According to Deloitte, only 12% of the Fortune 500 companies from 1955 are still in business and half of the S&P 500 companies will be replaced in the next ten years. Innovation increases your chances to react to changes and discover new opportunities. It can also help foster competitive advantage as it allows you to build better products and services for your customers.
Today we talk to one of the leading experts on innovation. He is a 4 times author, MIT Sloan and Yale School of Management speaker, and avid blogger with hundreds of articles on innovation, data science, artificial intelligence, and Blockchain.
Alan: Let’s welcome Peter Nichol! Peter, good to have you with us.
Peter: I always welcome opportunities to share my insights on value and innovation. What’s in store for today?
Alan: Peter, you have been writing for CIO magazine for some time, but more recently, you started writing books, publishing your 4th book in January of this year (2021). How did you start writing books; what was the trigger?
Peter: To be able to write, you need to be curious; curious about a subject. It takes curiosity to dig into the topic and write about it. While pursuing my MBA, I discovered I had a knack for writing. As you mentioned, I have now been writing for CIO magazine for the last five years. As you can imagine, writing a book is quite different from writing an article. I found the more I wrote, the more effective I became at writing. Now, I say that with a slight caveat. Writing to improve without a coach, especially when it comes to books, is very difficult. I find that improving the quality of your writing is similar to improving the quality of your swimming. How do you know if you are getting better at your writing unless you have someone trained in writing and can offer immediate feedback? Similarly, just collecting laps doesn’t make you a better swimmer. The approach I took to build my writing skills is similar to how swimmers improve their swimming. Practice, practice, practice, and leverage the experience of a coach or editor in my case. It also helped that my mother was an English teacher.
Impactful writing requires research, and it takes time to build up knowledge in a specific knowledge domain. Besides, that knowledge has a short shelf life. You need to continually acquire knowledge, to stay abreast of domain changes in your area of expertise. Trying to be an expert in all areas within a domain is an exercise in futility. First, identify what you want to specialize in and stick with it. Find your niche.
Alan: So, how did you get started in writing books?
Peter: I’ve always been an avid reader and learned to speed read many years ago. I found good writers, studied their styles and figured out their differences. I determined what I liked and didn’t like about their writing style and then created my style.
My second book, The Power of Blockchain for Healthcare, was born out of my curiosity and passion for Blockchain. I’ve been within the healthcare and biotechnology industry for over 20 years. I felt there was an ongoing challenge regarding patient identification, patient access to data, and patient data security that Blockchain could address. After I had written a substantial book draft, I found a book editor. Working with a professional editor is essential to producing good work. I had three separate editors reviewed that manuscript before publishing it. As an author, you have a duty to make the highest quality product you can for your readers.
Alan: How do you determine your book topics?
Peter: First, the area needs to interest me. A book is a way of telling a story and providing help to someone. My most recent books are on value management and innovation. Think Lead Disrupt addresses how to connect strategy to execution while Leading with Value helps leaders tackle how to effectively communicate their value, the value of their team, and their department’s value. Each book I published solved a specific business problem.
Alan: Your last couple of books discuss value management and how value is a game-changing topic for leaders. What is value management, and why is it important?
Peter: Value Management is the art of providing a useful utility. Let me explain. IT organizations are notorious for delivering projects, but the real value delivered is often questionable. Business partners must understand the benefit of outcomes that will be achieved due to those efforts for several reasons.
First, leaders must elevate their team in the eyes of their business partners. Otherwise, how do you justify your headcount when no one knows what your team is doing? Leaders must communicate and articulate the value of their team to their business counterparts. For example, if no one knows what value Bob brings to the table, how do you as a leader justify keeping Bob when layoffs occur?
Second, in any business, you need collaboration, and you need allies. If layoffs come in the above example, but your business partners understand how Bob’s work links to their strategic goals, then Bob’s job is less at risk. In this case, if the business partners question Bob’s performance, they can immediately provide concrete examples of how Bob’s productivity contributes to the bottom line.
Convergence between IT and corresponding business partners is significant. If there is no convergence, then these stakeholders are not collaborating or benefiting from shared goals. If these teams are not aligned, how do they know which business partners are trying to solve them? When IT understands what the business partners consider valuable, this results in a more strategic solution.
I see a greater emphasis on creating and capturing value-based outcomes, and I’m excited to see that. Let’s be frank. If a technology is not enabling your business, then why is the technology being deployed?
Alan: Switching to the topic of innovation, how do leaders connect creativity with innovative execution?
Peter: They do this by building a culture of collaboration and integrating people with technology and process expertise into businesses they support. Previously, companies created internal consultancies to work internally, and these groups would inform business partners which technologies to deploy and what processes needed to be changed. This was done with little input from their business partners. The concept of “special people in special places”—the ivory tower of innovation—doesn’t work today. You can’t dictate technology changes just for the sake of technology; it just doesn’t stick. Creative and innovative employees need to be integrated into the business units. This partnership needs to be collaborative. Then these leaders offer their expertise to solve domain-specific challenges. These employees must fully comprehend the opportunities and jointly agree on the expected business outcome to be achieved. I would go a step further and require that both parties have a vested interest in the solution’s success with shared objectives.
Alan: Peter, this has been an exciting discussion. What’s next for you?
Peter: Thank you, Alan. It’s been great sharing my insights on writing. I’m excited about my book launches recently in January. Think Lead Disrupt is a book I have been working for a while, and I’m proud of how it turned out. Aspiring leaders and executives were interested in generating world-class ideas and, more specifically, how to connect strategy to execution. I covered topics from mental models to robotic process automation. Leading with Value has been well received, especially with practitioners in the field. These leaders everyday struggle with how to communicate the value of their teams. I’m excited I can offer a solution to help them quantify that value.
Recently, I have been doing a lot of interviews. What I discovered is that I enjoy sharing my experiences. It’s conversations like this, that remind me why I write—to share my ideas with others.
Alan: How can our readers contact or reach out to you directly?
Peter: The best way to reach me is on datasciencecio.com. I also can be contacted directly on LinkedIn at Peter B. Nichol.
Alan: Thanks again for talking with us today.