The Business Owner is the manager responsible for adopting the innovation into the existing organizational process (or the development of a new process) by guiding change in the existing processes, skills and architecture. The Business Owner is the ultimate beneficiary of the value that the innovation delivers to the organization.
Details
In traditional organizations, Business Owners can be line managers of the organizational part where the innovation lands. In Lean-Agile enterprises, business owners are usually represented as Product Management or Solution Management. Although, the Innovator and the Innovation Team learn substantial understanding of the innovation and its potential during the Experimentation Phase, the business owner’s practical experience from the market makes the innovation truly valuable to the existing organization. Therefore, the Business Owner’s role is to help develop the innovation to function as desired by providing inside knowledge and expertise on the relevant business processes, market dynamics and customer demand. Furthermore, the Business Owner is also required to adapt the existing Organizational Processes, Technology Infrastructure or Architecture and required Knowledge and Competencies to optimally leverage the innovation’s value. In daily practice, such adaptations or change may be directly interfering with the Business Owner’s already set targets or business objectives. In order to mitigate such conflict of interest, the Business Owner is always supported by an Ambassador of the Continuous Innovation Board.
Responsibility
- Assuring the delivery of real business value by the innovation
- Assuring the effective organizational change to accommodate the anticipated business value of the validated innovation
- Providing inside knowledge and expertise on the relevant business processes, market dynamics and customer demand