Structures for Unlocking Innovation and Purpose

Good questions. I believe that we will have a much more divided world with basically two types of organizations: 1) The large ones that will still need to focus on control and compliance, simply to prevent them from falling apart. 2) Smaller, flexible, innovation focused companies. The first ones will always be where the largest number of people work. But the second ones will grow in importance and be the one that creates the most value. When something, a service/product, is mature the first ones will buy the second ones. But the best ideas/products/services will never come from the large corporations. That is my guess!

This is already happening with the big two in the internet space. Yahoo and Google are both buying very innovative companies left right and center. Y bought Flickr, Oddpost, collaborating with Alibaba. G bought Keyhole, Meetroduction, Dodgeball. Paul Graham has an interesting article on Klas' idea at http://www.paulgraham.com/hiring.html

Hi Gaut, It's interesting to note that organizations are living organic systems and we very often talk about their structures as if they were static like a mechanical device. Let me be the devil's advocate here! How much is it the responsibilty of the organizational structure to ignite and sustain innovation vs the individuals in those organizations themselves? Shouldn't we have people innovative and creative enough so that they can actually innovate in any kind of organizational structure? I don't think there is an ideal organizational structure that fosters innovation more than any other (they all have pro's and con's depending on what you're trying to achieve), it's how people work in that organization structure that will actually make a difference... In conclusion, don't rely too much on organizational structure changes to foster innovation. At the end, those who innovate are the individuals, no matter what organization structure they are in. You can change the structure as much as you want, you will end up with the same people at the end anyway ! Just a provocative thought! Cheers, Olivier

The two kinds of organizations will always remain and always be different. Larger the organization , greater the controls....even though many organizations ceaselessly harp on the freedom provided to their employees. Quite a few of the large ones have resorted to Spin outs and Spin offs to tackle the issue. Gobbling up small enterprenurial firms is another favoured option to keep the creative juices flowing.