Creative Abrasion from both an entrepreneurship and
intrapreneurship perspective can be a useful tool to help develop new products
and services. By gathering people that have different interests and ideas to
create new innovations is a smart move for almost any company, however, there
can be some limitations.
For example, a company like United Technologies is very set
in their ways when developing new products, where one has to go through a bunch
of hoops before an idea can get funding or even be considered for funding.
Unlike newer start-up companies, corporate politics can play a part in this. If
senior leadership thinks creative abrasion is a beneficial way for an
organization to grow and develop new products, they will support it. Steve Jobs
and Apple Inc. is an example of a large corporation and leader that supported
creative abrasion because without it, they would not have developed the Macintosh
computer.
In a start-up environment, creative abrasion is more common
and easier to implement because of the lack of structure with a new company. As
long as there are some boundaries put in place, one can allow creative abrasion
to occur but at the same time steer it so that the group stays on track for
budgetary and time constraints.
It all boils down to whether a company is based on
creativity or structure. Both methods can lead to success as well as failure
but it is all in how the company utilizes its resources to effectively develop new
products and services.
My first question on the topic was "how does creative abrasion come into UTC from an intrapreneurship perspective?" I nearly gave up on that question with the same conclusion as you. UTC is not conducive to creative abrasion but realized it is present….. and very abrasive.
ReplyDeleteI work on a military development helicopter, first of its kind and comprised to all new parts. Virtually every design meeting always included, mandatorily, an ex-military helicopter mechanic. Sparks flew virtually every meeting when the designs were being worked out. Now that we have to assemble, test and disassemble those same parts…. The abrasion may have been one of the smartest things Sikorsky has done.