Innovation is a constant stress at traditional organisations. However what seems to happen is that every one is innovating so hard that you become inert. It becomes harder and harder to deliver business as usual because it keeps getting run over by innovation. Its when the product development cycles fall out of sync.

I have now been working in a corporate environment for a year and I am now seeing the innovations come round that came round when I first started. So there is an ‘innovation’  cycle for big projects. These are usually redesigns of large sections of the site or new business propositions that affect whole sectors. This usually coincides with the appointment of a new senior director keen to make their mark. Obviously as they are new their willingness to listen when you explain that ‘we have done this before’ is very limited. Understandably what went before didn’t work otherwise they wouldn’t have got the job.

The problem is more often than not is that what went live was only 50% of what we wanted to do, and there is never a phase two. I think most people under estimate how long web development takes, and how long it takes to actually learn something about your changes. This is the business as usual pace of change. Glacial slow progress through the corporate red tape. But you can work within these boundaries, smartly, hold onto your vision, you get things done smoothly. You also keep every one involved, and nobody says you are innovating.