Sharpening the Focus
Tom Flaherty is a partner with Strategy&, part of the PwC network, with over forty years of consulting experience. Most recently, he has led assignments related to standing up innovation programs and capabilities within utilities.
The utility industry’s focus on innovation is only a few years old and already its champions are finding that addressing increasing business demands is all-consuming. These companies are also learning that the relative novelty of innovation provides little latitude when it comes to satisfying the clamor from the business for beneficial outcomes.
From its inception, the innovation focus of the industry started behind the curve. Technology was rapidly evolving, customers were shifting behaviors, competitors were attacking the business and employee readiness was lagging market realities.
With this backdrop, managements first focused on understanding what was occurring in a market they didn’t know or appreciate. Next, they concentrated on spreading the word to employees that the future would look markedly different than the past. And finally, they focused on securing a seat at a competitive table where they were not represented.
For one management team, an emphasis on a quick but disciplined start caused them to drive their innovation stand-up efforts in parallel. Here, management felt it did not have the luxury of a more nuanced and sequenced approach. Time was viewed as more important than process and readiness was viewed as more valuable than experience.