How Big Companies Can Innovate in the Internet of Things

August 18, 2016

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How Big Companies Can Innovate in the Internet of Things (IoT)

According to an Accenture study of 1,000 large enterprises, big companies struggle with innovation.

The biggest barrier is not a lack of vision but because, by definition, big companies are mature. Organizational structures and processes are in place to guide the company towards efficiency. Seasoned managers steer their employees from pursuing the art of discovery and towards engaging in the science of delivery. Employees are taught to seek efficiencies, leverage existing assets, and listen to their best customers. Such practices and policies ensure that executives can consistently deliver positive earnings to Wall Street, but they also minimize the types and scale of innovation that can be pursued successfully within an organization. No company ever created transformational growth by doing what they do a tiny bit better and a tiny bit cheaper.

Source: InnovationManagement.se

According to the Harvard Business Review, big companies can innovate by embracing the following best practices:

1. Create autonomous business units.
Most big companies fail to successfully build new businesses or products within their existing structure. In his bestseller, The Innovator’s Dilemma, Clayton Christensen points out that for disruptive innovations to be pursued effectively, they require autonomous business units. What’s more, his solution applies not just in the case of disruptive product innovation, but also to the business model innovations that companies repeatedly fail to embrace. The constant need to drive towards operational efficiency can be avoided through the creation of new organizations.

2. Incentivize for long-term viability.
The most common assumption behind corporate innovation is that companies have assets that can be unleashed to create value. However, in the process of unleashing that potential, leaders must make sure new initiatives are built with sustainability in mind. Giving away too much free access to the sales force, manufacturing capacity, marketing budget, and support can backfire when it’s time to scale and the underlying cost structure is far from being free. Leaders must manage internal transfer pricing to ensure the development of viable business models.

3. Develop and verify quickly.
In recent years, the lean startup movement has gained traction in the entrepreneurial community. The lean startup approach suggests systematically testing your business model against the assumptions you are making. If you can move from uncertainty to certainty using the fewest dollars and in the shortest period of time, your chance of success substantially rise. Big companies must encourage staff to test early and test often. Incrementally, they can turn a hypothesis into proven results. As ideas gain supporting evidence, the team can justify requesting additional funds.

4. Exercise leadership beyond numbers.
Alfred Sloan, the late CEO of General Motors, was known for his focus on maximizing return on investment (ROI). Despite his love of ROI, Sloan periodically invested in innovative efforts that couldn’t possibly be justified by the numbers alone. Sloan created an R&D unit to develop platform technologies for GM, protected the decentralized operations of his brands, and invested heavily during World War II with the hypothesis that capacity needs would pick up. When strict adherence to ROI didn’t make sense, Sloan relied on business acumen. Creating financial guidelines is helpful but intuition based on experience will always play a role in management. Vision can be invaluable in forecasting where profits will flow if the world changes. So when common sense and the numbers don’t line up, exercise good judgement that takes a holistic view.

Is Your Company Ready to Innovate in the Internet of Things?

The World Economic Forum predicts that the Internet of Things (IoT) will usher in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. BI Intelligence forecasts 34 billion devices will be connected to the internet by 2020 (up from 10 billion in 2015), of which IoT devices will account for 24 billion. In economic terms, nearly $6 trillion will be spent on IoT solutions over the next five years. Businesses will be the top adopters of IoT solutions for a number of reasons: 1) lowering operating costs, 2) increasing productivity, and 3) expanding to new markets or developing new product offerings. Governments will be the second largest adopters of IoT ecosystems.

Pursuing innovation inside a big company is tough. Effective leaders understand the importance of partnering with experts, and with the potential opportunities offered by IoT, there is little reason to go alone.

Amyx+, an award-winning Internet of Things strategy & innovation lab, is helping companies realize the full potential of the Internet of Things. We partner with you as your innovation lab to bring your IoT ideas to life. Our deep IoT domain and technical expertise ensure that the right products and services are brought to market quickly in a cost-effective manner. We help address the inherent risks with internal big company innovation by:

Serving as your independent, autonomous innovation lab
Shortening your development cycles and time-to-market
Providing foremost IoT domain expertise and advanced technologies
Developing, testing, and proving out your IoT ideas
Continually optimizing your IoT products and services after launch

About Amyx+

Award-Winning Internet of Things Strategy & Innovation Lab

Voted Top IoT Influencer by Inc.
Voted Top Global IoT Expert by Postscapes
Voted Top IoT Authority by the Internet of Things Institute
Winner of the Cloud & DevOps World Award for Most Innovative Vendor
Recognized by TIME, Forbes, WIRED, New York Times, The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, InformationWeek, CIO & others as a Foremost Thought Leader & Expert in IoT

Amyx+, an award-winning Internet of Things strategy & innovation lab, is working with international and multi-national enterprises to help 1) understand the impact of IoT disruptions, 2) formulate and sharpen their IoT strategy, 3) quantify the business case, 4) experiment, learn, validate, 5) develop game changing technologies and 6) launch innovative IoT products and services worldwide.

Our specialized team of PhDs, scientists, engineers and strategists are deep experts in the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, machine learning, advanced data analytics, data visualization, blockchain, decentralized computing, standards and protocols, security, privacy, wearables, medtech and business transformation.

Our capabilities and service offerings are tailored specifically for the Internet of Things, with expertise in:

+ Strategy: Amyx+ uses an integrated approach to help clients apply the power of IoT to their entire value chain, extend their product portfolio and achieve superior competitive advantage.

+ Innovation & Product Development: Amyx+ serves as an innovation lab partner to accelerate innovation and product development of new IoT capabilities and intellectual property and patents.

+ Data Analytics: Amyx+ turns client’s data into actionable insights and improved performance. We identify the highest-value opportunities, source the most relevant internal and external data, apply world-class analytics and modeling and drive adoption throughout the organization.

+ AI/ Machine Learning: Amyx+ helps clients develop a playbook for integrating artificial intelligence and machine learning as a core product strategy. Amyx+ equips clients with the knowledge and technical expertise to apply the scale and power of machine learning into their products and services.

+ Decentralized Computing & Networking: Amyx+ assists clients in developing advanced decentralized networks, standards and protocols, security and privacy solutions unique to IoT.