in an iPod world

Unbounded Innovation - ET column

I was asked to write a weekly column for Electronic Times, a daily newspaper specialized on information technology and IT industry. The title of the column is "Unbounded Innovation" and I will be focusing on various issues related to digital innovation and its consequences. This week, using the evolution of e-book as an example, I discussed three different stages of digital innovation. The first stage is a material digitalization where firms introduce new products by integrating digital components into a product that was previously non-digital. In the second stage, firms begin to develop new business models by developing an architecture of information that are derivatives from the use of digitalized products. In the third stage, firms create novel products and services by creating new combinations of existing digitalized products and digital data stream.

Organization Design with Toys

Yesterday, my class discussed Sony case. The case covers how the traditional organization structure that Sony had with product silos led to its failure to respond to digital challenges. Instead of discussing the case, I ask the students to build 3D representations of Sony to explore the problems deeper. Then, we discussed how Frank Gehry uses his projects as a way of organiz-ing, drawing on "From Organization Design to Organization Design-ing". Based on the ideas from the discussion, they modified their models to develop concrete suggestions for Sony. Here's a brief summary of their works.

Group 1: From Walls to Spaghetti

This group was trying to depict the "walls" separating different product groups and redundant knowledge resources (represented in different colors of Play Doe). They discussed the possibility of "back-channel" rogue communication attempts among engineers which are often thwarted by the management (you can see a small black tube through a wall in the back). The senior management sits on the top of the wall, not really connected to the day-to-day reality of each product groups.

Their revised model resembles Spaghetti organization. But, in fact, it is more like a matrix structure with a couple of twists. Each chunk of Play Does in different colors represents a community of knowledge. Each circle represents a convergent projects. Different color lines represent design visions that pull certain members out of their own home base (communities of knowledge) to join these projects. They felt that the firm still needs some type of central unit that coordinates these de-centralized efforts, which is represented with the Play Doe can in the middle. They identified that a key challenge here is preventing the central coordination unit becomes the innovation Nazi, enforcing the central vision. Yet, at the same time, separate project teams need some type of resemblance in order to maintain the sense of identity as a firm. Also, they kept the bended construction paper after removing the wall -- noting that the scars from old structure will likely remain.

Group 2: From Vertically Integrated Silos to Core Integrative Platform

This group represented each product group within a small circle. The tall structure in the middle of each circle represents a vertically integrated product structure that is managed within the narrow band. What is not shown here (because I took the picture before they finalize it) is that the location of senior management. The group built a high tower in the middle of these circles to place all the senior management. Again, similar to Group 1, that was meant to represent the isolation of central management from the grounded realities of each product group.

Their revised model shows a series of convergent product built on a shared platform (represented by a large flat panel). The three circles in the middle represents three core integrative capabilities that they identified (they did not specify those capabilities). These elements represent the core of the organizational structure - that remains stable. The periphery structures with different products are dynamic teams are brought together for specific innovation opportunities. These ideas are crowdsourced within the firm. The strength of their models was that they tried to represent both product and organization structures simultaneously, trying to explore relationships between the two.

Group 3: From a Maze to Whirlwind of Innovation

This group represented the old structure with a maze. This was meant to represent a micro-level experience of an individual engineer who had a break-through idea. He or she might want to have a conversation with another engineer from different product group, but finding the right person feels like an impossible task. Each product group again has redundant resources. Senior management is gathered in an isolated location (HQ).

The modified vision again was represented from a ground-level view from an individual engineer's perspective. Here, each Play Doe can represents a community of expertise. The firm has established an integrative design process by which individual ideas can be swirled into a whirlwind of innovation that is propelled by a design vision. The product (represented as a lump of Play Doe of mixed colors) shows a complex mixture of different knowledge resources (both in and outside of the firm). Unlike the other two groups, they focused on a micro structure of the new organization design.

Can Design Save Management?

I wrote a short provocation for Convergence: Managing + Designing, which will take place in June 17-18, 2010. Here it is.

Youngjin Yoo

Temple University

Design, or design thinking, is becoming increasingly popular among management practitioners and scholars. Leading popular magazines like BusinessWeek and Fast Company regularly feature design as an important topic. Many leading business schools around the world incorporate some elements of design as a part of their curriculum. At the same time, leading design schools around world are challenging business schools by providing plausible alternatives to students and recruiters alike. A recent ranking by BusinesWeek shows a mixture of business schools and design schools. Design consulting firms like IDEO and Design Continuum are frequently called into do strategic and management consulting projects that used to be the exclusive tasks asked to management consulting firms. And, a quick scan of the shelves at the business section at local bookstores show titles like, Managing as Designing, Change by Design, Design-driven Innovation and Design of Business. Indeed, the first decade of the 21^st century seems to be the decade of design. It is as if management found a panacea. And, that is design.

But, can design save management? In my presentation, I will explore this question from a historical perspective. It is undeniable that design and design thinking is having a positive impact on management practice and education. However, it is not clear if the current wave of design thinking will address the fundamental crisis that contemporary management is facing in this post-industrial economy.

