????直面并回答這些問(wèn)題絕非易事，但思考這些問(wèn)題，將有助于促進(jìn)產(chǎn)品和服務(wù)的創(chuàng)新以及業(yè)務(wù)的發(fā)展。敢于另辟蹊徑而不只是停留于奇思妙想可以產(chǎn)生長(zhǎng)遠(yuǎn)的效益。換言之，墨守陳規(guī)可能加速貴公司在競(jìng)爭(zhēng)中被淘汰的速度，而擺脫傳統(tǒng)（盡可能不落窠臼地打理業(yè)務(wù)）可能能讓貴公司存活的時(shí)間超出批評(píng)人士和競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手的預(yù)期，IBM和谷歌（Google）便是明證。

????2007年，也就是五年前，著名管理策略大師加里?哈默在著作《管理大未來(lái)》（The Future of Management）一書(shū)探討了公司管理創(chuàng)新的緊迫性，并重點(diǎn)突出了IBM和谷歌這兩 “藍(lán)絲帶”（blue ribbon）和“連續(xù)”（serial）管理的創(chuàng)新者。他描述了谷歌和IBM當(dāng)時(shí)的不斷再造自我，如今這兩家公司還在這么做。如今，IBM已經(jīng)屹立了百年而不倒，就是因?yàn)樗懿粩嗟刈晕艺{(diào)整，突破現(xiàn)有的核心業(yè)務(wù)，不斷轉(zhuǎn)型，從一家硬件生產(chǎn)商脫胎為服務(wù)提供商和咨詢(xún)行業(yè)的領(lǐng)頭羊。順時(shí)而動(dòng)一直是它的強(qiáng)項(xiàng)，古板守舊絕不是它的作風(fēng)。而谷歌也已經(jīng)華麗轉(zhuǎn)身，轉(zhuǎn)向了移動(dòng)操作系統(tǒng)、無(wú)人駕駛汽車(chē)和其他眾多業(yè)務(wù)領(lǐng)域。你絕對(duì)想不到，其實(shí)早在上世紀(jì)90年代末，這家網(wǎng)絡(luò)搜索引擎巨頭還在和雅虎（Yahoo）競(jìng)爭(zhēng)時(shí)，就已經(jīng)開(kāi)始在這些方向上的探索。

????那么，作為一家公司或者在公司內(nèi)部，如何能最大限度地提高靈活性和適應(yīng)性呢？作為管理者，如何在千頭萬(wàn)緒中更好地管理創(chuàng)新呢？同時(shí)，我們應(yīng)該如何重新定義創(chuàng)新？下面這些建議值得嘗試。

????1.嘗試擺脫標(biāo)準(zhǔn)業(yè)務(wù)模式的束縛。以賽諾菲（Sanofi）為例，2月初該公司宣布季度利潤(rùn)實(shí)現(xiàn)增長(zhǎng)，預(yù)計(jì)2012年至2015年間銷(xiāo)售額至少平均增長(zhǎng)5%。這家醫(yī)藥巨頭正面臨Plavix 等知名藥物專(zhuān)利到期的挑戰(zhàn)，但該公司也在新領(lǐng)域進(jìn)行了大膽的嘗試，其中之一便是糖尿病解決方案。賽諾菲舉辦了一場(chǎng)公開(kāi)競(jìng)賽，讓手機(jī)軟件開(kāi)發(fā)商設(shè)計(jì)糖尿病管理工具，比如監(jiān)控和分析食品攝入量的軟件。競(jìng)賽的目的是是迅速發(fā)掘新的應(yīng)用軟件，將獲勝軟件作為賽諾菲的產(chǎn)品推向市場(chǎng)，而這個(gè)產(chǎn)品與賽諾菲先前專(zhuān)注制藥的業(yè)務(wù)沒(méi)有絲毫聯(lián)系。

