Joseph Prabhakar

Every business, big or small, is focused on today. On the priorities, success criteria, and issues of today. Why wouldn’t they? After all, we are only trained to see what is in front of us. And rightfully so. Customers demand great products and services at a price that beats the competition. Investors want consistent returns or maybe even better returns than last quarter. The inevitable result is an intense focus on priorities that bring immediate business results.

The downside of this intense focus is the inability to see what is coming around the corner. The competition lurking at the peripheries of the business. The new technologies and startups that could make one obsolete or push to the edged. The history of business is abound with examples of companies that have lost sight of tomorrow and as a consequence its very existence.

What is there was a framework that allowed for minding today’s business health while building a robust platform for facing, surviving, and thriving in the uncertainties of tomorrow? Companies that have lasted decades, and even centuries, have figured this framework out. Taking a leaf out of those successful companies, it is possible to put in place an actionable framework, which when adopted and followed, provides for capabilities to sense potential threats and the ability to reorchestrate its resources to face the threat.

This information-rich and entertaining speech is focused on providing tangible and actionable takeaways to the participants.

Driving innovation in an organization is often left in the capable hands of one group – that does only that – all day long. On the other end of the spectrum, innovation is often left to happen for itself – without a clear process, directive, mandate.

Organizations that have constantly reinvented themselves and stayed in the forefront of their businesses have done so using tried and tested methods and processes – which they consistently repeat time and time again. While the process itself is simple enough, the constructs surrounding the implementation and the fanatic adherence to the details define the success of the process and hence the company.

Based on Professor Vijay Govindarajan’s book on the topic, this speech lays down a proven framework that demystifies innovation and offers a repeatable process that any business can implement – big and small.

The real-life case studies and examples provide an in-depth look at the need for managing the present day business, selectively giving up the past, and intensely focusing on creating the future. Every aspect of the framework is deeply rooted in successfully implementing the individual pieces – and thankfully there are only three pieces to this framework.

Sustained innovation seems normal for some companies, while others hardly innovate at all. Companies like Apple, Google, Amazon, and Pixar have been consistently innovating for years. What sets these organizations apart from those that have a hard time innovating? What are the key qualities that fuel innovation at all levels of these organizations? What breakthrough ideas do today’s business leaders need to adopt to create an organization that thrives on innovation? And how can these leaders continue to sustain this spirit of innovation while continuing to muddle through politics, technology change, and customer needs? Using case studies and examples, Joseph will motivate the audience to think through the idea of innovative organizations and leave them practical takeaways to build a culture of innovation.

Key outcomes:

1. Understand the core philosophy behind the innovative organization;
2. Identify the three tenets of an innovative culture;
3. Walk away with tangible evidence from companies that have instituted a culture of innovation.

Disruptive Innovation has been around, practiced and polished through the ages. From the Ford Model T to Autonomous Cars, from mobile calculators to cloud computing disruptive innovation has defined and shaped the industrial landscape for good. Given the rate of change, success of the 21st century organization is clearly and squarely dependent on its disruptive innovation capabilities to continue to exert market dominance over existing and more importantly unknown competition. In this intellectually stimulating talk, Joseph explores the nature of this unknown competition, aka disruptors, and the specific characteristics that make them nimble, aggressive and fearsome all for reasons that are antithetical to conventional wisdom. Joseph also, offers concrete ideas to incumbent companies to handle the onslaught of such disruption and what they can do to effectively evolve and survive disruptors.

Key outcomes:

1. Understand disruptive Innovation with examples and case studies that are industry and audience-relevant;
2. Identify three qualities that make disruptors so successful;
3. Identify three strategies that incumbent companies can adopt to handle disruptors in their domain.

Organizations constantly swing between a cycle of success and crisis, frantically trying to gain concrete footing only to lose it again. Expensive interventions and organizational change programs work for a period of time, before proving ineffective in an entirely different type of crisis. From learning to cope with one crisis to the next, the struggle is to constantly figure out the courses of action instead of building the capability for sustained success in-house.

Notable exceptions to this predictable cycle of anxiety at every known level of the organizational spectrum. From companies that have thrived for over a hundred years, to departments and groups that have outperformed their peers to individuals who are able to predict the next crisis and see around the corners – examples of sustained success exists amongst us.

A magic formula that encapsulates the success strategies of these winners would certainly be helpful. However, a precise formula is simply impossible to create, given the staggering differences in the industry, geography, leadership style, and type of uncertainty that could possibly hit any company. What is possible, however, is to build a set of capabilities that will ingrain a framework that will help face any uncertainty and be constantly vigilant for the telltale signs of complacency.

The world of startups has always been fascinating. It evokes awe in those who admire the boldness that challenges tradition and dares the impossible. It provokes fear in those who feel threatened by the world-beating, take-no-prisoners attitude. And, it stirs envy in those who are jealous of the freedom and success that their employees seem to enjoy. This is especially true in the many “mature” organizations and businesses that were successful in the past but now find themselves falling behind, and at risk.

Until now, mature companies have believed that they have to resort to drastic measures like sanctioning skunkworks, doing spinoffs, or entertaining acquisitions to capture startup-like benefits. These typically end up being “grafts” that may provide localized benefit but does not change the parent organization intrinsically. With concerted effort, it is possible to revitalize the workforce, introduce agility, transform from within and reenergize the organization to compete in the rapidly evolving marketplace.

In this speech, you will see that the spirit of a startup can be infused into all parts of a mature organization if it is approached as a set of “dynamic capabilities” that can be built systematically.

What can companies do to be ever vigilant and not become complacent? How can they continue to drive nonlinear growth? What can CEO’s do to make change and innovation pervasive across the organization and not just at the top of the org chart?

At the core of every successful organization, is an entrepreneur or an entrepreneurially minded individual whose passion to excel drives them to build a world-class organization.

Their intense desire gets the company started and makes it possible for the initial successes, achievements, and awards. They motivate their teams to go beyond titles, time, and responsibilities to simply focus on the task at hand allowing for rapid innovation and incredible success in the company.

With success comes growth. With growth comes expansion. And with expansion, companies get their structure, processes, procedures, budgets, planning cycles, board meetings and the works. This structure fuels the next level of growth and expansion for a short while. In many cases, unfortunately, growth gives way to bureaucracy and politics.

From an innovation-driven founding ideal, companies evolve to become management-centric, hierarchy-driven monoliths that cannot innovate fast enough to sustain the rapid pace of the changing market condition.

Winning companies have proved that it is possible to turn the trend around. A formula that encapsulates the success strategies of these winners would certainly be helpful. It is possible to build a set of capabilities that will help face any uncertainty and be constantly vigilant for the telltale signs of complacency. As long as companies are willing to take control of the situation, inject agility into its DNA, and in the process connect to its roots.