{"id":21165,"date":"2016-09-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-09-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/global2020prd.wpengine.com\/insights\/balancing-scalability-and-innovation\/"},"modified":"2020-05-11T16:09:49","modified_gmt":"2020-05-11T16:09:49","slug":"balancing-scalability-and-innovation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/insights\/balancing-scalability-and-innovation\/","title":{"rendered":"Balancing scalability and innovation"},"content":{"rendered":"

I blogged recently about the challenge of having both leverage and agility<\/a> as is often the when way you start thinking about these things, you see it everywhere.<\/p>\n

I saw a presentation on the challenge of both innovation and scalability:<\/p>\n

\u2022 scalability requires standardization, reliability, dependability and reducing the likelihood of failure
\n\u2022 innovation requires experimentation and exploration, challenging assumptions doing things fast and being prepared to fail.<\/p>\n

I also found a great description of dealing with the challenge on the corporate website for the package goods company Mondel\u0113z \u2013 this is what they describe as their \u201ccore belief\u201d.<\/p>\n

The power of big and small.<\/strong><\/p>\n

We\u2019re a big company. But we believe, above all, in one thing \u2013 something that\u2019s unique to us \u2013 and that\u2019s the power of big and small. Yes, we have the scale and resources of a global powerhouse. But also the speed, creativity and agility of a fresh new start-up.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It seems that the challenge of achieving levity and agility, scalability and innovation, simultaneously is everywhere at the moment. It\u2019s great to see a large company recognize the challenge so explicitly and give it such prominence in its strategy.<\/p>\n

It is unsurprising really; many organizations continue to be on a journey towards higher levels of integration and centralization. We have seen an acceleration of this trend since the economic recession.<\/p>\n

Many have seen huge advantages from integrating their supply chain, common systems, sharing best practices globally and unlocking the resources that used to be inefficiently dedicated to the old vertical silos of geography and function.<\/p>\n

However, any organizational change creates a desire for the opposite, the more we centralize, the more we hark back to a more flexible and decentralized past.<\/p>\n

The difficult trick of course is to centralize and pursue leverage where it adds value and, at the same time, create the space for flexibility where agility is more important. It\u2019s more usual that the pendulum swings too far in one direction before correcting in the other.<\/p>\n

We are working with a couple of organizations in identifying where leverage adds value and doesn\u2019t inhibit agility too much, and vice versa.<\/p>\n

Two of the critical battlegrounds in this discussion are:<\/p>\n

\u2022 the innovation process
\n\u2022 the freedom of local markets to respond to local developments.<\/p>\n

It seems to us that the journey towards more leverage is the dominant force at the moment. As leaders we need to make sure that don\u2019t allow this to go too far and destroy our ability to be flexible and agile in the areas where it\u2019s critical.<\/p>\n

At the same time, we need not to be oversensitive to efforts to integrate that really add value at scale across the organization \u2013 lets save our energy for the battles that really need to be fought.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I blogged recently about the challenge of having both leverage and agility as is often the when way you start […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":21166,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-21165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","type-blog","training-matrix-management"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBalancing scalability and innovation - Global Integration<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I blogged recently about the challenge of having both leverage and agility as is often the when way you start thinking about these things, you see it\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/insights\/balancing-scalability-and-innovation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Balancing scalability and innovation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I blogged recently about the challenge of having both leverage and agility as is often the when way you start thinking about these things, you see it\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/insights\/balancing-scalability-and-innovation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Global Integration\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-09-01T00:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-05-11T16:09:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/clock-72dpi-330x330_RT2-330x152-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"330\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"152\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kevan Hall\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kevan Hall\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/insights\\\/balancing-scalability-and-innovation\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/insights\\\/balancing-scalability-and-innovation\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Kevan Hall\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/3ad6577af9c33612e410fbcdc3ff2a9a\"},\"headline\":\"Balancing scalability and innovation\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-09-01T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-05-11T16:09:49+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/insights\\\/balancing-scalability-and-innovation\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":469,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/insights\\\/balancing-scalability-and-innovation\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/03\\\/clock-72dpi-330x330_RT2-330x152-1.webp\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/insights\\\/balancing-scalability-and-innovation\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/insights\\\/balancing-scalability-and-innovation\\\/\",\"name\":\"Balancing scalability and innovation - 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