Category Archives: Strategy

Are you good enough?

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Are you good enough?Unless you have invented a completely new product or service, it is very likely that there are large competitors already in your marketplace, established competitors that you will be trying to outwit and outmaneuver. Even if you do have a completely new product or service, customers still have alternatives. For example, the Segway entered the marketplace with a “revolutionary product with no competition”, but the truth is that it entered a marketplace with a smorgasbord of alternative competition (walking, bicycling, roller-skating, skateboarding, etc.). This alternative or substitute competition has proven far stronger than any direct competitor ever could. So what can a small firm do to outmaneuver the big guys or outwit the sneaky substitute competition that is easy to overlook in the passion of the startup process?

The key to any startup outwitting or outmaneuvering the established players begins with strategic innovation. To create a strategic innovation you must first truly understand competition in your industry. Competition amongst firms in any marketplace is typically defined by a few key product or service features (value dimensions). In microprocessors the defining competitive feature in the minds of 90′s consumers was megahertz, while in assembled computers the keys were megahertz and megabytes. These two industries had yet to be fully commoditized so the arms race was along these dimensions of value. In a fully commoditized industry however, firms end up competing mostly on the value dimension of price. Why is this true?

The answer is that in a fully commoditized industry, consumers find the alternatives to be “good enough” on the value dimensions that matter to them and so the consumer generally selects the alternative with the lowest price. This behavior drives price competition and lower margins, and makes commodity industries generally not a nice place to be. So how do you avoid product commoditization or how do you create a strategic innovation in a commoditized industry?

Strategic innovations allow your organization to avoid or rise above commoditization. In addition to an in-depth understanding of your industry’s competitive environment, strategic innovation requires an intimate understanding of the customers. From this intimate understanding you are hoping to identify a value dimension that is incredibly important to the customer but woefully under served. This value dimension could be price, as Southwest Airlines proved in the airline industry, but most likely will be something else. Starbucks‘ strategic innovation was developed along the value dimensions of:

  1. A consistent and repeatable exceptional coffee experience
  2. A network of convenient locations

Strategic innovation requires that your product or service is “good enough” across the value dimensions that currently matter to customers, and creates “customer delight” on a value dimension that you identify through your extensive customer research as being incredibly important but woefully underserved (see Figure 1). Once you identify such a value dimension the difficult work truly begins. Now you must ask yourself how easy would it be for my competition (direct or substitute) to begin competing on this value dimension instead?

If it would be relatively easy for your competition to replicate your insights and the resulting product or service, then you have discovered a sustaining innovation – an innovation that takes the product or service to a higher level of value for the customer, but not capable of transforming your position in the industry. A true strategic innovation is powerful precisely because it will be incredibly difficult for the established competition to replicate. How did Southwest Airlines succeed by competing on price?

Southwest Airlines achieved strategic innovation not because they recognized that price was important to customers, but because they created an organization from the ground up that was capable of delivering low fares with great service. Their ground up organizational focus on people and cost ensured success where previous low fare carriers had failed. Established competitors have been unable to replicate their success. Delta with Song and United with Ted both crashed and burned in dramatic fashion. To get a better idea of what goes into a strategic innovation, look at Figure 2 to see a few of the key components of Southwest’s success:

Let’s shift back to you now. Once you’ve got that great product or service idea and possibly even a value dimension to build your company’s strategic innovation around, how do you get traction on that steep road to success?

Even if you have the greatest widget known to mankind, the likes of which nobody has ever seen before, you can’t just open a storefront and wait for the customers to walk in. You have to go out and effectively market your widget by first selecting who to sell to. Refuse to make this decision and you are doomed. Make the wrong decision and you will burn through valuable cash and potentially burn up any chance of creating success (no matter how good your product or service is). The key to gaining traction is identifying where the greatest customer pain solvable by you is, and for which customers are willing to pay a relative unknown to solve the pain for them (see Figure 3).

Encountering companies or consumers not willing to buy from an unknown is a key hurdle that some entrepreneurs never overcome, sentiment embodied in the popular phrase “Nobody ever got fired for hiring IBM.” This resistance may require you to seed your market by entering less than ideal arrangements with leading influencers in your target market. Being first is daunting for buyers and may require financial encouragement and hand holding, so that you have the opportunity to turn them into passionate advocates for your product or service in the future.

