'Innogility'
Requisite Agility and Innovation Competence are alternative ways of getting new things done, but they're so closely integrated that we describe them as ‘Innogility’. A simple example explains this point. Imagine you have developed an AI app for identifying where heat is escaping from buildings, and you want to license its use to companies that sell insulation materials. You have no experience in licensing products. You could see this as a task you want your organisation to perform internally (innovation) or outsource to a company that specialises in licensing such products (agility).
Exploiting Agility for Advantage: A Step-by-Step Process for Acquiring Requisite Organisational Agility, de Gruyter 2020. Page 20
"Agility and innovation have different clock speeds. Innovation requires finding and exploiting new ideas and is frequently time-consuming, uncertain, expensive and difficult. This is true in many industries, including that of being an author! Writing this book took many months of research and development but, once published, it can be copied in seconds. Those investing resources in innovation will be successful only if they can capture value from what they create. Notice the ‘if’ word. Failure is common.
Agility has a rapid heartbeat. It is rapid, lean and acquisitive, perhaps taking advantage of others’ weaknesses. It is possible to be agile without a commitment to innovation, as is demonstrated by strategies used by manufacturers of generic drugs or by the XYZ property company mentioned above. But agile organisations can lack ownership of unique assets so their competitive advantage can be imitated more easily. Momentum is essential.
Why is the relationship between agility and innovation complex? Many organisations must, like the ancient Roman god Janus, face two ways and be both agile and innovative, as was demonstrated in the Sports Centre example explained earlier. Work groups rightly, adopt mindsets, skills and activities that support their specialised work requirements. Since the modality of work is different between agile and innovative, silos or closed groups can develop between them and this will undermine systemic coherence. Boundaries can become high walls. Requisitely agile organisations must find ways to overcome such potential barriers".