Quality Alchemist (品質煉金術師): ESG Online Seminar – The Strategy of Experimentation – Motivating Your Teams for Innovation and Ownership

2020年9月2日星期三

ESG Online Seminar – The Strategy of Experimentation – Motivating Your Teams for Innovation and Ownership

The Executive Study Group (ESG) online seminar named “The Strategy of Experimentation – Motivating Your Teams for Innovation and Ownership” was held by the ESG, Asia Pacific Institute for Strategy Limited (APIFS) on 2^nd Sep 2020. It is first time I attended the ESG online seminar during COVID-19 period. In the beginning, Dr. Mark Lee briefed that this year is the 10^th anniversary of Asia Pacific Institute for Strategy Limited (APIFS). Then he briefed the history and goal of APIFS.

Dr. Mark Lee briefed the content including “The Strategy of Experimentation”, “Ownership & Strategy”, “Risk and Experimentation”, “Entrepreneur Mindset” and “Execution Strategies”. I summarized some key points for sharing below.

Firstly, Dr. Lee briefed how success of Amazon (based on their rapid increase of stock market price) and then described how Amazon become the world’s most innovative company because they encouraged relentless bottom-up experimentation.

Then he quoted Jeff Bezos definition on experiments that “If you know in advance something is going to work, it’s not an experiment.” Moreover, Jeff said their success depended on how many experiments they did per year, month, week and day. One of example is showed on their package of good named “Amazon Frustration-Free Package” that is more environmental and convenience for customer.

Dr. Lee raised a first poll and got the result that most company seldom conduct business experiment.

Another example he raised was junior staff opinion was not accepted by VP in Marketing. Greg Linden was that staff in the past and then joined Amazon. His experiment based on data to offer every customer an assortment of items uniquely tailored to their preferences that got very success in Amazon. Then Poll 2 survey the senior management believed on tradition way or data way. It was found more event distribution.

And then Dr. Mark Lee quoted Charlie Graham (Founder and CEO, Shop It To Me) that “Proper experimentation can be beneficial for the company but can also be empowering and fun for employees. It gives everyone a chance to make different.” Staff ownership for results were mentioned.

After that he quoted Elliot Shmukler (VP of Product, Instacart) to explain Leadership should take the ego out of decision making.

The last items of “Ownership & Strategy” was to link to overall strategy so as to focus on the bigger picture. That clear direction could enhance self-achievement, compass-like and across all levels.

Dr. Mark Lee asked us to select the most important on experimentation among Ownership, Leadership and Strategy. It was found very close each other.

For Risk Optimization vs Risk Minimization, Dr. Lee explained that taking risk like buying insurance. This insurance strategy optimized the risk organization taken.

Then the poll 4 used to exam how many risk attendee would propose an experiment to their boss. Most people selected to 70%.

Then next topic was “Entrepreneur Mindset”. Like Hairer that they proposed zero distance to customer not decision from PowerPoint in the office. Scott Cook (Foounder Intuti) was quoted that “Each and every employee is expected to think like an entrepreneur, and it’s everyone’s job to create, to invent, and to look for new and better ways to improve our customers’ lives.”

Finally, Dr. Mark Lee introduced Execution Strategies that included top management support to form (1) Experimental Team, provide (2) Innovation Training and (3) Time for Experimentation, obtain (4) Dedicated Funding and (5) Enabling Functions.

In Poll 5, it surveyed that most participants invested below HK$50,000 for experiment budget. We are more conservative.

After explained five strategy and Poll 6 asked which one was the most difficult. Enabling Functions (26%) and Time for experimental (25%) were most people selected.

Lastly, Dr. Mark Lee said Company as a Laboratory (CaaL) such as Amazon, Intuit and Toyota and their culture was “Show, Don’t Tell”. He concluded that everyone is a maker.