Does Quality Inhibit Innovation

Quality Vs. Innovation

In the video “Enemies of Innovation,” Judith Estrin, CEO of Packet Design, LLC discusses how she believes that quality has become the enemy of innovation (The & Estrin). She claims that processes put in place to help ensure quality limit the intricacies of the business process that once led to innovative new methodologies. In an article in The Irish Times, the author states that, “There is at least a 200-year history behind manufacturing innovation. It's an area surrounded by university labs, R&D budgets, EU research projects and nationally-funded prototyping facilities. Service innovation has none of these” (Shaughnessy, 12/10/2007). I believe that Estrin is trying to get at this point; most managers seem to discount the fact that innovation can be initiated outside of an R&D lab.

I do agree with some of the things that Judith Estrin said about quality being the enemy of innovation but furthermore I would take the side of the gentleman from Google, who unfortunately remains unnamed. He brings up a great idea in regard to identifying the culture of your business environment in order to decide how to manage innovation within your organization. He makes a really great point in that different organizations are going to require different methods, there is no uniform way to do it as much as that may be an issue for the rest of corporate America.

Having had the benefit (if you want to call it that) of working for an organization that went through a massive culture shock I can easily relay an example of two different scenarios that describe how culture can breed or inhibit innovation. Many years back, before the organization I worked for was purchased by a behemoth, I had come up with an easy carry pricing grid that could be readily used by any team member to help give quick quotes to customers. The rest of the company loved the idea and it was soon launched throughout the region; and possibly released nationally, I was never told how far it went. I had an idea that the company enjoyed and then they dispersed it throughout the organization. The company didn’t care where the idea had come from but they saw the direct benefits and ran with it. This is how the man from Google claims innovation works for them.

Currently, after the culture switch, our organization has a staunch uniformity policy. There is a monthly guidebook that all centers receive; it is at least 200 pages long and describes all merchandising decisions for the month and center arrangement. As far as things like marketing signage and product placement; every month we are told what to do as to make sure customers can go from center to center and not have any troubles recognizing how things function. This is a quality approach that does make some sense. The trick to this is that every retail space they own is shaped differently. This causes a great deal of issue as to the placement of certain items in each center. The company cares very little and as a manager you are expected to make it look the way they have the layout in the book. The company tries to adhere to a quality standard that is unreasonable and thereby inhibits innovation much in the way that Estrin suggests.

The Creosote Phenomenon

Estrin also brings up something called the Creosote Phenomenon. This results when a company becomes successful to the point of negligence and the over amount of confidence let’s innovation pass them by. At my current organization the behemoth that purchased our original company was a master at what they do. Their core product and our core products made us valuable business partners but because they do what it is they do so well, they never have been able to figure out what it was we did that made us as good as we were. Now, years later, there’s a whole new crop of employees that are just confused and don’t fully understand our product lines because their training is haphazardly divided and the full side of either organization is not fully explored. It’s sad because I have tried on numerous occasions to discuss this with upper management and have been met with a brush off of the corporate shoulder.

Skill sets and Innovation

I would say that managing innovation does not require a different set of skills than does that of a quality oriented manager; as innovation is found in all areas of an organization I would say that being able to manage innovation successfully should be included in a successful manager’s skill set. Whether it be in finance, accounting, human resources, or research and development innovation is there. It’s in the hands of the organizations employees and it is the manager’s job to recognize this and improve upon it to help more efficiently and effectively achieve the goals of the organization.

Works Cited

Lewis, P. S., Goodman, S. H., Fandt, P. M., & Michlitsch, J. F. (2007). Management: Challenges for Tomorrow's Leaders. Mason: Thomson South-Western.

Shaughnessy, H. (12/10/2007). Serving Up Some Real Innovation. The Irish Times , 47.

T. W., & Estrin, J. L. (n.d.). Enemies of Innovation. Retrieved 02 25, 2010, from bing.com: http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/enemies-of-innovation/3xgdnmg1