Building the Paradox of the Company With an Agile Strategic Approach
In arriving at the final chapter of this exercise of questioning traditional methodologies of strategic planning, business plans, and traditional consulting and advisory models, it seems that we find contradictions at some points during the tour of the previous 7 chapters.
The truth is that, since we considered the possibility of ordering these ideas and documenting them in an orderly way, we knew that we would find successes and similarities in several of the processes that we reviewed and some of the methodologies that we combine together with those that we offer ourselves.
We knew because that is what this book is precisely about: to find models of lean innovation with a corporate approach (Lean Corporate Innovation - ICE).
We begin with an understanding of the new streams of slender entrepreneurship, led by Steve Blank, Erick Ries, Alexander Osterwalder, Ash Mauraya, Alex Bruton, and some other talented and visionary enthusiasts of innovation.
We understood the importance of the concepts of iteration-validation and execution-escalation. We learned the difference between building a market and building a company based on Steve Blank’s models. We understood the importance of starting with the stage of problem-solution adjustment and generate pre-types initially, as proposed by Alex Bruton. We also learned to generate viable minimum products, which we could conceptualize at the stage of product-market adjustment, as proposed by Mauraya and Osterwalder in their Canvas models. We learned to differentiate the stage of construction and escalation of a company from the first two stages of adjustment, and that is at this stage when traditional management theories finally find entry and connection with the world of lean entrepreneurship.
Figure 1. Source: Moreno, T. (2017), Adapted from: Stauffer, 2011. We learned the importance of understanding and combining different methodologies and tools to improve lean corporate innovation (ICE) models. Innovative methodologies such as Design Thinking, Lean Startup, and the Business Model Canvas, mixed with some traditional innovation techniques such as QFD and TRIZ, offer truly tangible results for the benefit of the implementer.
Figure 2. Source: Moreno, T. (2017), Adapted from: Chan, 2013. We learned to differentiate how to apply the innovation models for companies and startups projects from those projects that require a lean corporate innovation methodology (ICE) to develop incremental, rather an disruptive innovation strategies as fundamentally required by the initiatives in the first case.
We also learned how to manage and combine, in an orderly manner each and every one of the methodologies and tools proposed to date (Figure 3).
Figure 3. Source: Moreno, T. (2017), Adapted from: Chan, 2013. All of the above, leads us to understand at this stage in the writing of this book, that after having gone through the processes of creative innovation and design; and validated our proposals in the corresponding niche markets, startup projects (and spinoffs too) should be consolidated under a principle of holistic corporate construction.