I am frequently fine-tuning my Flight Level model. The way I see it, right now there is a flaw: It appears as if management at Flight Level 3 makes the decisions and everyone else has to implement them. This shouldn’t be the case, especially if the company’s mission is to be innovative (which is a fundamental decision that needs to be made).
At all Flight Levels Required: Time and Money for Ideas
If a company wants to be innovative, the company should provide firstly time, and secondly money, at all three flight levels so ideas are able to grow. The fundamental strategic decisions are primarily made at Flight Level 3: In which direction should the company develop, what do the market trends look like and how can we respond to them? The strategic direction of the company provides the framework in which everything else moves. Because a framework exists, it also means there is freedom within this framework. For example, teams at Flight Level 1 are closest to the customers. This being the case, these teams should have time and budgetary flexibility in order to independently make decisions and implement improvements as quickly as possible, keeping the customers and strategy in mind. If the proposal cannot be implemented within the scope of a single team, other teams can be brought on to expand the scope.
If the ideas still exceed the available time and budgetary constraints, they can be brought into Flight Level 2, where several such ideas are in competition. At this level, the ideas are then selected keeping the company strategy in mind. If the ideas exceed the capabilities of Flight Level 2, they proceed to Flight Level 3, where again the ideas are in competition with one another. Even at Apple, a team will probably not have purchased a factory in China before the strategic decision for “smartphones” had been made at the highest level. It is beneficial that ideas are in competition with one another and that decisions must be made about these opportunities—it shows that a company is capable of innovation.