Innovation is not invention. It is in a new product or service, and in how we build a new product or service. It is in the business processes, and in how we manage those business processes. This presentation is about 10 ways you can innovate in your startup or business.
The difference between creativity, innovation, and invention.
Marshmallow experiment: Teams were asked to build structures of spaghetti and place a marshmallow on top. The team which would build the tallest structure would win. Result: The worst results came from recent grads of B-schools and amazingly good results came from recent grads of kindergarden.
Reason: MBA grads are taught to do a lot of planning. They are trained in controlled environment away from real world experience. The method of teaching is same as it was few years ago when core competencies were focused on. It is assumed the core competencies are set and managers will go out and manage ongoing processes to make sure the company protects the core competencies.
“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.” –Mike Tyson.
Startups - Building products / services: more and more time is spent into planning and customer sees the product at the end of the cycle (idea > business plan > investment > product > customer).
Problem: There have been major startups who’ve put millions of dollars in their products just to see their startups fail because customers didn’t want their product or service.
Businesses - Managing businesses: What we are taught is to go and manage organizations which already have fixed processes in place. They have been focusing on their core competencies and we are meant to protect the same. There are organizations which have a solid business model and business process, but fail when a disruptive innovation changes the game.
How not to get punched in the face? At least not very hard. The answer is innovation.
This presentation is about 10 ways how NOT to get punched in the face.
Build the smallest product your customers can give feedback on, and iterate on top of it until you have a final product.
Build and test a Minimum Viable Product, see if customers accept it (it can just be a landing page), and then move on to build the actual product. Keep cycles of feedback in between the steps. Just like the kindergarten children did in the marshmallow challenge. MVP term popularized by Eric Ries in his book “The Lean Startup”.
Jump to the next curve, not only making something easier
Evolution->invention (Examples): from telephone to internet, from web apps to mobile apps, the best innovation happens when you jump to the next curve.
Corporates miss out on innovation because they’re too busy managing current business and clients. They are successful in what they're doing
“Today's success should not become the enemy of tomorrow's success.”
For example, Apple did not invent the MP3 player. They just marketed the iPOD as "1000 songs in your pockets". That's marketing innovation if you look at it closely. That’s also UI innovation. Note that it’s not invention. It’s reinvention.
Razor vs blade pattern (Gillette). Selling cheap razors and exp blades.
Google:
Business model / revenue model innovation
Before it was define your core business, stay with your core business and protect your core business. Hence, today, all these businesses are getting disruptive (point to disruptive innovation). At this time, companies which do not innovate with their business model, will disrupt in time.
Google aims at 9/10 models to fail else they're not challenging themselves enough. That's okay as the one successful model will cover the costs of the 9 failed models.
Adapting a business model innovation to your industry is still innovation and points to the concept of innovation fuels innovation.
Instead of reinventing the wheel, you can use analogies and learn from other industries. Check consistency of how other industries work and implement it in your business model.
On the other hand, there are organizations which have a solid business model and business process, but fail when a disruptive innovation changes the game.
- WhatsApp:
Netflix to TV is the same as WhatsApp to text messaging. these are examples of innovating on a proven model to the extent of causing death of an existing model – also called disruptive innovation. Ex. WhatsApp killed SMS and MMS.
It killed the blockbuster stores
Jugaad example which got an entrepreneur from Bay Area to Bangalore to create a business model around Jugaadu missed calls.
Mapplinks: Innovation examples from our own company.
As B school grads, you have the power to do this in your future leadership roles. Yes I said leadership roles. Because when you innovate, you won’t just be playing management roles.