Strategy: Efficient or Innovative

We haven't had a refresh on our strategy direction in my office for a few years. It seems like we are frequently torn between being efficient and being innovative.

Efficient

Lower cost
speed to production
minimal failures
maximum uptime

Innovative

Higher cost
lots of failures
freedom to pursue non-"approved" activities
shorter attention span

I'm part of an IT shop with nearly 200 services that we offer to campus and internally. I love the feeling of being innovative, but I'm concerned that our current push is to be innovative at the expense of being efficient. The result is that we can't accomplish as much near-term good for the campus because our focus is on the longer term.

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