????2. 雇傭不同類(lèi)型的員工。frog公司聘請(qǐng)不同背景的人來(lái)管理這家全球創(chuàng)新咨詢(xún)公司。除了MBA、工程師和工業(yè)設(shè)計(jì)師，我們的團(tuán)隊(duì)里還有以前表演過(guò)空中飛人的雜技演員和表演系科班出身的人，協(xié)助領(lǐng)導(dǎo)一些項(xiàng)目，為財(cái)富500強(qiáng)公司提供技術(shù)解決方案和業(yè)務(wù)策略。我們發(fā)現(xiàn)，豐富多樣的背景經(jīng)驗(yàn)和聰明才智常?？梢砸鲆幌盗腥碌乃伎己妥鍪路绞?。IBM早就明白這一點(diǎn)；上世紀(jì)五六十年代，該公司就曾聘請(qǐng)著名設(shè)計(jì)師查爾斯?伊姆斯和雷?伊姆斯夫婦、甚至包括著名雕刻家野口勇這樣的人為其創(chuàng)新項(xiàng)目提供建議。

????3. 利用“大數(shù)據(jù)”加深對(duì)的客戶(hù)理解，而不僅僅是擺出老大的架勢(shì)，監(jiān)測(cè)消費(fèi)者的行為。利用搜集到的真實(shí)數(shù)據(jù)，思考如何改善和提高產(chǎn)品和服務(wù)，而不僅僅是判斷能向某個(gè)特定人群有針對(duì)性地出售什么產(chǎn)品。比方說(shuō)，麥肯錫（McKinsey）研究顯示，麥當(dāng)勞（McDonald's）記錄和分析顧客流量，用于重新設(shè)計(jì)店面布局，從而提高了顧客流量，而一些企業(yè)電腦硬件制造商也在根據(jù)用戶(hù)數(shù)據(jù)安排預(yù)防性修復(fù)。

??? These questions, which can be tough to confront and to answer, are not only good for innovating your offerings, but they're also generally good for business too. Daring to be different and not just think different can reap long-term dividends. In other words, doing business as usual means you could be out of business sooner then you think. Straying from tradition--conducting business as unusually as you can-- might keep you in business longer than your critics and competitors have expected--as IBM and Google have proved.????

??? In 2007, only half a decade ago, Gary Hamel wrote about the urgency for companies to engage in management innovation and highlighted these two "blue ribbon," "serial" management innovators in his book, The Future of Management. He outlined how Google and IBM were constantly re-inventing themselves at the time—and today, they continue to do so. IBM has lasted to celebrate its 100th anniversary because it is always shape-shifting, famously and steadily breaking away from its core businesses to evolve from a hardware maker into a service provider and thought leader. Its ability to adapt has been its strength; it is far from a stodgy relic. Google has nimbly moved into mobile operating systems, unmanned vehicles, and numerous other directions that you'd never imagine the search engine giant pursuing back in the late 1990s, when it was a competitor to Yahoo!

????So, how to best become more flexible and adaptive as a corporation, or within a corporation? How can you, as an executive, better manage creativity amidst chaos? Indeed, how can one re-define innovation? These tactics are worth a try.

????1. Try breaking away from standard business models. Take Sanofi, which in early February announced quarterly profits were up and that it would likely see sales grow by at least five percent on average between 2012-2015. The pharmaceutical giant is facing expiring patents on its well-known medicines such as Plavix, but it is stretching into new areas with daring new twists. One is diabetes solutions, for which Sanofi held an open competition for mobile-phone application developers to design diabetes-management tools, such as services that monitor and analyze food intake. The goal is to quickly scout for fresh apps and then market the winner as a Sanofi product--one that has nothing to do with Sanofi's previous business model focusing on making drugs.

????2. Hire a different type of employee. At frog, we hire people with a variety of backgrounds to manage a global innovation consultancy. Along with MBAs, engineers, and industrial designers, we've added former trapeze artists and performance-studies majors to our team, to help lead projects for Fortune 500 companies on technology solutions and business strategy. We've found that providing a variety of smart and experienced perspectives can often lead to, well, a spectrum of fresh ways of thinking and doing. IBM knew this; the company hired designers such as Charles and Ray Eames and even sculptor Isamu Noguchi to advise on innovation projects back in the 1950s and 1960s.

????3. Harness "Big Data" to better understand your customer—but not as a "Big Brother" corporation that wants to monitor behavior. Use data collection to help you understand what can you fix and improve about your products and services based on real input, not just what can you sell to a particular demographic. McKinsey research has shown, for instance, that McDonald's tracks and analyzes customer traffic to re-design store layouts for better flow, and that some manufacturers of enterprise computer hardware are scheduling pre-emptive repairs based on user data.