If you have created a truly valuable product or service, and ideally some level of strategic innovation to go with it, now hopefully you will have the time and opportunity to gain a foothold in your market and expand into other niches before the established competitors are able to replicate your success.

Build a Common Language of Innovation

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Lessons of Pawn Stars

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GUEST POST from Stephen Shapiro

Yes, you read that correctly.  PAWN Stars.

This reality television show on The History Channel chronicles a pawn shop outside of Las Vegas.  I enjoy the show because of the history associated with the pieces that are brought in for sale.  In addition to rifles from the revolutionary war and antique political documents, people bring in some unusual items like old videos games, dilapidated cars, and various novelty items.

After watching the show a bit, I gathered four practical lessons that Rick Harrison, the owner, uses when purchasing items:

  1. Liking/wanting an item does not make it a good purchase; it must make money
  2. Just because something is rare does not make it valuable
  3. Look at the size and analyze if something else could make more money in the same space
  4. Speed of sale is critical; consider the buyer’s market.  In down times, luxury items sell slower

These are also good lessons for any innovator.  Here are the innovation corollaries to the Pawn Star buying principles:

1. Do not get enamored with your ideas. Just because something “feels” good does not make it a good investment.  Innovators often get “attached” to their creations and then blindly push forward.  Knowing which ideas will create money is critical.  Knowing which ideas to kill is a powerful skill.

2. Just because it is different does not make it valuable. Recognize that novelty does not translate to value.  If you don’t have any buyers and it does not serve a specific need, you should not invest in it.  This is not a game of “innovation for innovation’s sake.” Too many companies say they want to innovate, but don’t really know why or how.

3. Not all innovations are created equal. What solutions can create exponential value?  What are the leverage points in your market?  What products or services could transform your industry?  Although you don’t want to only “swing for the fences” (that is, don’t solely focus on game changers; incremental innovation is also critical), make sure you invest your resources wisely with a balanced portfolio and a good risk/return profile.

4. Above all, consider the buyer. This is innovation 101.  The market must tell you where to invest.  In today’s economic condition, solving a pain is more important than providing an abstract benefit. In other words, be the aspirin for your customers’ pains.

Insights can be gathered from anywhere. Today I looked to a pawn shop. In the past, I was inspired by an expired bottle of mayo. Where else have you discovered new ways of thinking?  Innovation is everywhere.

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Twelve Days of Innovation

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Twelve Days of InnovationAs we are now in the middle of the Twelve Days of Christmas, I thought it might be fun to do a post from the innovator’s perspective of the kinds of gifts that might mean the most to an innovator during the holidays when it comes to their quest for innovation excellence. The song however does get quite repetitive so instead of running through it in song format, let’s look at the Twelve Days of Innovation as a list:

1. On the first day of Innovation, my CEO gave to me – Top Level Support for Innovation

There is no doubt that whatever the Chief Executive takes the time to talk about (repeatedly) and measure, is what people focus on and support in the organization. Having the CEO or even the whole top level of management talking about the importance of innovation by itself isn’t of course enough to make innovation happen. When we talk about Top Level Support, it may include the top level talking about their support for innovation, but it is more important that they show their support for innovation by giving the innovation efforts of the company a voice and making resources available to support them and in some cases even measuring and rewarding the level of innovation contribution of the staff in order to make it go.

2. On the second day of Innovation, my CEO gave to me – A Common Language of Innovation

What is your definition of innovation? We all have one, and they are all different. If your company hasn’t taken the time to define what innovation means in your organization or to lay out how you are going to talk about innovation internally and externally, and captured somewhere what kinds of innovation you’re after, then exactly what kind of innovation do you expect to get?

3. On the third day of Innovation, my CEO gave to me – A Chief Innovation Officer

While top-level support is crucial, it definitely helps to have someone in charge of organizing the innovation efforts of the organization. A Chief Innovation Officer (CIO) or VP of Innovation or Innovation Director or whatever you choose to call them is not responsible for coming up with all of the innovations for a company, but instead helps to organize and own things like the common language acquired on the second day, and the gift coming next on the fourth day. In short the CIO manages the process and acts as a facilitator to help put the right innovation resources against the right innovation projects.

