Overview
Discussion: Everyone is talking about innovation. Every organization is engaged in innovation. But does it matter? And if it does, how can we measure it? Tom Peters offers a simple way to measure innovation. Watch the video: https://youtu.be/k2iymNBSabc?si=sK231jZK___PiO5m
The question routinely comes up as to whether or not you can measure innovation. And, you know, if you had to be the chief executive officer or something like that, you can certainly focus on percentage of your revenue spent on research and development and so on. But most of us aren't CEOs, and anyway, that's not my way of choice of measuring. I've got something much more simple.
You're running a 25-person human resources department, or you're running a 16-person purchasing department, or what have you. What's going on in those departments is a collection of projects, right? Changing this system, implementing this, whatever it may be. And so all I want you to do is I want you to take every single project, small or large, that you are working on, and I simply want you to rate them on a scale of 1 to 10. One, the bottom of the scale, is something like maintenance or this or that or the other. The top of the scale is stuff like weird, profound, wow, game changer, what have you.
And then my suggestion is that if you have perhaps eight projects going on in your little department, you want to ensure that you always have two or three that score eight or above. You know, that's very simple. It's more or less quantitative but also qualitative. But it just allows you to vaguely keep in touch in a more organized, or slightly organized, fashion as to whether we're doing mostly cool stuff or mostly uncool stuff. And that is a very decent way to measure innovation.
Tom’s recommendation is pretty simple. Now, apply it to your organization:
- Did you meet his criteria? If so, what are the “WOW” projects, and how will they impact your organization’s future? If not, why not?
- What needs to change?
- What projects would you focus on if you could do whatever you wanted? How would you measure success? (provide the numbers!)
- How would your projects impact your organization’s future? What financial arguments can you make?
- How will AI change/enhance/force/impact innovation in your organization?
Assignment: Launched in 2014, Amazon's Echo and Echo Dot smart speakers led the category's rapid adoption by households and enabled the penetration of artificial intelligence (AI) voice assistants into the everyday lives of millions of people. By 2019, Alexa the virtual brains behind Amazon's smart speakers was able to play music, create reminders, get weather reports, control lights and other home appliances, shop, and do much more in response to voice commands. Amazon had developed significant new capabilities for Alexa, developed an entire ecosystem around it, expanded Alexa's user base to more than 100 million users, and made significant progress in monetizing its digital voice assistant. However, Alexa's progress also created new challenges for Amazon, its Alexa-enabled customers, and society at large. Amazon needed to identify and address these challenges in order to encourage continued consumer acceptance and preclude detrimental government or regulatory action.
Read the case, Alexa: A Pandora’s Box of Risk, in your Harvard Coursepack. Be sure to review the support/background articles for the assignment on the Week 6: Overview & Resources before getting started!
In response to concerns raised both internally and by users and customers, Amazon has hired you as a consultant to conduct an analysis of the Alexa/Echo Dot systems. Prepare a 4 to 5 page recommendation memo for Amazon's Senior Program Manager on how to best address serious risks and flaws with the devices, using the questions below as your guide.
- Which of the risks posed by Alexa are the greatest threats to Amazon and Alexa users? Make a metrics-based argument for each risk you identify.
- What could (and should) Amazon do to ensure the security of its devices and its customers’ data? How much responsibility should the company accept when security breaches occur?
- Create a risk management framework and a risk response protocol that Amazon could use for crises related to Alexa. Make sure to include appropriate metrics and numbers in your framework.