Packaging up Innovation

In May, I was honored to be part of Steve Denning’s workshop on his Radical Management principles for redefining 21^stCentury management.  Recognition that we need to find a new way to ‘manage’ work is gaining ground. We tend to think of 21^st Century ‘new management’ companies as those in ‘cool’ industries: Internet, tech, alternative energy, social media, etc. These companies shun command-and-control!  However, there are some “old” “boring” companies that are surprising 21^stCentury.

So, think packaging. You know, those brown boxes that your amazon books come in? Those displays at the end of store aisles that get you to buy more snacks? It’s a commodity business, ruled by big huge vertically integrated behemoths with entrenched hierarchies held sacred.  Kind of boring huh?  You bet…not!

In the middle of Wisconsin (not Silicon Valley) is a 163 yr. old, private family business that reinvented itself, pulled a few classic “Blue Oceans” and looks more like a 21^st Century newbie than a 19^th Century oldie: Menasha Packaging Corporation (MPC).   MPC views their transformation as a journey, not a destination.  Their success is due to their most important asset – people.  And it’s not just words, its action based on their values.  MPC has organized itself not as a traditional hierarchy, but as a network to enable and foster their culture.

A small headquarters organization is focused on removing obstacles and leveraging synergies while maintaining a strong entrepreneurial culture in each business.  Instead of centralizing the usual functions and capabilities, MPC relies on standardization, when applicable, to drive efficiency without bureaucracy.  Additionally, if one business has expertise another business needs or could use, it’s shared in a center of excellence construct across heterogeneous businesses within MPC instead of being duplicated.  This allows each business to use its resources more innovatively, effectively and efficiently…a rather unique approach for an ‘old’ company.

In one business, an employee created an engaging way to identify and monitor safety issues.  To her, this was just a normal thing to do – see a problem, create a solution.  Soon it spread through the plant and shifts, becoming named “Safety Snags“.  Eventually, this became an internally branded initiative throughout MPC.

MPCs culture of customer co-creation is based on listening to customers, quickly creating prototypes set in realistic environments, getting feedback and iterating the experimentation/prototyping until its right. This is also done across MPC businesses to find the right solution.

My initial perception when I started working with MPC, of an old manufacturing company, was quickly changed, and continues to be.  It is not just the new, young, hip companies that are reinventing management and seeing the results.  So what does this say? That it is really possible to create and sustain innovation in established companies.  Perhaps, it starts by innovating management itself.

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Deb, founder of Mills-Scofield LLC, is an innovator, entrepreneur and non-traditional strategist with 20 years experience in industries ranging from the Internet to Manufacturing with multinationals to start ups. She is also a partner at Glengary LLC, a Venture Capital Firm.