4. On the fourth day of Innovation, my CEO gave to me – Separate Funding for Innovation Projects

If you try and fund innovation projects from within existing budget categories, usually you will end up only with incremental, product-group specific innovations. Having separate funding for innovation means that you can fund the promising innovation projects that your organization identifies and that you can be more strategic about the kinds of innovation projects that you fund. It also allows you fund the gift coming next on the fifth day.

5. On the fifth day of Innovation, my CEO gave to me – A Balanced Innovation Portfolio

The innovation needs of any organization are diverse, and that is what makes a balanced innovation portfolio so important. If you received enough dedicated innovation funding on the fourth day, you’ll have no trouble putting together a balanced innovation portfolio of innovation projects focused on a variety of innovation types, projects with different risk profiles and time horizons. A balanced innovation portfolio will allow you to manage risk and ensure that you always have innovations ready to launch.

6. On the sixth day of Innovation, my CEO gave to me – Access to Customer Insights

In the innovation diatribes of many authors they talk about the importance of engaging your employees in your innovation efforts while also talking about the importance of understanding the customer and trying to discover unmet customer needs when trying to come up with new innovations. The problem is that most organizations don’t share their customer insight or voice of the customer information beyond their market researchers, product managers, and possibly a handful of executives. The problem? Successful innovations are often deeply linked to a novel or reinterpreted customer insight. How can employees maximize their innovation contributions if they don’t have access to customer insight information? Organizations that help their employees better understand the organization’s customers stand to accelerate their innovation efforts. Just do it.

7. On the seventh day of Innovation, my CEO gave to me – A Global Sensing Network

Innovation insights and ideas can come from anywhere. So, if you’re only looking in a few different places and asking a handful of people, how can you possibly maximize your innovation efforts? The solution is to build a Global Sensing Network. The purpose of a Global Sensing Network is to allow an organization to collect and connect the partial insights and ideas that will form the basis of the organization’s next generation of customer solutions. This involves collecting and connecting customer insights, core tech trends, adjacent tech trends, distant tech trends, local social mutations, expert communities, and more. To actually build a Global Sensing Network you need to start from the inside out. You have to take a look around inside your organization and see what employees you have, what natural connections they have, and where they are currently located on the globe. This will get you off to a good start – I can help you if you would like – but this article can help too.

8. On the eighth day of Innovation, my CEO gave to me – An External Talent Strategy

Does your organization want to increase its speed to market? Is innovation on the minds of your leadership? Does management insist that the smartest people in the world work for your organization? Or, do they acknowledge that there are more smart people outside your four walls than inside? The truth is that the nature of the organization is changing from a talent ownership mindset to a talent attraction mindset. We now do business in an integrated, global economy with an interconnected web of suppliers and distribution channels where having a partner of choice mentality will be increasingly important. We also live in a world where in the near future the most valuable employees will be those that not only good work, but also who serve as a force multiplier for their organizations by being good at organizing the efforts of others who don’t even work for the company. As an organization you’ll want to evolve to a place where ideally, even those who don’t work FOR you, want to work WITH you. This will require that organizations craft an external talent strategy to maximize not only the productivity of their employees on their payroll, but also to accelerate their innovation efforts. A link to the free webinar I did with Innocentive on this topic is coming soon, along with a white paper on the subject in early January.

9. On the ninth day of Innovation, my CEO gave to me – More Tolerance for Risk and Failure

When I speak at corporate events and conferences around the world with innovation practitioners trying to champion innovation in their organization and do the hard work in the trenches, I often hear the comment that their organization struggles to innovate because the culture of the organization is risk averse, or even worse, failures are punished so severely nobody wants to do anything risky or innovative. This is a leadership and a management problem that requires the gifts from the first, fourth and fifth days because the fact is that some of your innovation projects will fail and ideally you want to have a balanced portfolio of innovation projects that sit outside the business units and product groups so that the eventuality of this is acceptable and manageable. AND, at the same time it is also equally important that you work to establish a culture where people do not obsess on their fear of failure or the risk they are taking but instead on how fast they are learning – from both successes and failure. When learning balances failure and when portfolios manage risk, you’ll create more room for innovation.

