James Taylor's Decision Management

I am attending the Delphi Business and Process Innovation Summit this week and blogging as I go.

First session was Thomas Koulopoulos on The Road to Agra: A View of Globalization from the Front Lines and the Back Streets. Thomas focused on innovation and globalization. He asked the audience what their core-competence is and tried to show, quite successfully, that only a focus on that and an innovation process can lead to success.

In a wide-ranging speech he covered how people's world view tends not to include the electronic networks that connect the planet and he used his experience of a trip in India, especially the road from Delhi to Agra (home of the Taj Mahal) as an analogy. He asked the question "What kind of economy will the US, or Europe, have if the developing world succeeds in its growth?" What is "special" about the US? He discussed how inter-reliance is both key and essential and how one should never underestimate the impact of compounding many small achievements.

His concern is that keeping the lights on in a complex organization is preventing from a focus on innovation

• Invention is science - comes from scientific method
• Creativity is art, the moment of creation
• Innovation is the process of intersection

He predicated that affordability is the most important driver for many recent innovations, as self-service was in the last century. In a world like ours, where more transistors were produced, more cheaply than rice last year the pressure between cost management and innovation is narrowing the acceptable range. You have less room for error. More than ever we need leadership and innovation.

Thomas' blog is at The Innovation Zone

I am speaking tomorrow if you are attending.