The Weekly Dig: Disciplined Innovation and Partnerships
The Weekly Dig is an easy-to-digest peek into trending industry topics, thought-leadership, and product updates from Pype.
August 13, 2019
A few weeks ago, we picked the brain of Dominic Daughtrey, Sundt’s Continuous Improvement Manager, to see how Sundt successfully evaluates and implements enterprise-level software. During that conversation, he touched on the concept of Disciplined Innovation, which he explained as “we’re going to experiment aggressively on the front line, we’re going to be extremely diligent and rigorous, and we’re going to measure not only the metrics, but also the qualitative impact on our employee owners.” As the interview progressed, we dug deeper into this idea and how it guides Sundt and Dominic’s own practices, and we’ll be sharing his insights over this four-part series of the Weekly Dig.
Given the three-part balancing act that is Disciplined Innovation (speed, disruption, workforce), it’s no surprise that firms are increasingly forming partnerships with their tech providers rather than moving on after the transaction. When asked what software providers could do to help firms looking to implement Disciplined Innovation practices into their business, Dominic Daughtrey said, “we’re looking for the trifecta of ‘I win,’ ‘you win,’ ‘they win,’ and we find that through partnerships. If we’re going to do business, we’re going to partner together in a big way.”
According to Dominic, many companies find this approach surprising. “A lot of people think business is a zero-sum game,” he states. “It’s not I win, you lose. I want a solution where everybody wins.” Enterprise partnerships, like the one Sundt has with Pype, are what to replicate. Any tech provider who wants to make it in this industry or firms that want to roll out their enterprise-level software successfully need to focus on building relationships with each other. Through this relationship, all the information, training, feedback, and communication that ensures the software addresses both current challenges and potential 10-year industry disruptions will flow between the parties. According to Dominic, one of the big reasons Sundt chose Pype was our willingness to partner with them and ensure we succeeded with their platform.
“It wasn’t just chance. It was the conversations and human side of the transaction that mattered most, and that enabled trust we had with Pype to make our implementation very, very successful.”
Dominic Daughtrey
Likewise, it is the conversations any AEC firm has, internally and externally, that will determine their success.
Other posts in this Disciplined Innovation series:
Part 1: Innovation and Speed
Part 2: Innovation and Disruption
Part 3: Innovation and the Workforce