- In order to develop new approaches,
it may be logical to make change on the edge, so to speak,
so the existing business isn't disrupted
to the point of frustrating customers and losing business.
One approach that many companies have taken
is to develop an innovation lab of sorts,
which becomes a way to hire new types of people,
with more modern skills, leverage new processes,
or perhaps define them anew, and utilize new technologies.
Oftentimes, these teams will be housed in offices
separate from the headquarters of the business.
Automatic Data Processing, or ADP,
a human capital management company that processes
one in every six paychecks written in the United States,
developed a separate entity
that they refer to as Lifion.
While they don't hide the fact that it's part of ADP,
Lifion has a separate address
in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan,
15 miles east of the company's headquarters
in Roseland, New Jersey.
Lifion has the look and feel of a start-up,
with open workspaces, tools for collaboration and free food.
It even has a website that employees
can direct recruits to in order to see
what a day in the life of someone at Lifion entails.
On that website, there are pictures
of the interesting office space,
there are descriptions of the processes that are used,
and there's a list of technologies that Lifion employs.
In its early stages,
most of these descriptions were quite different
from what you'd find at the headquarters of ADP.
This was by design.
The company had a going business
that it needed to keep running.
Lifion offered an opportunity to hire
the next generation of employees,
implement the next generation of processes,
and leverage and develop
the next generation of technologies.
As people practices, processes, and technologies
were deemed effective,
they would be introduced back to the broader business.
This is a smart way of transitioning
from older ways of doing things to newer ones.
Some refer to this as innovating at the edge.
Give this group great liberty to test new ideas,
and many if not most will fail.
But with each idea that is shut down,
the opportunity to learn is there.
Eventually, the innovation lab's
batting average will improve.
Therefore, there are four things that I would recommend.
First, if you haven't already done so,
create a team that's dedicated
to more innovative, digital-centric ideas.
Second, give them a mandate to try new things,
and even to pursue ideas that might
eventually cannibalize your existing products.
It's better to have a new product of your own making
succeed an existing product,
than to have a competitor be the one to do so.
Third, allow them to hire new staff, leverage new processes,
and build and integrate new technologies.
Fourth, ensure that they are ultimately pursuing ideas
that could become big for your business.
Where these innovation labs fail
is in developing ideas that don't scale.
The people in the innovation lab should be told
that success is dependent on developing new ideas
that could help grow the entire business.
If you pursue these ideas,
the innovation lab can be a source of inspiration,
innovation, and growth for your company.