Don’t skimp on your company’s operations—an oft-overlooked engine for innovation

In a market where experience rules, organizations that let operations languish do so at their own risk. Here’s why a ‘strategic’ approach is required.

Last year, while devising a nationwide network of distribution centers for deliveries, one of the leading U.S. pharmacy chains realized that it has an advantage neither its retail rivals nor delivery apps could match: its 8,700 stores. So, the retail giant put its distribution center plans on hold as it switched to fulfilling orders for toothpaste and nail polish from nearby stores instead. Given that 78% of Americans already live within five miles of one of its stores, the average delivery time promptly plummeted from two or three days to less than an hour.