1. Managing in Information Intensive Companies
Brief Summary of Some Key Themes
MIIC Spring 2013
Prof. Morten Hansen
(Class notes provide all the detail;
This summary is just a few highlights)

2. Approach in the course Process lens
As a manager, how do you organize a sequence of activities that guide how people carry out work within established organizations?
3 processes (modules)
Managing innovation
Managing collaboration
Managing team decision making

3. 1) Managing Innovation
How can established companies overcome their innovation problem?
Existing business
Mechanistic, exploitative: set up to execute on existing operations
New businesses are different
Exploratory, organic
Different markets, business models/economics
Different people and skills required
Different metrics needed

4. Innovation Value Chain View
View innovation process as one whole process
Idea generation => conversion => diffusion
Need to be good in all links
Concentrate on improving the weakest link
Understand that skills and tasks differ as move along the chain
Idea generation: creativity, dreaming, seeing opportunities
Conversion: project management, manage organization
Diffusion: “Show me the money!”
E.g., RR Donnelley case exemplifies this

5. Hybrid structure that separates and integrates
Fully integrated
(in units)
Hybrid (linked to units
+separate operations)
Stand-alone
Benefits of integration
Access to resources (money, people, expertise, customers, distribution), commitment from line, eventual transfer to line
Benefits of separation
Venture unit/corporate incubator (e.g., IBM) or separate division (RR Donnelley)
Entrepreneurial freedom, entrepreneurial people, higher risk-reward incentives, different metrics (e.g., IBM)

6. New business champions need political skills
Innovation is a messy process, requiring project champions to navigate the social and political landscape in a company (e.g., Dow Chemical case)
Manage up, down, across
Manage larger organization
Do not only use rational arguments
i.e., do not only argue that “it’s a good project”, but understand the motives of other people and units
Use influence tactics: Build internal coalitions, build momentum, “sell” to others in the organization, enlist supporters, trade favors with others (norms of reciprocity), ingratiate, etc.

7. Solutions encompass several “levers”: they need to be aligned
“Hard”
“Soft”
Culture:
Risk/Failure +
Implementation
Structure:
Separate +
Integrated
Aligned
Skills:
Ambidextrous
Process:
Innovation
Value Chain
Politics/Social:
Use influence
tactics
Metrics:
Hitting milestones,
Not strict financials

8. 2) Managing collaboration
How can managers install effective collaboration in organizations?
Problem: Silos, independent units make it hard to collaborate
Collaboration is often difficult
Inefficient, overdone, conflict
Bad collaboration is worse than no collaboration

9. Disciplined Collaboration Summary
Select
Opportunities
Spot Barriers
Tailor Levers
Innovation
Cross-selling
Best practices
4 Barriers
Unifying Goal
T-shaped
Networks
=> Lower costs, better efficiency, more sales

10. Cross unit collaboration
T-shaped management
Collaborate:
Ask for help
Give help
Connect
Joint work
Cross unit collaboration
Own/
unit
focus
T-shaped professionals have a high ability to simultaneously deliver
strong results for their own area and contribute across the organization

11. 3) Managing team decision making
How can teams make good decisions?
(in situations of ambiguity and incomplete information)
Problems
Fragmented organizational context
Different viewpoints, different agendas
Need for buy-in once decisions are made

12. Be aware of organizational complexity
Complex organizations, complex processes
Multiple units
Hierarchical levels
Pressures
Information and activity overload
Different people hold different information
Different people hold different views
(Columbia Shuttle case)

13. Increase cognitive and decrease affective conflicts
Devil’s
advocacy +
Cognitive
conflict +
Debate alternatives,
Deep analysis,
New ideas +
Better decisions +
Stimulate conflict
and debate +
Affective
Conflict
Personal animosity,
Less group harmony,
Poor decision
acceptance
Poor
implementation + + +
Dialectical
inquiry
Key is to break this path

14. Orchestrate process up front
Manager’s Role
Factors Creating
The Context
Quality of Problem Solving Processes
Quality of Outcomes
Approaches
Structure
Membership
Setting
Leadership
Experience
Style
Situational Factors
Level of urgency
Time available
Roles Assigned
Conflict Mgmt.
Norms
Openness to data
Underlying agenda
Power balancing
Size of Group
Means of dialogue
Multiple alternatives
Testing of assumptions
Clear criteria
Dissent & debate
Perceived fairness
Quality of decision
Implementation effectiveness
Timeliness

15. Change theme running through all three modules
Process lens: See the problem/situation as a process with a sequence of activities
Not an event, or a static problem
Analyze whole process, then change
Processes get stuck, cemented. Needs active management to be re-engineered.

16. Change theme running through all three modules
Process lens: See the problem/situation as a process with a sequence of activities
Not an event, or a static problem
Analyze whole process, then change
Processes get stuck, cemented. Needs active management to be re-engineered.
You improve performance as a manager by improving
processes, not just individual work