BQF Innovation

On his blog at Think for a Change, Paul Williams lists some useful advice on how to get the most from collaborative innovation efforts.  They include: 

This is all useful input into the continuing question - how can we get our collaborations to work better?

Paul Sloane

We tend to think of innovation as a tool for inventing and marketing new products and services.  This is certainly its main thrust.  However, as Jeffrey Baumgartner points out in this article on Innovation Tools, you can use innovation for streamlining business processes, eliminating steps, reducing waste and cutting out costs.  When times are tough we should use what he calls reductive innovation to examine and improve every aspect of our business.  As well as asking ‘How can we delight customers?’ or ‘How can we double sales?’ We should ask questions like, ‘How can we eliminate costs?’ and ‘How can we use less energy?’  Then we use the same creativity techniques for cost cutting as for new product ideas.

Paul Sloane

Watching the Olympics leads me to comment on the lessons that sport has for business.  I believe that the benefits of sporting lessons for business are exaggerated.  Business success is based on more than motivation, discipline and hard work.  It depends heavily on innovation - and sport is a very poor guide to that.  In sport the rules are clearly defined and everyone has to conform to them.  In business every assumption and rule can be challenged. Organisations must be prepared to change everything including their fundamental business model.  Sporting coaches cannot help here.  Creativity, lateral thinking and innovative leadership are needed.

Of course there are innovations in sporting methods but compared to the pace of change in business they are tiny.  There is little real innovation in top level sport - mainly because the rules are so stringent. The Fosbury flop is a true example of lateral thinking and an entirely new approach.  But it is 40 years since Dick Fosbury came up with it and there have been precious few similar examples since.  What creativity can a 400 metre runner really show?  Sure he can train differently but this is not radical innovation.  If you look at business you see innovative companies taking big risks with completely different models, methods, combinations and approaches.  Torvill and Dean doing a different ice dance is creative but it is not in the same league as the Nintendo Wii. If T & D tried anything really innovative, like jet powered skates, the judges would ban it. But you can try just about anything in business and that is the crucial difference.  Sports can teach us about mental toughness, goals, belief, handling pressure, motivation and concentration.  In other words mostly left brain disciplines.  If you want to develop right brain skills in creativity, lateral thinking and innovation then look to the arts, theatre even warfare - but not sport.

The 100m race is essentially exactly the same event now as it was 50 years ago. Golf has hardly changed. If you took Arnold Palmer or Sam Snead or Bobby Jones and put them into a golf tournament today they would be completely at home. Similary Lew Hoad or Fred Perry could compete at Wimbledon.  The standard would be higher but the only significant innovation they would notice would be the tiebreaker.  Now think about taking a businessman from the 1950s and dropping him into business today.  He would be amazed at how everything had changed and he would struggle to cope. Business faces innovation challenges every day and has to adapt, learn and innovate to survive.  Most sports are frozen in one mode which essentially changes very little. Sport is artificially constrained by rules that make it easy to understand for spectators, officials and participants.  Business is real life where all bets are off and anything can happen. That is the difference and that is why sport has little to teach us about the most important aspect of business today - innovation.

Paul Sloane

In this significant new work, Gary Hamel challenges our thinking about management.  He argues that the management methods used in most organisations are relics of systems designed over 100 years ago to control and command.  They are inappropriate, inadequate and obstructive for knowledge-based 21st century organisations that want to be agile and innovative.  He gives detailed case studies of companies that use new and advanced management methods.  In particular he describes Whole Foods, W L Gore and Google.  He advises that we completely replace conventional systems of management with a much more democratic and empowered environment where people can take responsibility for their own decisions and express their creativity in a trusted community.  He gives Web 2.0 as the model for the new world of management - powerful peer networks. 

His writing style is excellent - intelligent, articulate and stimulating.  His examples are very useful for putting the points into context.  The Future of Management will challenge your thinking and ask you some uncomfortable questions.  It is highly recommended.

Click here for a full list of my recommended books on Innovation, Leadership and Creativity.

Paul Sloane

I went for a walk in the park today and noticed that most of the people who were walking their dogs were using ball throwers.  We had a dog for many years and in all that time I threw balls and sticks for it and was never aware of any need for a ball thrower.  I guess that if you had asked 1000 dog owners what problems or needs they had in relation to their dog they would have come up with a 100 things before anyone thought of a ball thrower.  Yet now every other dog owner has one.  When anyone can throw a ball why does everyone need one?   Well they do offer some benefits.  They allow you to pick up the ball without getting your hand dirty.  You can flick the ball further than with an overarm throw.  And many women seem to find throwing a little challenging so they are convenient.  This inexpensive product is exploiting a need that most customers did not know they had.  The same goes for many other products and services.

How can you anticipate needs that customer surveys cannot reveal?  The best ways are by watching users and seeing what they do and what problems or difficulties they encounter.  How can you make every stage of the process easier for them?  Whether it is walking a dog or outsourcing the building of a nuclear power station there are always ways to make things easier.  In 10 years time we will all be using goods and services that no-one has thought of yet.  Just like the ball thrower for dog walkers.

Paul Sloane

There are several interesting innovation blogs.  Some of my favourites are listed in the blogroll on the right hand side of the page.  A couple of compendiums usefully compile a list of all the latest postings on innovation blogs and I am pleased to say that the BQF Innovation Blog gets listed.  Try these two:

Pageflakes

Alltop Innovation

Now you can keep up to date on innovation postings with a minimum of effort.

Paul Sloane