“Can an executive scientifically grow the value their company delivers to customers and thus company value?” It’s not often we encounter a solution provider aiming to answer a totally different question than others, but we just did. Pivotal Innovation has developed the Value Growth System, a combined SaaS software and services offering, to systemize value growth.
We are excited about the potential for this because business transformation has not been straightforward or reliably successful, and this begins to explain why. Also, the Value Growth System is both comprehensive and comprehensible. We believe visionary executives can benefit from even the fundamental concepts we learned in one call.
Pivotal Innovation, founded by serial entrepreneurs Kevin Fallon and Justin Griep, focuses on helping manufacturers go beyond a customer focus to grow customer value systematically. The company aims to help organizations make this transformation less costly and stressful. They call it “Growth as a Service.”
One big ‘aha’ here is that two connected but distinct systems make up a company. There is an operating system for delivering current value, which most companies have systematized well. There is also a value growth system for transformation that typically runs ad hoc (to the detriment of growth). Integrating these is crucial. Another big aha is that strategy is directional, not transformational. Transformation needs to incorporate execution and innovation as well as strategy.
The Pivotal Innovator SaaS platform systematically ensures strategy, execution, and innovation work together. Most solution providers focus on just one element of this overall value growth system. Execution of current value is the most common focus for transactional and process software applications. Software such as ERP, PLM, SCM, and CRM aim to ensure things happen reliably in the current state. The Pivotal Innovator focuses on transforming to a desired future state, with closed-loop feedback among strategy, execution, and innovation.
Fallon claims they can change a company’s culture in 30 days. The focus is on balancing transformation with current performance. The approach creates a common growth language across disciplines to help everyone focus on the growth gap, not just the current state. Because this is an enterprise-level transformation, no single discipline can “own” or manage growth.
Senior executives may relate to the consulting aspects of the offering and champion the software. They may also join mastermind groups to learn from each other. Pivotal Innovation is partnering with the Advanced Manufacturing Sciences Institute at Metropolitan State University of Denver to offer a 12-week educational program. By the third week, executives will have an executable strategy for the company based on priorities and will be accelerating growth and transforming culture.
The concepts of integrating and automating value growth came from Fallon’s years of research after a significant career in manufacturing automation and Lean supply chain solutions. They are not currently taught in most business schools. Yet, it appears this offering addresses the main stumbling blocks to value growth:
- Designing better strategy
- Achieving organizational alignment
- Balancing operating with transforming activity
- Engaging people
- Adding growth capability
- Executing successfully
At a time when companies that have succeeded at business transformation are disrupting their markets, a systemic approach to value growth could be a huge breakthrough and leapfrog digital transformation priorities. Executives may consider this a way to gain confidence that their visions can result in greater value for the business, its customers, and its employees.
We look forward to following Pivotal Innovation’s progress and collaborations with MSU and Microsoft. Thank you, Kevin Fallon, for reaching out and taking the time to explain the Pivotal Innovation vision.