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Three Ways To Unlock Innovation

Three Ways To Unlock Innovation

by | Apr 14, 2014 | Business Tips

One way not to go to unlock innovation is to hold a brainstorm! Or at least to turn up with butchers paper, pens and little else!

You need stimuli and a process to gain insight and inspiration. You need always to be on the look out – innovation happens all around you every day!

Here’s three ways that I found have helped people think about developing innovative products and services:

1) Look at the Edges and Intersection of your Users, Products and Competition
Where are there non standard uses for your products by customer groups you weren’t targeting? How have customers used your products to solve a problem you hadn’t thought of? Which of your customers are they using your competitors products – and for what purpose?

Lead users, those who are early adopters, can be indicators of a broader market opportunity.

2XU, for instance, were able to identify that a small group of non professional sports people were wearing high performance sportswear (that they didn’t need for performance purposes!). They created a new category by making those products widely available at (relatively) lower cost. Add a fashion angle and you not only have weekday joggers wearing

2XU but it’s become acceptable weekend attire.

2) Take a Future Forward view
Take a trend and extend it as far as you can. What trends can you tap into and be ahead of the curve …Social, Environmental, Technological, Political, Regulator.

Back in 2009, Jetstar decided to jump ahead of their competitors by ramping up social media marketing whilst everyone else was dabbling at best. They allocated over 40% of marketing dollars to this segment and got stellar returns in terms of ROI. Seems sensible now but two years ago they were ahead of the curve.

3) Turn your business Upside Down and Inside Out
Change how you look at your Organisation, Staff, Supply Chain, Partners.
My favourite example here is Build-a- Bear. They completely inverted the accepted industry model. Teddy bears are a low cost, low margin, high volume, seasonal, fad based business. They created a business model that was low cost, high margin, moderate volume, all year round and experiential. From one store in the late 90’s they now have over 400.
Interestingly their revenue has flat lined lately – may well be time to turn things upside down and inside out again!

James works with a wide range of organisations from large to small, start up to established. He facilitates planning and strategy workshops, undertakes reviews, develops insights and ideas, and mentors and coaches leaders. As Chair of the Growth Leaders Forum he helps business leaders unlock their potential and chart a path to growth – http://www.vantagemarketing.com.au/

Leading with a Challenge

Leading with a Challenge

by | Feb 27, 2014 | Business Tips

“People are tired of simple things. They want to be challenged.” – Umberto Eco

I recently finished reading an interesting book called The Challenger Sale, by Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson. I’m not big on reading book reviews disguised as blogs, so I’m not going to spend 1000 words talking about the book. I’ll just strongly suggest it to business leaders everywhere. You can read more about it here.

The short version is this: the predominant view of sales success in recent history is that the most successful salespeople are “relationship builders”. I think most of us understand what that means – the kind of people who are good at making friends, that people like being around, that make you feel comfortable, etc. The authors suggest (based on fairly exhaustive research) that while those people are good at making friends, they aren’t so good at making sales. Their theory is that the truly successful salespeople are those who make customers uncomfortable, who ask questions that customers can’t answer, who challenge customers. Those are the salespeople who demonstrate value.

The most interesting part of that theory to me is how that idea relates to leading an organization, beyond just the sales function. How do you lead your people? Are you challenging how they think? Are you making them uncomfortable?

ChangeI’m not suggesting you don’t encourage your people, or develop relationships with them, or that you should try to make them dread going to work. What I’m suggesting is that the status quo is not acceptable. Your organization has to change to thrive – or even survive – over and over again. In order to make that change, people have to be uncomfortable with their current situation. They have to question what they’re doing & how they’re doing it. And that mindset, that constant pushing against the way things are – that has to start with the leaders.

If the leader is OK with the way things are today, all the employees will feel the same way. People will get complacent. Your organization will develop the belief that the way things are now is as good as they can possibly be. Change will be viewed as something to be avoided. And in the world we live in, that’s a death sentence for any business.

How are you leading? Are you challenging your people? Are you pushing them outside their comfort zone? Are you preparing them for a great future – or no future at all?