10. On the tenth day of Innovation, my CEO gave to me – A Flexible, Adaptable Organization

If there are two characteristics that should be at the top of any wish list of organization capabilities besides innovation – flexibility and adaptability should be in the running for the top two spots. Flexibility and adaptability are not the same thing. A flexible organization is able to move resources from where they normally sit in the organization to where they are needed most in the organization at any one time. An adaptable organization is capable of quickly adapting to changes in the marketplace based on changes in the competitive structure of the industry, changing customer preferences, or a myriad of other changes that require the organization’s strategy, policies, processes, and even structure to change to better serve their profitable customers. Think Nokia moving from making tires to making mobile phones, think about Amazon switching from being a traditional e-tailer to welcoming third-party sellers onto the site and starting a cloud services business. Flexible, adaptable organizations are capable of surviving massive marketplace shifts caused by innovation. Flexible and adaptable employees capable of coping with all of the change required by flexible, adaptable, innovative organizations will be in high demand in the 21st century.

11. On the eleventh day of Innovation, my CEO gave to me – A Long-Term Commitment to Innovation

It’s great that the CEO threw you a bone on day one and gave you some top-level support for innovation, but unless your organization is willing to make a long-term commitment to innovation at all levels, and continually work to put the common language, training, policies, processes, and funding in place to sustain your innovation efforts, you won’t be successful. A long-term commitment to innovation is required. One that will survive a few failed innovation efforts (that of course yield a lot of learning), and a few defections of top talent to other organizations as you build out your innovation programs (innovation talent will be highly desired by other organizations after all). Over the long haul, you must as an organization work to embed innovation capability across the organization and not only use your efforts to produce new innovations but to also innovate your innovation efforts themselves if you want to pursue innovation excellence and make innovation a deep capability of the organization. Innovation is a marathon, not a sprint.

12. On the twelfth day of Innovation, my CEO gave to me – Idea and Insight Management Software

And finally, if you want to engage your employees, or eventually your partners, suppliers, customers, or even the general public in your future innovation efforts, you are going to need to have a system for gathering ideas and tracking their progress through the evaluation and execution phases of innovation. But at the same time you should also look at how you gather and share your customer insights and evaluate whether you need a system to manage that important resource as well. Don’t let great insights or ideas fall through the cracks because someone misplaced them.

Conclusion

Of course there are more ingredients necessary for making innovation a deep sustainable, renewable capability of the organization, but for the innovator in our song, these would be a great start. Innovation is hard work, and the organizations that invest in deepening their innovation abilities AND capabilities will over time be more successful than those that don’t. Building a strong innovation effort takes time and dedication, so if you’ve already started – keep pushing! And if you haven’t started yet, what are you waiting for?

I hope you all have a great finish to the holiday season and a prosperous start to the new year!

Build a Common Language of Innovation

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Netflux – A Qwikster Innovation Divorce for Netflix

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Netflux - A Qwikster Innovation Divorce for NetflixBreaking up is hard to do, but sometimes it is the right thing to do.

Imagine my surprise when an e-mail from Reed Hastings, Co-Founder and CEO of Netflix arrived in my inbox this morning announcing that Ms. Netflix was getting an innovation divorce.

Yes, Ms. Netflix has decided to send her old man packing and is no longer ashamed to tell you his name – Qwikster. Yes, Mr. Qwikster has been kicked to the curb with his DVD and Blu-Ray collection. Rumor has it Mr. Qwiskter was caught having a ‘qwikie’ with a mature video game, and Ms. Netflix decided she’d had enough. The newly independent Ms. Netflix announced she planned to devote all of her energy to her passion for streaming content now that Mr. Qwikster was out of the picture. Both hope that their individual pictures will be sharper after the breakup – and in full high-definition. They will share custody of their children Television and Movies, with Ms. Netflix getting custody online and Mr. Qwikster maintaining his relationship with the two by mail. Some friends of Ms. Netflix and Mr. Qwikster have already abandoned one or the other, with some people maintaining a relationship with both. In time we will find out who really has more friends.

I wish both Ms. Netflix and Mr. Qwikster the best of luck in their new lives apart from each other.

