Perspectives — culture & capability

Alex Osterwalder is a man who, by his own admission, is somewhat obsessed with tools. And he's pretty adept at creating them. His 'Business Model Canvas' and 'Value Proposition Canvas' have been put into practice across the globe by start ups through to multinational corporations.  An understanding and application of these tools is often what separates the start ups that succeed from those that fail. And as much as they help a start up search for a winning customer value proposition and a viable business model, they are also used by established organisations to help them innovate, to develop new offerings that will ensure their future prosperity as old models are disrupted....

There's general consensus that today’s business environment is more volatile and unpredictable than ever. Disruption of products, services, channels, policies, talent, brands and supply chains is increasing as nimble start ups attack the component parts within the value chain of established incumbents across all industries. Organisations require a robust capacity to innovate in order to survive, and this requires that they have both creative leaders and a creative culture. The leadership challenge, well articulated by Tim Brown, CEO of renowned design strategy firm IDEO, is that most of today’s leaders achieved their position through having the right answer, whereas in our increasingly complex and interconnected world, it's nigh on impossible...

To thrive in turbulent times requires innovation and agility, both of which demand collaboration. And one of the most significant barriers to collaboration within established organisations is that information and knowledge have long been hoarded as sources of personal power.  This tendency to hoard information and to protect fiefdoms are practices that run contrary to the logic of newly pervasive networking technologies such as social media and open innovation platforms. Such technologies are challenging attitudes about the ownership and the sharing of information and intellectual property, worldviews that have underpinned our collective interactions for centuries. The Guggenheim opened an innovative exhibition last month which allows visitors to...