Innovation is
nothing new and the box can be broken. If an idea or
an invention does not fundamentally solve a problem, then it’s just an idea. It
is not really an innovation.
the most
important currency we have to trade is truly our ideas. However, the value of
those ideas is directly related to their ultimate adoption, and that adoption
has to be linked to solving a problem.
“meaningful
innovation” a business idea must first address a need, improve a process,
increase productivity, or make life easier. Adoption of
interoperability as a key component of future design.
For starters,
the limited resources of the team were both a constraint and an asset.
The common
denominator in both cases was that the “boots on the ground” people found a
solution by creating an imaginative combination of existing and familiar
assets. Regardless of
the appeal of an innovation, it will not get traction if it is too expensive,
and nothing is more economical than using what you already have.
Principle of
The Three E’s: Ecological, Economical and Easy
Uber put existing
resources together in a unique way to improve the transportation ecosystem.
The use case
for an improved consumer experience bears out the principles of the 3 E’s
perfectly. If you build
it, they will come, but only if it is economical, you make it easy, and you
utilize the existing resources of the ecosystem wisely.
Any industry
sitting on excess capacity—possibly your industry—should be on alert. Because
here is the most important lesson of all: idle capacity in any form makes your
company a sitting duck, simply waiting for disruption.
What they
really did was link together existing technology and processes to create a
solution that helps women access the fashion ecosystem in a more responsible
way by better utilizing an underutilized resource. Looking
through the filter of the Principle of the 3 E’s, Rent the Runway is absolutely
ecological, it is certainly easy to use, and it is radically economical.
One of the
most vital factors for success of the M-Pesa mobile payments system is that it
is easy for consumers. Adoption has been rapid and widespread because using
these mobile devices is so intuitive. M-Pesa also
demonstrates the Ecology Principle in every sense. By taking advantage of
previously reused and refurbished mobile devices, this innovation is taking
advantage of existing resources. Furthermore,
by utilizing existing retail establishments for cash back and deposit services,
the M-Pesa currency system takes maximum advantage of what is already there.
Lastly, this
innovation took off because it is very economical. The devices
themselves are provided for free or at a very nominal cost because the mobile
network operator ultimately gains revenue from the airtime utilization.
Innovation is
not always about technology; technology is often just the enabler of
innovation.
They created a
stencil design to cut these boxes in such a way that when they were folded,
they formed a school bag to carry books and when the child arrived at school,
he or she could unfold the book bag to become a desk! This invention
is called the Help Desk, and they are now being used effectively in remote
regions to improve the quality of education for many schoolchildren. A discarded
box that was destined for the landfill is now both a desk and a book bag.
Ecological? Yes, and it fits the use case profile of meaningful innovation
theory perfectly.
These boxes
are also economical, costing less than 20 cents each to manufacture. Now the
families of millions of school children are in reach of both a desk and a book
bag at that price.
Assembly is
also incredibly easy. The kids can quickly transform their bag into a desk and
at the end of the day reverse the process to carry their books home.
The first
secret to making this process work is to optimize collaboration between your
people and have the discipline to ask the right questions: 1. The people
who invented them 2. When they were invented. Teams of
people do great things together. Innovation rarely happens in isolation.
What is your
company doing to promote cross-functional and truly diverse idea sharing among
your employees? Like-minded
energy drives toward homogony. It’s only when we embrace diversity of thought
that we can break through to new ideas. Most people
need external stimuli to interact with others who are not like-minded.
1. Who are you
actually hiring (versus who you are interviewing)?
2. What does
your “thought diversity” quotient look like?
3. How diverse
are the people who most influence decisions for investing your company’s money?
4. What have
you done to create an environment at your company that actively promotes
cross-functional yet organic collaboration?
What is
available to you today that is either underutilized or can be actively
exploited in a new way?
1. What do you
have today that is underutilized? How can you combine that with other assets to
create something new?
2. Do you
actively poll team members not directly on the project or outside the company
to see what they know about possible assets?
3. What
insights can past endeavors contribute on available tools and technology to
solve your problem?
What can you
do to make your solution radically economical? The lesson
here is obvious: innovation is going to happen in your industry. If you are not
looking at radically economical ways to solve problems at your company with the
same attitude someone from outside your company would approach them, then
sooner or later you will be disrupted.
1. If your
competitor wanted to put you out of business, at what price would they market
your product or service?
2. How much
would someone who knows nothing about your business expect to pay for your
product?
3. If profit
were no longer a consideration for you, what price would you set for your
products?
Are you
actively finding solutions that are easy for the ultimate user? It is very
hard to make things easy, and it is not simple to keep them from becoming
complex.
1. Are the
complexities of your solution necessary or is that just the way it has always
been done?
2. If you
could answer the question “Wouldn’t it be awesome if …,” how might your
solution work?
3. What would
a person totally unfamiliar with your solution or product say about how
easy/hard it is?
To be
successful you need to create your innovation by setting aside the rules you
know. Very often,
companies are solving for a problem that people don’t have, and innovation for
the sake of innovation will not meet with mass adoption. As we established
previously, innovation must solve a problem or meet a perceived need to be
meaningful.
1. What market
force motivated you to create this solution? How much will people have to
change to adopt your idea?
2. What
problem will it solve for your customers today? What about customers tomorrow?
3. What is the
perceived need that will cause this solution to reach mass adoption for your
ultimate user?
The bottom
line is this: with a good business process that supports a culture of
collaboration and the discipline to ask the right questions of our people and
those outside our company, we can increase the likelihood of success for our
future efforts.
Make sure your
ideas are easy for users, radically economical, and most important of all,
ecological.