The Importance of Focus to Innovation

Surely I jest, but this news event has important innovation implications to discuss, and innovation should be about fun. The most important of these implications is focus.

When it comes to innovation, scale and breadth of offering often lose out to focus.

But few leaders have the courage to make the hard choices that are often necessary to keep innovation vibrant and the executives focused where they need to have their attention, while liberating the entrepreneurs to pursue the next best innovation with the passionate persistence it takes to succeed.

The divorce will allow each business to optimize its supply chain, its strategy, and most importantly will allow executives to spend less time in meetings that don’t effect their sphere of impact so that they can focus on identifying and executing innovation projects that create new value for their customers.

While I believe that Netflix strategically mishandled the execution of their innovation divorce from Qwikster, I must applaud its rationale. Although, I’m not so sure about the line in Reed’s e-mail where he talks about AOL and Border’s. Does that mean that he thinks that Qwikster is dead on arrival?

Personally I used to play Blockbuster and Redbox off of each other until my local Blockbuster went out of business. That forced me into a ‘friendship’ with Mr. Qwikster and Ms. Netflix. Now, I probably get more value out of my relationship with Mr. Qwikster because I can order old Disney classics like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang to watch with my daughter, but if Ms. Netflix ever got her act together and formed real relationships with people like Mr. Disney and his friends Hanna and Barbera, then maybe I would ask Mr. Qwikster to stop mailing me stuff.

It will be interesting to see how Ms. Netflix and Mr. Qwiskter develop on their own. Ms. Netflix faces a huge headwind in building real relationships with the movie and television studios, and there is no guarantee that Netflix will win in the streaming space. Redbox is entering the space, Amazon is there, and Apple and maybe even Spotify pose real risks. Who will win? I don’t know, but it will be interesting to watch, although maybe not in 3D.

One Final Thought

I’m not so sure about the new name though – Qwikster – what is that? A cross between Quicken and Friendster?

I would be curious to hear what your take is on the name and whether you believe they will be able to achieve more innovation apart than together.

Editor’s Note: I will be conducting two-day innovation masterclasses in Dubai (October 23-24, 2011 at the Four Points Sheraton Dubai) and Kuala Lumpur (October 26-27, 2011 at The Renaissance Kuala Lumpur) if you would like to attend, please click this link for more information from the event organizers. If you would like to organize this masterclass to come to your part of the world, please contact me.

Special Bonus

Download 'Stoking Your Innovation Bonfire' sample chapterIf you’ve read all the way to the bottom, then you deserve a free sample chapter from my new book Stoking Your Innovation Bonfire. I hope you enjoy the sample chapter and consider purchasing the book as a way of supporting the future growth of this community.

Download the sample chapter

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Should You Fish for Innovations or Catch Them?

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GUEST POST from Stephen Shapiro

On talk radio the other day, they were discussing the fishing industry. The conversation centered on how certain types of much more popular than others. I not sure of the specifics, but I think salmon, tuna, and sea bass are the hot fish.

Most consumers, when they go to the supermarket, ask for those specific fish. They have a recipe in mind and want to cook that. It was suggested that it would be better if people asked the “freshest” catch instead.

From their perspective, there are two reasons why requesting the freshest catch is good idea. The obvious reason is that the fish will most likely be tastier.

But there was a bigger reason; one that is critical to the industry.

If people stop asking for specific fish, it would allow fishermen to “catch” rather than “fish.”

The distinction might seem subtle, but it is important.

Fishing means you target specific fish, even if they are not plentiful or fresh.

On the other hand, catching means you get what you get; whatever is plentiful and ready to be caught. From an industry perspective, this is preferred. It prevents over-catching of popular fish and helps the industry survive.

This got me thinking about innovation.

What is better: catching or fishing for innovations?

Although catching might be better for the fishing industry, fishing is better for the innovation industry.

When you “catch,” you tend to innovate around your capabilities (what you do well), what you do today, or what feels right. This is not a good strategy. If you do this, your innovations will not be grounded in what the market desires.

According to an Accenture study of executives in 639 companies, the number one reason for innovation failure was that their products and services “failed to meet customer needs.”

