INNOVATE TO INTEGRATE

Abstract

The two big ‘I’s – Innovation and Integration - are to be the key defining features of today and tomorrow’s businesses. Innovation is the vehicle to continuously enhancecustomer delight. It is one of the most talked about concepts in the corporate world andnow looked at as the conscious competence of a business. Integration is the seamless partnership between customers and business processes that sustains customer delight. Ascan of businesses however shows that the full potential of integration is not beingrealized, primarily because the business model seems to have evolved into a silo mode.The tool to remedy this is innovation, so as to achieve integration of business processeswith customer aspirations and needs.This paper looks at examples of how business leaders have innovated to integrate their businesses. Four pillars – technology, processes, relationships and information – have been the focus of innovation on the journey towards a holistic business. Finally, theauthor’s personal application of the innovate-to-integrate lessons in her activities has been included as a learning experience.

1.0 Introduction

In her younger days, the author was shown a picture (see figure 1) and lessons of cooperation were ingrained in her. In her current role as a student of management she hasobserved the business scenario and is now able to relate it to the picture and realize thewisdom of integration.Business operations can today be identified as being primarily in the

silo

mode. Whenman first started producing (rather than only hunting or farming), it was a highlyintegrated operation, often called craft production, due to smallness of size. With increasein size, volumes and variety, many a business became a colossus. The need to managesize lead to fragmentation. Fragmentation glorified local efficiency at the expense of overall performance. Thus mis-alignment was built into the system. Fragmentation alsoled to departmental boundaries – thus interface management waste was built in.

Childhood Perspective: Cooperation between Donkey A and Donkey BManagement Student Perspective: Integration between OrganisationA &OrganisationBSupply Chain PositionOrganisation (Entity) AOrganisation (Entity) B

Input ComponentSupplierOrganisationProcess ComponentDepartment ADepartment BOutput ComponentOrganisationCustomer

(figure 1)

The realization has dawned that waste of fragmentation is inimical to performance andthe mind-set is slowly changing to integration. Partnership is the new mantra. The search

for how to move towards integration from fragmentation has led to the

eureka

of innovation. Thus the clarion call: Innovate to Integrate!

2.0 Integration and Innovation

Integration, as stated above, is the process of eliminating the fragmented and silomentality, structure and operations within an organization. An organization that works inan integrated manner attains success and works smoothly. In integration, there are twoelements:1.Processes2.CustomersAll the processes in an organization need to be aligned according to the customer’s wantsin order to attain his satisfaction. Traditionally organizations were hierarchical andstructured as departments, which hindered their performance by generating interfacewaste. With the passage of time, cross functional and hybrid organizations came into the picture, to mitigate the hindrance to an extent. It’s now time to form processorganizations (see figure 2 for a schematic) where processes work in tandem to thecustomers’ wants.Supplier Power Organisation ProcessCustomer Needs

Interfaced Silo Organisation

Interface waste