Future-proofing your organisation with purpose-led innovation

How might we reimagine our future communities, and our post-pandemic work environments? How can we design a systemic approach for sustainability? And how might we future-proof our business model? These are the big questions that leaders are currently facing and to find the answers, organisations require a new approach and fresh thinking.

Many sectors have an impact not only on their consumers but also on society and the planet. Within these sectors, there is an organisational opportunity to innovate. To reach an end goal that will have a profound impact, we believe organisations must prioritise understanding their business model to see where the challenges exist. We call this approach “purpose-led innovation.” At the heart, it is how to innovate across a triple bottom line: people, planet and profit. We design innovation with a purpose in mind and with an anticipated impact. Our innovation design approach is highly collaborative, disruptive and future-focused. In every challenge lies an opportunity to innovate and provide more impactful value to stakeholders regardless of sector.

Ideally, complex problems will have a comprehensive solution. But, when it comes to innovation design, it’s never quite that easy. The pathway to identifying a solution should be dynamic, interactive, and multi-faceted. Within GHD Digital’s innovation consulting practice – D-Lab, we offer a business model and innovation course that helps our clients develop solutions by adopting an innovation mindset. Our unique approach can be applied to any business, industry or challenge.

Innovation goes beyond technology, products and processes. The new competitive landscape requires a more holistic and strategic perspective based on the concept of business models. Odyssey 3.14 is a pioneering framework that helps invent or reinvent business models. This highly innovative approach was developed by Professors Laurence Lehmann-Ortega and Hélène Musikas from HEC Paris. It has proven to be a very valuable methodology for start-up entrepreneurs, business managers and intrapreneurs alike. It offers a practical and highly effective framework and toolbox to create, invent or reinvent business models in a disciplined way.

We have reframed the Odyssey approach, combining it with purpose-led thinking, systems-thinking, co-design and design thinking. In doing so, we support our clients’ lateral and holistic thinking about their future. Through collaborative workshops and immersive experiences, we take senior leaders on a journey to discover, challenge and reimagine their business models. We tap into leaders’ expertise while challenging them to think beyond “what is” or “what could be.” The process is immensely successful as their own people are exploring different ideas and facets of the organisation.

At the heart of this approach, we believe innovation must be driven from the inside for several reasons:

1. Innovation is driven by your people: The people within the organisation have the expertise and are best positioned to identify and solve the problems they face.
2. Innovation is a mindset: It comes from a place of empathy and the desire to make positive change. If organisations take on an innovation mindset, implementing change in the organisation is easier. Those who have participated in the process become the change catalyst themselves, with change occurring from the inside. Here, employees become involved, empowered, and committed to the result.
3. Innovative organisations are nimble: Organisations and systems are constantly evolving to meet new customer and societal demands. If we innovate from within, we can respond to new changes in the industry quickly and competently.

Whenever an organisation makes a strategic change, it is essential to focus on business value. Business model innovation is about finding the value you can offer your communities and stakeholders where other businesses cannot. Finding new value or a better way to provide the same value should be the goal of any organisation.

Recently, we had the opportunity to work with Abu Dhabi Ports Group (AD Ports Group), a leading facilitator of global trade and logistics, which operates within the United Arab Emirates (UAE). With 90 percent of international trade transported via sea, AD Ports Group plays a significant role as a primary trade gateway for Abu Dhabi, the UAE, and the wider region. AD Ports Group recognises innovation as a key to its success. When looking at the need to innovate and prepare for the future, the company turned to GHD Digital for guidance.

We led their team through the process of building a value proposition, continuing their innovation design journey. We explored different types of value and how change would affect their business model. And we posed a series of follow-up questions: is change what consumers want and would innovation be profitable and sustainable?

We presented questions and challenged the working groups to think through all the potential possibilities. Following this brainstorming stage, we helped AD Ports Group put their ideas into a tangible framework that could be brought to their leadership. We highlighted that innovative change should bring more than just value for the company and its consumers – but also the economy, society, and the planet.

One of the biggest misconceptions about innovation is that it is about developing the most creative and unconstrained ideas, and that innovation always equals digital or technological solutions. While digital technologies enhance innovation, it is also vital that innovation be strategic, which is to say, practical and realistic. To be strategic means to think about future requirements and develop a plan that works to meet the needs of your business.

It can be difficult for a large business or an established sector to consider its innovation agenda strategically. However, today organisations may not have a choice. If today’s organisations don’t create disruptions, they risk being disrupted by external forces.

We recently surveyed senior executives from across the globe to better understand how innovation has changed due to COVID-19 and other disruptive forces. We found that after the tumult of the last few years, there is a renewed pressure to innovate, even after companies had successfully adapted to the impacts of COVID-19. As a result, innovation has moved to the forefront. While executives feel vulnerable from the effects of digital disruption, they also see it as a significant opportunity to get ahead of their competition. They realise that those focused on legacy approaches or lack an innovation design approach are at risk.

Today, organisations are embracing automation, data analytics, and artificial intelligence, and the metaverse is shifting the way consumers engage with organisations — blending the physical and digital worlds at levels previously unseen. We are witnessing a new era of innovation that may require the most established businesses to think like a start-up to become leaders in their sectors. Our approach is designed to help reimagine the fabric of their operations and business innovation and prepare them for the future, today.