Your innovations need to be relevant to the needs of the marketplace.

Therefore, “fishing” for solutions that meet consumer needs it a more powerful strategy. Innovating on what is “important” helps focus your efforts, ensures relevance of solutions, and increases your overall capacity to innovate.

So, although the “catch of the day” might be a good strategy for selecting your dinner, using this as an innovation strategy might leave you with a lot of unpopular (and unsold) solutions.

P.S. For those of you who fish, if I got the distinction backwards, please don’t shoot me… I’m running from my recollection of the radio broadcast.

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Will Death of Blockbuster Kill Redbox?

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Will Death of Blockbuster Kill Redbox?Let’s examine something that has been bothering me for a little while. I’ve been renting my movies from Blockbuster and Redbox for years, but now my local Blockbuster store is closing. When I’ve expressed this sadness to friends and colleagues, people just tell me to get Netflix.

Let’s dig quickly into the psychology behind the Netflix/Blockbuster/Redbox choice that each of us has been making. Now, I’m a big fan of technology, but it has its limitations. One of those limitations is that technology can isolate people from the real world. I know all you social media zealots and self-proclaimed experts out there are shouting ‘heresy’ back at me, but hey, that’s why there is a comments box down at the bottom of each article here—for people to engage in a wee bit of dialog.

While social media does serve to connect people, it also serves to disconnect them. To read more on the double-edged impact of social media you might want to check out the book Alone Together: Why We Expect More From Technology and Less From Each Other by Dr. Sherry Turkle.

Layered on top of the tensions between technology, psychology and social interaction is that people are as different as they are the same. As much as we like to think we’re all individuals, when it comes to market dynamics, we tend to be different. That’s why we segment our customers into groups for marketing purposes, test for personality types in team situations, and create separate brands for different groups of customers.

Given all of this, there is an impact of Blockbuster going out of business that I don’t think many people are anticipating, and that is the likelihood that Blockbuster’s demise will actually accelerate the demise of Redbox. This is because, unlike the assumption most people would make, Blockbuster and Redbox are more complements than substitutes. When Redbox emerged people used it as an arbitrage against Blockbuster to get cheaper rentals from Redbox while still retaining the pleasure of physical browsing and the selection advantage Blockbuster provides over Redbox.

Continue reading this article on the American Express OPEN Forum.

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Why We Crave Goals

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GUEST POST from Stephen Shapiro

As many of you may know, my second book was called Goal-Free Living. Although it was originally going to be a book on how to be more creative, it morphed into a manifesto for a counter-cultural way of living.

In fact, the “goal-free” philosophy will be featured in a major newspaper early next year. Stay tuned for that.

Someone once asked me why people crave goals. It is a hard question to answer. But an interesting point of view was sent to me by Antony Woods from Australia, and I wanted to share it with you…

He quotes a renowned 20th Century Burmese Meditation Master:

“The fourth protection for your psychological benefit is to reflect on the phenomenon of ever-approaching death. Buddhist teachings stress that life is uncertain, but death is certain; life is precarious but death is sure. Life has death as its goal. There is birth, disease, suffering, old age, and eventually, death. These are all aspects of the process of existence.”

From: Practical Vipassana Meditation Exercises by Mahasi Sayadaw

Antony then suggested that “people often set goals for their lives assuming that they won’t die in the foreseeable future. They assume that the New Year will come, tomorrow will come etc. The only thing one knows that is coming is death, but one doesn’t know when. Rather than thinking “death, death, death,” reflection helps one to appreciate the duration of each breath and have a playful, tentative and pragmatic attitude about the future. I reckon this is what Goal-Free Living is all about.”

Interesting thing to consider as we get ready for New Year’s Eve and the goal-setting ritual known as “resolutions.”

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Cathederal or Chaos?

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GUEST POST from Stephen Shapiro

The other day I gave a speech on open innovation at a conference primarily focused on open source software.

One of the presenters at the event suggested that instead of trying to create a cathedral by controlling software development, we should instead be comfortable with a mess. The point of open source is to let creativity emerge from the mess.

I thought that was an interesting point and was curious if this is how open source really works.

