Principled Entrepreneurship encourages associates across each company to challenge the status quo and seek a “better way” of doing things. At ACA, this Guiding Principle is put into action, in part, through Innovation Teams. Focused on delivering high business value, Innovation Teams drive forward company goals that have a significant impact on the company’s success.
Using an agile approach, Innovation Teams are able to streamline projects by quickly identifying and addressing potential challenges. Leaders start by prioritizing projects that will have the greatest impact, and then divide these projects into a series of short cycles or sprints. This allows them to quickly deliver value incrementally, at set checkpoints, rather than all at once at the end of a project. Goals are established for each sprint and re-evaluated before the next sprint, so teams can make necessary adjustments and improvements.
Each Innovation Team is led by a “CEO” who is responsible for understanding the business need and developing the most efficient path to reach that goal. As this plan is executed, CEOs offer leadership oversight, addressing obstacles while creating a culture of partnership and teamwork.
“This project structure ensures the work being done by the team is always relevant to the business need and provides maximum value,” says Amar Singh, Vice President of Innovation & Strategy Realization at ACA.
Singh goes on to say, “The CEO model within the Innovation Team empowers the project leader to be fully accountable for the success and deliverables of the project. Because so many of our associates embody our Guiding Principles and specifically Principled Entrepreneurship, we’ve seen several leaders embrace this challenge and add significant long-term value.”