Innovation and Change

1
Innovation and Change

• Review concepts from previous session
• Walt Disney Productions A
• Challenging the Process
• Searching for Opportunities
• Experimenting and Taking Risks

2
George Bernard Shaw

• The reasonable man adapts himself to the world
  the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt
  the world to himself. Therefore, all progress
  depends on the unreasonable man.

3
Walt Disney

• I do not make films primarily for children, I
  make them for the child in all of us, whether we
  be six or sixty. Call the child innocent. The
  worst of us is not without innocence.

4
Walt Disney Productions (A)

• There are two aspects to this case. First, there
  is a vivid description of how Walt Disney built
  his company. Second, the problems facing the
  company are described.
• Analyze Walt Disney against the five fundamental
  practices of exemplary leadership
• What are the problems confronting the company at
  the end of the case?
• What traits, knowledge and skills would you look
  for in a new CEO?

5
Walt Disneys Achievements as a Leader

• First cartoon created Oswald the Rabbit
• Mickey Mouse
• Silly Symphony-won an Oscar
• Feature length cartoon Snow White and the 7
  Dwarfs
• Debt due to Pinocchio, Bambi, Fantasia

6
Walt Disneys Achievements as a Leader

• New start with true life adventure films
• Live action films with Treasure Island
• Television with The Wonderful World of Disney
  and Mickey Mouse Club
• Disneyland
• Walt Disney World and Epcot Centre concepts

7
1. Challenging the Process

• creative cyclone
• constantly striving for innovation
• not afraid of risks/change
• learned from early mistakes

8
2. Inspiring a Shared Vision

• the vision and innovations were his own
• dedicated to quality, detail and authenticity
• excellent communicator

9
3. Enabling Others To Act

• greatest failure was not preparing a successor
• set up a school to train artists
• controlling and complex

10
4. Modeling the Way

• encouraged quality and perfection

11
5. Encouraging The Heart

• could be abrupt, curt and critical
• feared by employees

12
Problems Confronting Walt Disney Productions

• Problem
• the company lacks leadership that would provide
  it with the creative vision for the future
• possible takeover of the company
• Symptoms
• the company is creatively burned out
• businesslike and competent, but squelching
  creativity
• we are not reaching that broad audience
• conflict at the senior management levels

13
Walter Lippmann

• The genius of a good leader is to leave behind
  him a situation in which common sense, without
  the grace of genius, can deal with successfully.

14
A New CEO

• What traits, knowledge and skills would you look
  for in a new CEO?
• A leader who will provide the vision that is so
  desperately needed at Walt Disney
• a leader who will encourage creativity,
  innovation, risk-taking and change
• a leader who will inspire a shared vision
  throughout the organization
• a leader who will build a strong management team
• a leader who is excellent at communicating and
  listening

15
Michael Eisener, CEO

• Michael Eiseners career displays a model that is
  creative and powerful, that combines the
  traditional capabilities of powerful business
  leadership--such as clear vision, the ability to
  communicate that vision, and the intelligence to
  process vast amounts of information from many
  sources at once--with the mind of a
  child--direct, fascinated, innocent, intuitive,
  enthusiastic, and capable of being astonished.
  Like a child, Eisener has a steep learning curve.
  Like a child, he will pursue an idea not because
  he has some scheme in mind, or because it was the
  most outrageous thing he could think of, but
  simply because he likes it.

16
Michael Eisener, CEO

• from 35,000 full-time employees to 117,000
• Disney has grown from a 1.5 billion company in
  1984 to over 22 in 1997
• the great danger that arises out of such growth
  is that a company can sometimes lose its focus,
  forget its mission
• keeping ones eye on the ball, is a metaphor for
  what we need to do as a creative company
• at Disney, everything we do is dependent on a
  steady stream of ideas that can be successfully
  transformed into film, television, radio, stage,
  and theme park offerings
• we introduce one or more new products every week

17
Michael Eisener, CEO

• we must be open to new ideas, from every source,
  from inside and outside the organization
• we also feel that one way to succeed creatively
  is to fail...create an atmosphere in which people
  feel safe to fail...if not, potentially brilliant
  ideas are never uttered
• Wayne Gretzky said, You miss 100 of the shots
  you never take.
• not long after I arrived, a bunch of us would get
  together for what we called the Gong Show. We
  would meet and toss ideas around...anyone who
  wanted to could present an idea for a movie or a
  TV show.

18
Michael Eisener, CEO

• Rank had no privileges...Anybody who wants
  to...and I mean anybody...gets a chance to pitch
  an idea...there are usually 40 presenters
• while we do not pull our punches when people
  present their ideas, we create an atmosphere in
  which each idea can receive full and serious
  consideration...we tell them why and how it might
  be improved
• we tell them when we think an idea has
  promise...and we pursue that promise
• you must have an organization that can follow
  through and execute that good idea

19
Michael Eisener, CEO

• at Disney, it is our conviction that synergy can
  be the single most important contribution to
  profit and growth in a creatively-driven
  organization
• when you embrace a new idea, a new business, a
  new film or TV show, you have to make sure that
  everyone throughout the company knows about it
  early, so that every segment of the business can
  promote its potential
• a well-received film will provide opportunities
  in our theme parks new rides, characters,
  parades, attractions and in consumer products
  toys, clothes, dolls, books, and games

20
Michael Eisener, CEO

• another key to growth and survival is
  rejuvenation or the ideas will dry up and its
  competitive edge will disappear
• we move our most promising executives around,
  exposing them to other parts of the business, and
  increasing their responsibilities

21
Challenging the Process

• How can we create and support opportunities for
  change, growth and innovation, for ourselves and
  for our organizations?
• How can we create and support opportunities for
  experimentation, taking risks, and
  learning from mistakes, for ourselves and for our
  organizations?

