Memorandum
Alexia Huesgen
Champlain College
MSEL- 535-85
November 5th 2021
Memorandum
To: CEO, Amazon
From: Alexia
Date: 11/5/2021
Subject: Innovation and System Leadership Recommendations
Duncan (2020) and Senge et al. (2014) address crucial elements that leaders of today’s multinationals should be aware of. Considering the dynamism of the modern business world, Duncan (2020) explores how a company can plan through creativity and innovation. Although Duncan (2020) argues that serendipity can sometimes lead to significant breakthroughs in R&D, a company should always be prepared rather than depending on luck. Duncan (2020) recommends investing in R&D to maintain the trajectory of growth that a company like Amazon has enjoyed since its inception. There are some recommendations in Duncan (2020) that can be useful for a company like Amazon:
• Since the company is an e-commerce giant, a 90-day rule is applicable, whereby three months is considered the appropriate time to introduce innovation into the market.
• A sustaining innovation aims at ensuring the company remains competitive in a dynamic business environment.
• Other than focusing on its core business, Amazon has an opportunity to innovate by finding the new business that grows the company beyond its core structures.
• Leadership must be involved in the innovation process to shepherd teams involved in doing the work.
• Other than just generating ideas, the company must create other systems parallel to the ideas to ensure the innovations are implemented in the market.
In Senge et al. (2014), the authors use Nelson Mandela’s influence as a leader reverberates worldwide. The authors posit that Mandela exemplified the characteristics of a collective leader, bringing together disparate perspectives to fight a common enemy. According to Senge et al. (2014), Mandela is credited for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, an initiative considered innovative and instrumental in bringing together Black and White South Africans to facilitate national healing. Senge et al. (2014) outline some lessons from Mandela as a system leader and how his teachings can help modern leaders develop collective leadership:
• System leaders are focused on the health of the whole, looking at scenarios from the different perspectives of those affected. One can develop as a system leader by listening, building trust, and collaborating. Rather than depend on their understanding, system leaders are committed to ongoing learning.
• Every problem is an opportunity for innovation. A system leader changes the organization’s self-interest to help people combine their interests and those of the organization.
• Collective leadership is fostered through seeing the larger system, encouraging reflection, and changing perceptions from a reactive perspective to building the positive change for the future.
To become a system leader, Senge et al. (2014) offer recommendations applicable in a modern e-commerce business setting.
• Re-directing attention to seek awareness and thought-process of every decision- stakeholders have different constraints. As a system leader, one can help them see how interrelated their roles in the organization are.
• Creating conditions to enable change to happen and encourage collective intelligence- helping different stakeholders consider the viewpoints of others, allowing them to revise their assumptions.
• Building capabilities through practice – finding the gap between the organization’s vision and its current reality creates creative tension.
Based on recommendations from Senge et al. (2014), the following are steps you can take as CEO to become a collective leader:
• Learning on the job
• Leading with inquiry
• Engaging with people with disparate history and perspectives
• Adapting
• Working with collective leaders
References
Duncan, D. (2020, April 9). Innovation Needs a System. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/podcast/2015/01/innovation-needs-a-system
Senge, P., Hamilton, H., & Kania, J. (2014). The Dawn of System Leadership. Stanford Social Innovation Review, 13(1), 27–33. https://doi.org/10.48558/YTE7-XT62
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