IT’S THE PEOPLE THAT MAKE THE REAL DIFFERENCE, MORE SO NOW THAN EVER.
- Justin Wright
- Aug 13
- 3 min read
"If you leave us our money, our buildings and our brands, but take away our people, the Company will fail. But if you take away our money, our buildings and our brands, but leave us all our people, we can rebuild the whole thing in a decade."
Richard Deupree, CEO Procter & Gamble, 1930 to 1947
A lot of our time at Mangrove is focused on helping companies optimise their approach to innovation in order to maximise in-market success. The initial contact typically involves a request to ‘fix the process’. Our response is to explain how we’ll take a look, but the process is unlikely to be the root cause of the problem. After all, one stage-gate looks pretty much the same as the next. Instead, we hypothesise the cause of innovation under-performance lies elsewhere, as that’s what our experience over the years has taught us. Invariably, the absence of an effective innovation strategy along with a lack of rigour in project portfolio management combine to undermine the effectiveness and efficiency of the macro innovation process. But more importantly than both of these, is the people factor.
Big companies are designed to maximise scale from established products or services. They seek to minimise risk, avoid unnecessary complexity, maximise margin and choose certainty over uncertainty. The natural antibodies of any Corporate are therefore more likely to kill innovation than to promote it. Consequently, the people working in these organisations are rewarded for demonstrating the conservative behaviours consistent with this outlook. But, what if you find yourself in an innovation team inside such a company? Well, therein lies a tension.
In a world more and more driven by universally available data and AI, it’s the people and what they do with the insights from these resources that make the difference – and this will increasingly be the case. Nowhere is this more true than in the world of innovation. The individuals working in innovation teams need nurturing and supporting more than ever. Unlocking their potential within a system designed to inhibit it will become the key driver of innovation success for most big businesses. They need their own unique culture – one that promotes learning, provides psychological safety, drives performance and focuses on risk assessment and mitigation. The specific behaviours that drive this culture and build the capabilities behind both the art and science of innovation have to be defined and rewarded. They are often quite different from those that drive the culture of the core business, and this can create tensions that have to be managed.
So, what are the benefits of investing in the people delivering innovation? A recent study by BCG* found companies with strong innovation cultures are 60% more likely to be successful innovators, while those with strong mechanisms in place (the hardware) are 35% more likely to be innovators. Naturally you want both, but this shows just how important people and culture are in delivering innovation success.
This is why we created Challenger Edge, our bespoke tool that defines and delivers the optimal team culture and behaviours that drive the desired performance and outcomes. By bringing together the best practices form Challenger businesses and Elite sport we can identify when the culture is inhibiting innovation performance and rectify it via a Culture Blueprint, systematised measurement of individual behaviour / team performance and timely coaching interventions. It’s a tool that can used with any team tasked with delivering a stretching goal but it’s especially relevant for innovation teams seeking to unlock the potential of their people to deliver step-change growth. More about Challenger Edge here https://www.mangrove.team/people-and-culture. Or if you’d like to discuss further, please do make contact.
Justin Wright, Co-Founder, Mangrove & Challenger Edge.
