Innovation

INNOVATION

A Working Man’s Interpretation

Innovation: What is it ?

in·no·va·tion  (n-vshn)n. 1. The act of introducing something new. 2. Something newly introduced.

Dictionary.com

(It’s certainly new)

Is this Innovative ?

Showed up at work with self made Iron Man Costume.

PS: Was asked to go home

Meet Mr. Wang Kang – Innovator ?

Let’s try again !

“Traditionally, people think innovation is just about creativity, about being able to create ideas. In fact, it’s a very disciplined area. Companies really can manage innovation in the ways that they manage quality.”

Esther Baldwin, Intel (Quoted in SMR)

A Process ? Really ?!

"Innovation is the multi-stage process whereby organizations transform ideas into improved products, service or processes, in order to advance, compete and differentiate themselves successfully in their marketplace.”

Baregheh A, Rowley J and Sambrook S.(2009) Towards a multidisciplinary definition of innovation, Management decision, vol. 47, no. 8, pp. 1323–1339

It’s really two things

Creativity

Delivery

Innovation

Let’s take a detour

Competitive Advantage

Getting Ahead is easy

Getting ahead is a one-shot deal

Staying Ahead is hard

To stay ahead you have to be consistently better

Staying ahead

Build a Wall• Patents, Entry barriers, Switching costs, Brands

Run like Hell !• Innovate, innovate, innovate !

In Business, Innovation is a means to an end•It must create enough value to let you stay one step ahead of the competition

How is it done ?

Barriers to Innovation

The Deadly Enemies of Creativity

Success Inertia Caveman R&D

Mismatched

passions

Going Solo

Looking for

solutions

Success

“We have been the top-selling

company for 10 years. Why change ?”

The longer your success, the

closer you are to antiquity

Inertia

“It’s not broken – why fix

it ?”

“It just broke”

Caveman R & D

“Eureka – I invented the

wheel !”

Welcome to the 21st century!

(Also, meet the rest of the

company)

Going Solo

Myth: Creativity is a solitary pursuit(Its about telling

people how smart you are)

Reality: Creativity is a team sport

(Ideal Team = Old Hogs + New

Blood)

Mismatched passions

Engineer: “I’ve re-coded

everything from the

ground up”

Customer: “It still doesn’t

work”

Problem Solving

Looking for solutions to old problems gives you incremental

gains (and feels

comforting and useful)

Looking for new problems to solve

can give you quantum gains (and feels scary)

The Deadly Sins of Delivery

Bureaucracy

Broken innovation

process

Zero Internal Selling

Impatience for

results

NPVs, IRRs, and other evils

Bureaucracy

“We just invented a

tele-porter”

“I need three

copies of your

proposal”

Broken Innovation Process

“We have a break-thru

idea – who do we tell ?”

“Hmmm..”

Internal Selling

Marketing: “Our

customers would love these new features”

Manufacturing: “Yawn”

Impatience

“We know this will work, but we need more time”

“Sorry, I need to see some

results before the quarter

closes”

NPVs, IRRs, and other Evils

NPVs work for relatively

predictable projects

An innovation is a bet –

somebody is going to have to

be brave(But think “Options”)

Innovation in Telecom

Is Telecoms an innovative industry ? What happened to

MMS ? Mobile Advertising ? WAP Portals ? Location based services ? Push to talk ? Video calling (network based)

All are there, but none made it to blockbuster status

Who ate the Telecom lunch ?

Why didn’t telecoms get these right ? Social Networking / Facebook Media Sharing / Youtube, Flickr, blogging Geographical service / Foursquare Video Calling / Skype

In each case a new company came along and did better what telecoms had been trying to do

“Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in awhile, or the light won't come in.”• Alan Alda

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Thank you