric
KEEP IN TOUCH
12
Editor's Notes
Presentation developed and presented for an Australian Utility
Theme of the day was Star Wars
Is Force Lightening the next big disruption?
Maybe in the future but the technology is not quite ready yet to be applied to Utilities and electricity will still have to be transported through cables for another few years
However, we do have some disruptive technologies that are already underway to change the face of the energy industry
Who is Elon Musk? He is the genius behind SpaceX, Tesla and also SolarCity (acquired by Tesla last year) to name a few
SpaceX’s vision is to colonise Mars
SolarCity is the biggest solar company in the US
And finally, Tesla, which is really relevant in the energy space. Tesla is revolutionising the automobile industry and is now about to revolutionise Utilities
Something worth mentioning is that his master plan is to create a consumer facing ecosystem providing end-to-end clean energy products
In April 2015, Elon Musk announced the creation of an energy division within Tesla
Building on the innovation Tesla brought to Energy Storage through its electric vehicles, the goal of this energy division is to sell batteries to individuals but mostly to utilities and the grid
Energy storage at a grid scale, alongside with renewable, is probably the biggest revolution to the grid, and it’s happening now in Australia
Early March, Elon Musk was in the news here in Australia. He announced on Thursday 9 March that he could solve South Australia’s energy issues in 100 days or make it free
The same day, Mike Cannon-Brookes (Australian billionaire and co-funder/co-CEO of Atlassian) reached out to him on Twitter wondering if he was serious, and that quickly escalated. On Sunday, Elon Musk spoke to the Premier of South Australia as well as the Prime Minister of Australia
And, all of this happened through Twitter without using any of the formal channels
The example shared of what happened in South Australia early March is characteristic of innovation today:
Pace: things go extremely fast and are measured in weeks, not years. In only a few days, the Twitter conversation escalated at the highest level of the Australian federal government
Impact: innovation can disrupt today’s well established company, in this instance, South Australia’s Utilities are challenged by a private company
Sources: innovation and disruption come from anywhere. Tesla was only a car manufacturer 2 years ago. Today they are a source of disruption for Utilities and the grid
As one of the results of that, 50% of top 500 US companies will have disappeared in the next 10 years
Source: https://www.innosight.com/insight/corporate-longevity-turbulence-ahead-for-large-organizations/
So what is innovation today? Companies have been innovating for years so what makes innovation different today, apart from the traits we just saw.
What differentiates innovation is the type of problems it solves. In the past, R&D was solving technical and technological challenges. Today, innovation is about solving real-world problems, using technology
We recently completed research on innovation leading practices in global companies and one of the executive of a large Oil & Gas company said: “R&D was technology looking for a home, innovation is solving real-world problems, using technology.”
I want to illustrate that through a personal experience:
After an Engineering and Business masters back in 2010, my first project was for Airbus Space (Astrium)
One of their project was to build a Space Plane to send tourist above atmosphere, experience 0G and get them back on earth
Whilst there was a significant technological challenge, our team was tasked at identifying what could be a viable business model for the plane, which at the time was not your typical challenge in a mostly public funded agency
For what was typically a feasibility challenge: can we build it? It was also a viability challenge: can we make a profit out of it?
Finally, the third dimension that has emerged in the recent years is the desirability challenge: do people want what I have to offer? Which a lot of people would argue is actually the most important dimension because if people do not want the product to start with, there’s no point in building it as it will not sell
Design Thinking has emerged as a popular technique to solve the desirability challenge
Today’s innovation is about solving the equation: desirability, viability and feasibility
So what are the challenges faced by companies today to apply innovation and be proficient at it? Many companies are not designed to innovate effectively:
They lack the talent: talent in digital and innovation are scarce and companies are fighting for them
They don’t have the processes, methods and leadership alignment to sustain innovation
They don’t have a culture that encourages, rewards and promotes innovation
They usually demonstrate a risk adverse culture (ie. Business case/ROI driven decisions) does not support well an innovation culture requiring experimentation and sustained investments
How do we tackle innovation at Capgemini and how do we support our clients?
Put recipients at the heart of the process: Who are the recipients of innovation? How do you engage them in the innovation process? It is critical that the potential recipients of innovation are identified and involved from discovery down to implementation (to ensure the desirability dimension of innovation)
Establish a clear vision: The vision has to inspire but also be realistic. Not any company can set up their vision to colonise Mars. A great option is to use your company’s vision/strategy and focus on how innovation will enable it
Meaningful, sustained investments: Investments have to be significant and sustained. The team needs to be empowered and trusted to make the right decision. Analogy of the sand pit: define a sand pit where it’s safe to play, then grow the sand pit.
Attract top talents: Companies interviewed in our innovation leading practices research reported that up to half of their innovation team members were hired outside of the company
Measure learnings, not outcome: if the outcome cannot be determined due to high uncertainty, then what to measure? The lean start-up methodology argues that validated learnings is the true indication of progress. Those are not any learnings, they are the learnings that inform whether the right thing is being built
Trust, trust and trust: Trust from leadership to empower teams to make the right decisions. Trust within the perimeter of the sand pit. Trust has to materialise through governance and processes (if required). Is governance a crutch for the lack of trust?
