Tech_Issue 1 2009_0127_Final:TechToday_012709 ... - Raytheon

Feature
The Bike Shop: Engaging the Innovator
Understanding the problem; working with the customer; methods to achieve success through
Envision, Create and Accomplish; and pitfalls to avoid
Innovation, rapid product development,
rapid reaction, prototyping, rapid transition
to production. Sound familiar?
These, and many other semantically similar
phrases, have become the ubiquitous
clichés of developmental industries. This
article is about innovation and innovators; it
is also about customers, problem solving
and growing the business.
Raytheon Missile Systems’ Bike Shop is often
asked what the formula is for innovation.
Our answer is simple: “You are asking for a
roadmap to a place where nobody has
been before; it doesn’t exist.” We describe
ourselves as a rapid product development
and experimentation lab. Fundamentally,
we are problem solvers. Problems come in
myriad forms but generally share some
basic characteristics: A customer is willing
to pay to satisfy a need. The customer has
a pre-conceived notion of what the solution
looks like. The first is the genesis of business.
The second is the first mistake in the process.
The Bike Shop’s motto is “Envision – Create
– Accomplish.” This consistently proves to be
an effective program plan for innovation.
Envision
The first task of an innovative solution
provider is to understand the problem —
the real problem. Too often engineers make
their first mistake on a project by trying to
understand the solution or accepting the
proffered problem statement at face value.
The Bike Shop starts all projects with a
brainstorming session.
Here is an opportunity for an early mistake.
Assuming you don’t need a theoretical
physicist and a machinist at your brainstorming
session is a sure sign that you
have pre-supposed the expertise required to
achieve an optimum solution. Envision the
problem. Put the problem into your own
14 2009 ISSUE 1 RAYTHEON TECHNOLOGY TODAY
team’s terms and understand it from the
ultimate user’s perspective.
If your team can’t envision the problem,
and communicate it to each other and
the customer in their own terms, you
have no business trying to solve it.
If a customer comes in and says “I need a
bridge,” don’t start ordering steel and
searching for a civil engineer. Find out what
problem he or she is trying to solve. The
real answer may not be “I need a bridge.”
The problem may be something like, “My
house is on this side of the river and my
fields are on the other side.” There are a lot
of solutions to that problem. Build a new
house, reroute the river, plant new fields,
sell everything and move to a new location.
In the end, you might not build a bridge.
The Box
Think of industry as three nested boxes,
business inside physics inside imagination.
We can imagine all kinds of things we can’t
build. We can build all kinds of things that
the business is not set up to handle. The
business box is the safe box, the box where
there is a process, procedure or precedent
to cover an action or concept. It is also the
box that supplies paychecks, benefits, capital,
facilities, resources and retirement.
Paradoxically, we want everyone to operate
outside the box while simultaneously telling
them on a daily basis that they must follow
the rules. Company policies define the business
box. If you start the process of innovation
inside the business box you will fail, by
definition. As Albert Einstein once stated,
“The definition of insanity is doing the
same thing over and over again and expecting
different results.” Attempting to accomplish
outside of the business box is tricky. If
it is done right, the boundaries of the business
box expand and you grow into new
Imagination
markets, opportunities and technologies. If
it is done poorly, problems can be created
for both the company and the innovator.
Innovation starts in the imagination box.
There is a ping-pong table in the Bike Shop.
Real innovation has occurred with four
engineers playing doubles and saying things
like, “What if we…” or “Have you ever
seen a…” and a favorite, “Here’s a ridiculous
idea…” Brainstorming teams need to
be comfortable with each other and willing
to engage in open imagination without ego
or prejudice. Remember: It’s OK to pay
people to think, not just work. Part of envisioning
is mentally mapping out how to
navigate through the boxes. A real challenge
for the Innovator is to understand
that every project or product must end up
“inside the box.”
Create
Laws of Physics
Business
Envision Create Accomplish
Once a workable solution to a problem is
envisioned, the smallest possible team
should be assembled to execute the effort.
Choosing the right team members and
team lead is critical to success. The leader
for a project should be chosen based on his
or her passion for the particular challenge.
A good leader is a good leader — but a
passionate leader inspires success and will
accept nothing less.