BQF Innovation

Is there a completely different way to operate in your business?  If all your competitors are using a broadly similar approach, is there an entirely separate approach that could deliver what your customers want?

In the early 1980s the leading manufacturers of Personal Computers were companies such as IBM, Compaq, Toshiba, Hewlett Packard and Olivetti.  They operated a similar model.  They built PCs to standard specifications and then shipped them to dealers who sold to end-users.  Michael Dell conceived a different model.  He allowed end-users to specify the exact configuration they wanted (e.g. memory, disk size, special function cards etc) and then built it to order.  The Dell PC was then shipped direct to the customer who could get telephone support to help set it up.  Because there was no inventory waiting in distribution channels Dell was able to operate with much lower stock levels than his competitors.  In a world where components were continually falling in cost and improving in specification this was a huge advantage.

Geoff Bezos used internet technology to develop an entirely different model for book and CD distribution when he set up Amazon.  The traditional book and CD retailers had high overheads in retail premises and inventories.  They could not compete with Amazon’s huge selections, slick search facilities, customised recommendations and fast deliveries.

ARM was launched in 1990 as a tiny microprocessor company competing with huge players like IBM, Intel and Motorola who all designed and manufactured their own chips.  ARM took a radically different approach.  Sir Robin Saxby, the visionary CEO, said. ‘We had very little money so our only hope of creating a global standard was to license the design to everybody – turning our enemies into our friends.  That put ARM into a different space.  It was our open licensing business model and the power of our connected community that was the most significant factor in changing the world.’ By 2006 some 98% of the world’s mobile phones were using at least one ARM designed processor and hundreds of companies have licensed ARM designs (including Intel).

How could you change your business model to completely bypass your competitor and delight customers with a radically better service?

Paul Sloane

What do you need when you cycle into town?  Perhaps somewhere to park your bicycle and a way to inflate your tires.  Trust the Dutch to come up with an innovation that combines solutions for these two customer needs.  I saw it on the excellent Springwise site and there are more details on the Heklucht site.  Apparantly it started out as an art project but has now been installed in several Dutch cities and as far abroad as Vienna and Leeds.

If we can make something as mundane as a bike stand attractive, innovative and functional then we can do the same with many other products.  What is the tire pump that you can add to your bike stand?  What service can you add to your products (or product can you add to your services)?

Paul Sloane

If you hold a brainstorm meeting and generate 90 ideas then the chances are that you whittle those down to a dozen promising ideas and then action the two or three best.  What happens to the other promising ideas that don’t make it onto the to-do list?  Ideally you should capture them in a database of good ideas and then take a look through that list from time to time. 

Many great ideas are cast aside because the time is not right for them.  An energy saving initiative which is not justifiable when oil is $50 a barrel can be a real winner when oil is $150 a barrel.  The post-it note glue that did not stick was an invention that had to wait until Art Fry found a use for it.

Many of the ideas that you need for new products or services may have surfaced in earlier meetings and been shelved for all sorts of reasons.  Don’t waste all the creativity that goes into idea generation.  Recycle and re-use ideas.  When you need some inspiration just browse through your database of ideas that were promising but not actioned.  The solution you need may be sitting in there now.

Paul Sloane

One of the methods I teach on my Ideas Workshops is SCAMPER.  It is a productive and versatile technique for examining a product or service from differing angles and for generating plenty of strongly innovative ideas.  SCAMPER is an acronym and you ask the following types of question when you use this tool:

• SUBSTITUTE - What elements of this product or service can we substitute?
• COMBINE - How can we combine this with other products or services?
• ADAPT - What can we alter or adapt it?
• MAXIMISE OR MINIMISE - How can we greatly enlarge or greatly reduce any component?
• PUT TO OTHER USE - What completely different use can we have for our product?
• ELIMINATE - What elements of the product or service can be eliminated?
• REARRANGE OR REVERSE - How can we rearrange the product or reverse the process?

Now I have found a site which enhances the tool and offers a range of supplementary resources.  Luciano Passuello has posted a blog on SCAMPER together with a SCAMPER random question generator and a SCAMPER mindmap.  If you want to use this tool in your next brainstorm meeting then these resources are highly recommended.

Paul Sloane