Company wide innovation is not about nurturing solitary genius in sterile laboratories but requires the bubbling enthusiasm of innovation spirals.
To internalize innovation tools, use them. Teach them to others. The new IT is Innovation Tools, install them in your mind’s computer. Present the tools with examples from your company. Encourage questions. Teach the tools to your friends and your family. This is the best way to make it a part of your every day life.
While stimulating the process is now in place providing daily stimulus is the problem owner’s job. This can be done by asking the team a provocative question everyday. The question could be ‘What are the non-value adding activities in your daily work? How can we help to eliminate this?’
Think for a long time. Look at several alternatives, a hundred futures, before deciding on the best one for the moment. Remember the market place will be the best place for complete refinement of your product.
Start small. Keep over heads low. Be lean and learn. Don’t spend money on swanky offices, first- class travel, hotels and the Mercedes Benz.
Pursue areas with high entry level barriers, which competitors avoid like the plague. Test market in a small way. Experience the results; look into the customer’s eyes. Don’t just keep talking and making presentations. Review, tweak and go back to the market. Course correct, move. Don’t get stuck in analysis paralysis. There is no guarantee of success.
Nothing is an instant success. Every successful product is the result of a hundred corrections in response to customer reactions, changing aspirations. There is no time, when you can rest on your laurels because you are so perfect.
Let your solutions be bold, what no one has done before. Don’t take shelter in incrementalism.
Deccan Airlines created a disruption in the Airlines market. They created flights to smaller destinations not previously served like Vijayawada. The customer got low fares and at the same time lost:
1) Free food and drinks
2) Tolerance for more baggage
3) Premium seats
4) Convenient timing of flights