Radical Innovation:

Radical Project Management

Leading Radical Innovation

Specific Skills of Radical Project Managers

Specific Skills of Radical Project Managers

• Confronting uncertainties and reducing them: The complex set of uncertainties on multiple dimensions in the radical innovation environment makes traditional project management approaches impractical. Hence, new skills must be added to the traditional project management toolbox.

Entrepreneurial Leader: 4 Specific Attributes

• Dealing with the chaotic nature of the radical project management environment: "Without order nothing can exist – without chaos nothing can evolve." Radical projects are experimental as experimentation is the key to discovery. The radical project manager must balance formal processes at one extreme with the fluid creative chaos of ideas, relationships, interests, and transactions at the other.

• Entrepreneurial creativity and skill in resource and competency acquisition: Incremental innovation projects are usually fully funded. Experimental and chaotic radical projects have to deal with various resource challenges and discontinuities.

• Overcoming project discontinuities: The occurrence of unanticipated crises may force the project to regress to a less mature level. The radical project manager should work toward establishing both formal and informal project legitimacy in the eyes of the organization to counter organizational resistance to radical innovation.

• Improvising and taking tactical detours: The levels of uncertainties may rise and fall throughout the project. The project manager must be able to solve problems creatively, to take risk, and to lead the team in adapting and redirecting its focus as necessary to keep the project moving.

Loose-Tight Leadership

The Jazz of Innovation: 11 Practice Tips

• Preparing a project for acceptance by a manufacturing partner – an existing business unit, a new business unit, or a spin-off company. It is difficult and unusual for radical innovation projects to reach the level of maturity expected by most business units before handoff.¹ The receiving unit wants to be confident that:

  • the technology will work

  • the product can be produced reliably

  • the product has features and attributes desired in the marketplace

  • customers and applications are well enough understood so that sales, marketing and distribution functions can be implemented successfully

  • projected revenues can be achieved.

  A "transition team" may be used to accelerate the project through the final stages of the maturation process.¹

References:

1. Radical Innovation, Harvard Business School

2. Managing Radical Innovation, Vadim Kotelnikov

Radical Innovation

Radical Innovation versus Incremental

Radical Project Management (RPM)

Fuzzy Front End

The Fun Factor

Project Management

Project Leader Skills

New Business Systems Approach to Project Management

Risk Management

Risk Taking Quotes

Venture Strategies

Strategic Intent

In-company Ventures

Spin-Outs