'You have to act with both hands'

It’s no longer enough to protect your core business. You also must ignite new Growth using Digital methods.

Some years ago, I wrote a book called ‘Getting the Right Things Done (GRTD)’ based on my experience working with some of the world’s most effective companies. GRTD describes the Strategy Execution system I had internalized through years of practice. I saw GRTD as part of the broader management system called Operational Excellence or Lean Management. I had also been lucky enough to work with some of Toyota manufacturing’s finest mentors (known as ‘senseis’). I believed that the methods and mindsets I had learned were essential to a humane and sustainable prosperity.

GRTD found an audience and I’ve helped to implement these principles and practices both at client firms, and at smaller enterprises that I’ve personally launched. I have found that GRTD and the broader Operational Excellence/Lean Management system indeed lays a sturdy foundation for excellence. They’re a practical and proven way to protect your core business.

About the Person

Pascal Dennis is a professional engineer, author and mentor for executives. Pascal is the President of Lean Pathways, and co-founder of Digital Pathways, a firm focused on harnessing technology to enable Digital Transformation. He has authored seven books and is a four-time winner of the Shingo Prize for Excellence.

But that’s no longer enough.
The past eight or nine years, I’ve been lucky enough to work in innovation hot spots like Singapore and Silicon Valley. I’ve experienced the thrill of young entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs, deploying ‘new ways of working’ in fluid cross-functional teams, and experimenting their way up the so-called ‘hockey stick’ curve. It’s been marvelous to see them translating the same core principles that I’d learned as a young engineer toward the goal of breakthrough innovation. The difference is that I was sensei and deshi – both teaching core principles like Lean experimentation, visual management and Strategy execution, and learning about the socalled ‘exponential’ technologies that enabled breakthrough.

Today, I believe we must become ambidextrous. We must be able to protect the core business using the sturdy methods of Operational Excellence/Lean Management. But we must also ignite new growth using methods pioneered in the world’s innovation hot spots.

How to create an ambidextrous organization?
One that is bullet-proof in its core business, and yet able to recognize unmet customer needs, and rapidly build, measure and learn its way up the innovation curve. One that can improve existing customer journeys, also create new journeys, offerings and even new businesses. That’s been my focus in the past several years. In fact, I wrote a book about it called ‘Harnessing Digital Disruption’ which describes my adventures in Singapore’s lively innovation ecosystem. You can think of it ‘Getting the Right Things Done in a Digital World’.

My team and I have built and validated a powerful body of knowledge which we believe prepares the modern organization for the 21st century. That´s what I shared at the Best Practice Day conference in Sao Paulo, Brazil: a keynote talk entitled ‘Getting the Right Things Done in a Digital World’, as well as a full-day workshop called ‘Digital Strategy – Igniting New Growth’. I’m sure we could engage organizations that are serious about Innovation and want to become truly ambidextrous.

Protecting the Core business is no longer enough. We must also ignite new growth. ‘GRTD in a Digital World’ and ‘Digital Strategy – Igniting New Growth’ will help get you started in this essential journey.

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‘You have to act with both hands’