Risk Appetite for Innovation

1 min read

ビジネスにおいて、失敗を恐れるのではなく失敗を受け入れる態度が、企業が進化し新しい市場機会に対応する方法を改善するために重要です。ビジネスにおいて、イノベーションのための適切なトーンはどのように設定されるべきなのでしょうか。社員が失敗から学べるようにするために、取締役会が果たすべき役割とは何でしょうか。組織の生命線にもなり得るイノベーションやリスクとの向き合い方を考える上でのポイントを解説します。

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Strategic agility — the ability to improve performance and thrive amid disruption — has emerged as a critical success factor in sustaining relevance.

This makes innovation the organization’s lifeblood.
It is about sustaining alignment with changing business realities, including reinvented business models, redesigned workflows, and new and improved market offerings.

Apply an “Outside Looking In” Approach: Innovation strategy cannot be formulated in a vacuum. The organization should avail itself of external perspectives.

Focus on the expected innovation results: The board should engage management in setting innovation policy and facilitating risk-taking. Excessive processes and controls can stop innovation in its tracks.

Periodically, the board and management should consider whether the company is taking on enough innovation risk.

Why it matters: In today’s digital world, it’s easy to recognize the power of technology in driving continuous improvement in processes, products and services as well as creating a disruptive force to reinvent business models. But technological underpinnings are not always needed for innovation to be transformative in strengthening brands and leapfrogging competitors.

Fail fast to learn quickly: A higher innovation risk appetite can increase speed, provided there is a strong focus on failing fast and learning quickly. This reduces project risk by minimizing the time and resources invested in unsuccessful initiatives.

The bottom line: The board should ensure that the necessary data and information are available to support the innovation process without sacrificing decision-making velocity.

Organize the board for innovation excellence: The board should set the tone and culture for innovation.

To that end, directors need to be adept at strategic thinking, abreast of the evolving technology landscape, and cognizant of how emerging technologies can impact the customer experience and the company’s talent acquisition and retention strategies.

Taking calculated risks in an intelligent and proactive way to drive innovation and sustain competitiveness is necessary to thrive in a rapidly changing world. Innovation inherently involves uncertainty. Accordingly, not all endeavors will yield desired outcomes.

Go deeper: Read more here.

(Board Perspectives — Issue 168)

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