Just then an audience member made a comment (paraphrased here) – “Nearly every major, successful open source software effort has been backed by (and loosely controlled) by a large group. For example, Mozilla’s support of Firefox and Oracle’s support of Open Office.” He listed a few others and concluded that the only one that was not organized this way was Apache. He implied that maybe the “mess” is not best.

I’m not an open source software expert, but I don’t find that surprising.

When there is no structure, chaos ensues. Structure, even simple structure, can help bring together people so that they can work together more efficiently AND creatively (we know that even creativity requires some structure; innovation more-so)

As the morning progressed, I realized that the conference itself was an example of what can happen when there are no controls. It quickly became apparent that there was no formal emcee, no one in charge of the running of the conference, and no well-defined agenda.

The morning plenary was scheduled to go from 9AM until 10:30AM followed by a 30 minute break. After the break were concurrent breakouts, including the one where I was presenting. Immediately after my speech, I would hop off the stage, hop into a taxi for the airport, and head to my next speech in Italy.

At 10:30, when the break was supposed to start, another speaker took the stage. I assumed we were running a little late, but it was hard to tell how late since they did not list who was supposed to speak. And then a parade of speakers continued. It seemed like it would never end. I think there were four or five speeches that went on after the scheduled end time. And quite a few of the speeches were nothing more than long-winded commercials from sponsoring companies. It was 11:30 – a 60 minute overrun on a 90 minute session – before the speeches were done. And then, no one was given instructions. Should they take a break? Should they go to their breakout? People were confused. They did not know what to do. I didn’t know what to do. And I wasn’t 100% sure I would make my flight given the delay.

Although it would be an exaggeration to call this event “chaotic,” it certainly was not orderly or efficient. And it demonstrated what can happen when things are left on their own without any kind of process.

I realize that innovation requires a bit of flexibility and comfort with ambiguity. Nothing is totally predictable in the world of innovation and you can’t schedule everything as neatly as you do in the world of operations or manufacturing. I also agree that new ideas can emerge from chaos that might not otherwise come to the surface (reminds me of the infinite monkey theorem). And when you have millions of people donating their time to the open source movement, the resulting inefficiency associated with the mess can be tolerated.

But can your business afford this level of inefficiency? Probably not. I have written frequently about the “signal-to-noise” ratio of your innovation efforts. If you modeled your business after the “uncontrolled, mess model,” you will almost certainly end up with an extremely low signal-to-noise ratio.

The real objective of your innovation “process” is to put in just enough structure to help make it efficient, while not putting in so much that it stifles creativity.

I’ll close this post with something I wrote back in 2001 in my first book, and reused in a blog entry a year ago:

(As innovators,) we are architects of companies and industries. An architect is not a ‘reengineer.’ To illustrate this point, I often ask clients what is the difference between an optimist, a pessimist, a reengineering consultant, and an architect. The optimist looks at a half filled glass of water and sees it as half-full. The pessimist looks at the same glass and sees it as half-empty. The reengineering consultant sees too much glass. Cut off the top. Downsize. An architect looks at the same glass and asks questions such as “Who’s thirsty?” “Why water?” Or “Is there another way to satisfy the thirst?”

We need to architect our innovation efforts. And in order to do that, we need to ask better questions.

In fact, one of the most critical skills for accelerating innovation is to – ask the right questions, the right way, of the right people.

With this approach, you get both the efficiency of the controlled cathedral building process and the emergent creativity associated with the messier forms of open source software.

P.S. The picture is one I took of St. Marks Basilica while in Venice, Italy. Although your business might not want to create a cathedral, this one was pretty impressive!

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Introducing Snack-Sized Innovation Consulting

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As many of you know, Human-Centered Change & Innovation is a sideline for me, and a way of giving back by bringing together the best human-centered innovation, change, transformation, design thinking and experience insights I can get access to and then make them accessible for the greater good.

To pay the bills and keep Human-Centered Change & Innovation going, I do consulting, speaking and writing.