The post World-War II economy saw the emergence two powerful economic forces. First, large multi-national firms have emerged as powerful economic actors that transcend the national boundaries. They control the direct access to the market and consumers, defined mostly based on physical products, acting either as final assemblers of parts or marketing and distribution channels. These firms grew in size and scope by exploiting the rapid developments in production, transportation and communication technologies (Chandler et al. 1999; Chandler Jr 1984). Their size and complexity are unparalleled. In order to manage the growing complexity, the paradigm of scientific management was developed (Teece 1993). A new class of economic actors, professional managers, who are equipped with the tools of scientific management has emerged during this era. Contrary to the original form of capitalism that emerged as a consequence of industrial revolution and brought the separation of production and consumption, this managerial capitalism, brought the separation of management and production (Zuboff and Maxmin 2002).

Second, financial firms, often represented as “Wall Street”, emerged as important economic and social actors. Initially, they act as aggregators of financial resources to help firms on the “main street” finance their capital investments. Over time, these financial firms developed increasingly elaborate and often exotic financial engineering tools to help firms gain access to financial resources. As a result, firms’ performance was solely measured by the financial metrics, and financial firms started to buy and sell firms, as if they were products, using these financial metrics. After leading the barrage of corporate M&A that we witnessed in the last decade of the past century, many of which were funded by the historically low interest rate, these financial firms invented new financial products that are solely designed to finance other financial activities. Thus, we have witnessed the emergence of financial capitalism that brought the separation of finance and production.

The evolution of capitalism thus can be seen as continuing pursuit of higher return on capital through a series of separations: production, management and finance. Each of these separations brought a new form of “leverage” that amplifies the potential return on investment. Yet, at the same time, they brought greater degree of complexity, unforeseen systemic risks, and alienation of labor and consumers alike.

Design thinking, as it is currently popularized with the emphasis on human-centered product and service design, deals only with the problems from the separation of production and consumption, leaving other and possibly far more serious challenges that today’s management is facing. Many of these challenges arose as a result of separations of management and finance from production. For example, design thinking has little to say about the recent financial crisis that raised many fundamental questions about the continuing viability of the current form of capitalism and the role of management schools. The demise of the Big Three is the result of institutionalized “scientific” management and toxic financial products as much as the lack of human-centered design in their products.

My concern is that the current obsession with the design thinking can have unintended harmful consequences on the future of management in the long run. As it is currently being applied, design is seen as a quick fix of profitability problems, new product developments, and consumer satisfactions, rather than dealing with more systemic and serious issues. Indeed, it might lead us to the emergence of new form of capitalism, design capitalism, where creativity is separated from production and consumption. Just as management was for the sake of management during the managerial capitalism, and finance was for the sake of finance during the financial capitalism, we may see the creativity for the sake of creativity in this new form of design capitalism. If that happens, instead of finding its panacea, management might have discovered the most powerful painkiller it has ever found. And, alas, that is design.

Chandler, A.D., Hagstrom, P., and Sölvell, Ö. The Dynamic Firm: The Role of Technology, Strategy, Organization, and Regions Oxford University Press, New York, NY, 1999.

Chandler Jr, A. "The emergence of managerial capitalism," The Business History Review), Jan 1 1984.

Teece, D. "The dynamics of industrial capitalism: perspectives on Alfred Chandler's scale and scope," Journal of Economic Literature), Jan 1 1993.

Zuboff, S., and Maxmin, J. The Support Economy Viking, New York, 2002.

Evolution of Digital Camera and Unbounded Innovation

With Kalle Lyytinen, Veeresh Thummandi, and Aaron Weiss, I wrote a paper that analyzes the unbounded nature of digital innovation, drawing on the history of digital camera. It was a fun paper to write and I am glad that it was accepted for a presentation at the Academy of Management this summer.

AOM2010 Digital Camera.pdf

A review of Knowing Christ Today

"Knowing Christ Today: Why We Can Trust Spiritual Knowledge" (Dallas Willard)

I read "Knowing Christ Today", a book written by Dallas Willard who is a Professor of Philosophy at University of Southern California on my flight back from Sweden yesterday. Drawing on the writing of Plato, Aristotle, Jürgen Habermas, Peter Berger and CS. Lewis and invoking the image of Bonhoeffer, Mother Teresa, Kierkegaard, he discusses what it means to "know" spiritual reality of Christ in this pluralistic world. With a rare mix of intellectual integrity and the passionate conviction of personal faith, he lucidly deals with complex issues that many Christians (or any one who's is interested in spirituality and religion) are facing today. His discussion on the relationship between Christian Gospel and Christian pluralism offers a hopeful way going forward and serious intellectual and spiritual challenge to both Christian (conservative and progressive alike) and non-Christians. If you are in for faith and religion, and their relationship with knowledge and plurality, I strongly recommend this one for you.