22
How to Kill Creativity Teresa Amabile HBR 98

• What kinds of management practices foster
  creativity and which kill it?
• 3 essential components of creativity
• expertise or knowledge
• motivation, especially inner passion
• creative thinking skills

23
How to Kill Creativity

• expertise is the intellectual space to use to
  explore and solve problems
• Herb Simon Network of possible wanderings
• creative thinking refers to how people approach
  problems, their capacity to put existing ideas
  together in new combinations
• expertise and creative thinking are an
  individuals raw materials
• motivation determines what people do with those
  natural resources

24
How to Kill Creativity

• extrinsic motivation comes from outside a person
• a scientists boss promises to reward her if
  should the project succeed
• makes the scientist do their job
• intrinsic motivation are about interest and
  passion
• engage in the work for the challenge and
  enjoyment of it
• the work itself is the motivator

25
How to Kill Creativity

• all 3 components of creativity can be developed
  but changes to the work environment can benefit
  motivation
• What attributes in the work environment foster
  creativity?
• Challenge
• match people to the right assignment
• one that plays to the expertise
• perfect match stretches employee
• get the information to make a good connection
• often we simply match employee with available work

26
How to Kill Creativity

• Freedom
• autonomy concerning the means or process but not
  necessarily the goal
• freedom to decide how to climb the mountain
• freedom in how you approach your work heightens
  intrinsic motivation and ownership
• often we fail to define goals or change them
• Resources
• two main resources are time and money

27
How to Kill Creativity

• we kill creativity with fake or tight deadlines
• the former creates distrust, the latter burnout
• creativity takes time, it can be slow going
  exploring new concepts
• sometime pressure can heighten creativity--the
  race to find an AIDS vaccine
• managers must provide funding, people that fit
  the project
• Work Group Features
• people with various intellectual foundations and
  approaches

28
How to Kill Creativity

• members must share excitement about goals
• members willing to help teammates through
  setbacks
• members who value the unique knowledge that other
  members bring
• managers often put together homogenous teams
• Encouragement
• praise creative efforts
• to sustain passion, people need to think that
  there work matters
• managers in successful, creative organizations
  recognize creative efforts

29
How to Kill Creativity

• managers who kill creativity fail to acknowledge
  innovative efforts or great them with skepticism
• new ideas are often met with time consuming
  layers of evaluation or criticism
• managers often treat people whose ideas dont pan
  out in negative ways
• you dont know which ideas will pan out ahead of
  time
• managers can serve as role models , persevering
  on tough problems, collaborating and supporting a
  team
• Organizational Support
• creativity enhanced when the entire organization
  supports it
• emphasize values that creative efforts are a
  priority
• politics, infighting, and gossip serve to
  distract and destroy creativity

30
Decision quality in organizations

• Paul Nutt, Academy of Management Executive, 1999
• half the decisions made in organizations fail
• studied 350 decisions
• eg, ATT (new marketing plan) Bank One (selling
  Visa)
• success was whether a decision in use after two
  years
• decision-makers take shortcuts with time
  pressures
• managers have a bias towards action and fear
  being seen as indecisive
• managers analyze the distinctive features of a
  problem looking for clues suggesting a remedy
• eg, when a problem with advertising appears to
  exist, search is limited to advertising solutions

31
Decision quality in organizations

• features of the problem are missed/solutions too
  narrow
• pressure to adopt first workable idea
• when identifying alternatives, single benchmarks
  ineffective
• set objectives to guide decision-making, such as
  lower costs and improved market share
• gives you freedom to search solution options
• manager demonstrates the imperative to act by
  comparing current performance to new norms
• new norms from benchmarking successful
  organizations
• opens up decision process to new possibilities,
  away from stereotyped thinking
• multiple benchmarks and searches more effective

32
Decision quality in organizations

• before buying equipment several companies
  visited, best practices combined
• imposing idea seems pragmatic because it is fast
  and decisive
• multiple searches lead to careful study of
  possibilities, time saved in repairs
• managers intervening to facilitate implementation
  also helps success
• creates need for change in peoples minds
• eg, hospital CEO explaining benefits to trustees
• managers aware of the value of participation for
  success
• commonly known but uncommonly practiced

33
Decision quality in organizations

• token participation led to low rates of success
• persuasion based on expert power and edicts less
  successful
• task force with real work (solution) leads to
  success
• manager should create an environment where change
  is justified and understood
• in 93 of the failures, managers distanced
  themselves from implementation