In recognition of the changing economic realities and the increasingly global market for our services, we are pleased to offer snack-sized innovation and marketing consulting services by Skype video conference as well as traditional on-site consulting. Now you can rent Braden’s brain for even the smallest need or budget. Here are our three main packages:

Silver Gold Platinum
$499 Innovation and Transformation Consulting

  • Skype video call
  • Up to 90 minutes of preparation and consulting services
  • Additional hours available for purchase

$499 Innovation and Transformation Consulting

$999 Innovation and Transformation Consulting

  • Skype video call
  • Up to 180 minutes of preparation and consulting services
  • Additional hours available for purchase

$499 Innovation and Transformation Consulting

On-Site Innovation and Transformation Consulting

  • Travel expenses
  • Custom on-site consulting solution
  • Purchased by the day or week
  • Scheduled in advance

On-Site Innovation and Transformation Consulting

Business Strategy Innovation delivers workshops and consulting services that focus on three areas:

  1. Getting Started with Innovation
  2. Creating a Culture of Continuous Innovation
  3. Building Stronger Customer and Employee Relationships

Founded by Braden Kelley, Business Strategy Innovation has been advising companies since 1996 in industries ranging from medical equipment, software, and internet advertising to real estate, retail, defense, and more.

Based in Seattle, Washington we are just a short flight away from anywhere in the United States and available to work with companies in Europe, Asia, and beyond. But, now with these new snack-size consulting options, you don’t have to have a budget big enough to bring us to you, and can instead get some really good feedback or advice on the issues you are wrestling with at a much lower cost.

I look forward to helping out however I can.

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One Simple Action Can Change Your Life

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GUEST POST from Stephen Shapiro

Recently, a number of people have asked me how I became an author and professional speaker. I reflected upon it and realized that it all started with one simple action. And maybe, to make major change happen, that’s all you need: one small move.

The year was 1993. I was a relatively junior person at Andersen Consulting (now Accenture). I was 7 years out of college and was working on projects like everyone else. I blended into the woodwork and was not distinguished from any of the other 40,000 consultants.

And then one day I had an idea: I realized that I was interested in “cultural transformation” work and felt that Andersen’s culture could use a little transforming. Therefore I decided to call the CEO, George Shaheen, and ask for a meeting to discuss this, um, idea. Yes, I admit, it sounds a little crazy.

I moved into action. I found a company directory, looked up the direct dial number for George, and placed the call. I remember the call well. His executive assistant answered the phone and asked what I wanted. I said, “I want to speak with George Shaheen about transforming Andersen Consulting.”

I am certain she must have looked at the phone and thought, “Who is this crazy person?” She responded, “Excuse me. What do you want?” I repeated myself. She was polite and said, “Ok, let me see what I can do.” She hung up and I assumed that would be the end of things.

The next day, the partner leading the project I was working on came to my desk. Although he was many levels down the totem pole, word got to him quickly. He asked me, “Did you call George Shaheen?” I confirmed that I had. I’m sure HE thought I was crazy. He said, “Maybe I can help you.” I proceeded to tell him my idea about transforming the company’s culture. His response – “I know someone, Bill Stoddard, who is involved with an effort called ‘Enterprise Transformation.’ Maybe you want to meet him instead.” I said, “I would love to meet with Bill. And I still want to meet with George.”

Long story short, I did eventually meet with George, and it was an interesting meeting. But the person who changed my career forever was Bill Stoddard. Meeting him put my career on a totally different trajectory. For some reason he liked me and asked me to work with him on a new initiate he was leading called Value Driven Re-Engineering (he was only an adviser to the Enterprise Transformation initiative). I stopped doing full-time client work and started working with Bill. Our re-engineering work turned out to be big. VERY big. At one point, over one-third of the company’s revenues could be tied back to re-engineering. I was busy leading training sessions and giving speeches around the world.

This started me on the path towards the career I have now. A career I absolutely love.

And none of this might have happened if it weren’t for that one phone call to George.

Sometimes one action can forever change the course of your life, or your business.

Of course, I did not realize that this call would lead me down a totally new path. But sometimes, we can predict possible futures based on actions.

What action can you take TODAY that could change the course of events for you or your business. If the action doesn’t seem outrageous or crazy, keep on thinking.

  • Who can you call that you would never typically have the guts to call?
  • What can you do that is out of your comfort zone, but could have life changing implications?
  • Where could you go that you would never go, but might open up new opportunities?

Sometimes, just taking the first step on a new path can change the course of future events.

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