Do you believe you will be able to manage your company successfully in the next 10 years the same way you have in the past 10 years? You are mistaken. Creating success requires challenging the present – Roberto Goizeuta, former CEO of Coca-Cola.
Every organization needs a fundamental skill – “Innovation” – Peter Drucker.
Embracing innovation and its skills requires Boards and Senior Management to develop new ways of working together. In a world where change is constant, the ability to adapt and transform has become a key quality of successful Boards and visionary leaders. Embracing change to stay future-ready enhances the Company’s ability to adapt and lead change.
New challenge before “The Boards”
The challenge of leading innovation is causing a major shift in Corporate Governance. Boards, which used to be the reliably cautious voices pushing Management to reduce risk, are now demanding revolutionary innovation in the race for Competitive Advantage.
Traditionally, Boards have believed that fulfilling their duty to secure the long-term success of their organizations involves executing their current strategy, which focuses on innovating to support the core business by reducing costs, maintaining strong margins, and enhancing customer relationships.
Why Conventional Boards struggle?
The new leaders and top management need to work in tandem. Top management, with dynamic perspectives, have more power than the board members in planning corporate affairs and making major decisions. The question is, do they receive adequate backing and support from the boards? What innovative boards need to understand is that in today’s disruptive environment, mitigating the risk of proposition is crucial.
It is not sufficient to just manage supply chain, operational risks, and maintain margins. In a disruptive environment, it is necessary to differentiate ourselves. Innovative boards need to have enough data on industry and future customer needs. This requires innovation experience.
TCS’ robust intellectual capital has helped expand its share of its customers’ growth and transformation spends on initiatives such as business model innovation, customer experience reimagination, and tapping new revenue streams.
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has won the National Intellectual Property Award 2021 & 2022 in the category ‘Top Indian Company for Creating Brand in India and Abroad’
TCS has built a culture of innovation and has put in place robust processes and supporting structures to nurture, manage, and scale up the development of intellectual property. It systematically identifies promising new ideas from across the organization and invests in developing those further.
The Research and Innovation function within each business unit enables domain-specific innovation harnessing the power of digital technologies.
What does Innovation Board ask themselves?
• Are we devoting enough time to innovation in our board meetings?
• Have we agreed on metrics to evaluate innovation efforts?
• Does our board have the diversity of talent, perspective, and style to make tough choices on innovation? Are we hearing from everybody?
• What are we doing to ensure that we are aware of the cutting edge in our industry and in adjacent ones? Is it time to create some advisory committees to support the board?
• Are our board meetings about innovation truly a dialogue, or more of a presentation?
Governing innovation simply for the sake of it is a very risky proposition. Innovation requires time and dedication, but the market tends to be more short-sighted. A truly innovative board is one that embraces new Business Methods and Norms. A new relationship must exist between management and the board in order to facilitate the emergence of effective new Innovative boards.