Innovation: What’s wrong with it?

Over the last couple of decades it’s been clear our large companies have struggled to keep up with the pace of change and innovate to compete.

This week on our XDI Experience LIVE Show, I’m excited to have a game-changing crowd-source innovation initiative join me on the show. And so I wanted to explore the world of innovation, the mistakes being made and what it takes to deliver!

Come register for Wednesday’s LIVE Show at 8am PT - let’s talk new innovation ways, crowd source engineering work and inventions

Failing to Innovate, Survive & Thrive? 

It’s recently dawned on me, it’s for two major reasons and so allow me to be controversial and “buck the system”. First, our large firms are listed on the stock markets and these have little patience for anything less then profit growth, frequently to the detriment of innovation. How can the leaders of firms focus their attention on anything else, when their job security and remuneration revolves purely around it?

Then there’s the market valuation.

Amazon, Tesla, Netflix, to name but three are rewarded for their innovation, while their traditional competitors often bring out as innovative website, cars and video streaming solutions, but fall far short in terms of market valuation growth, because the markets measure them differently!

How can the leaders of firms focus their attention on anything else, when their job security and remuneration revolves purely around traditional pure profit metrics? 

Large companies need to get better at innovating and reinventing themselves. That won't happen until they are rewarded for it. The system might complain there is not enough growth for it to buy into. Perhaps it only has itself to blame?

3 of the great inventions

Have you ever heard of a Dodge Bicycle? even a Mercedes Tricycle?

I know hey, they really did exist. They were the Minimum Viable Products (MVP) of today’s Automobiles. 

They built on this to design the first four wheel car with a four-stroke engine, after which Henry Ford perfected the assembly line. They say it was Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach that designed it, but of course it was far too complicated for one person to design & engineer on his own.  

And, while we’re on bicycles (MVPs), along comes Orville and Wilb\ur Wright, aka The Wright Brothers, who started out also with this two-wheeled device. They together with many years of thoughts, failure and learnings (DaVinci’s scribbles and Otto Lilienthal’s gliders) and a good team around them, fixed the last piece of the puzzle. The focused on stability, through a single cable warp the wind and turn the rudder at the same time and that adjustment put  the plane in the air!

One last famous name for you - Farnsworth. Philo T.Farnsworth, for those in the know will have heard of the “Farnsworth Invention” (projecting a straight line on a machine he called the Image Dissector), but again it wasn’t Philo’s, it was a team of scientists all over the world working to built a radio with images - aka a TV

What they had in common

They all had an individual or named individuals for us to associate with, but that’s just marketing!

It was the ability to start small, focus on one problem, to work as a team, thrive on failures, and an unwavering passion; a relentless pursuit of achieving the solution. 

The problem with today

At a time when the world is changing faster than ever, care of the internet and an increasing demand for smarter and more personalized products delivered faster, we frequently encounter a lethargy around innovation. 

Innovation is a major factor in terms of organizational growth and success. Generating a culture of innovation in your company is a critical initiative today but despite this, many businesses combat internal challenges that slow the innovative process. Here’s a handful of common challenges of innovation in business today:

1. Lack of empowerment

So many traditional managers believe innovation is s distraction from getting the job done. Innovation requires the support of leadership and managers to take hold across the organization.

2. Lack of motivation

Employees frequently don’t see it as part of the JD and need a little extra to focus their time and energy 

3. Innovation sideline

Remaining focused on existing products, market protection and ”short-termism“ frequently sidelines innovation as a “nice to do”

4. Narrow focus and narrow involvement

In many organizations, innovation is the responsibility of solely one functional group, like R&D or product development. The myth that one functional group is more suited to innovate than others is a severe hindrance to the pace of innovation.

5. Isolationism

sequential design and hands-off, rather than simultaneous collaboration, finds frequent repetition of phases of work. Surpassing customer expectations and ”buildability” requires collaboration. 

6. Lack of diversity

as borders come down, certainly in terms of cultures and demands, so too the demand for cultural product diversity and personalization. 

7. Complacency

Many organizations risk complacency, while they enjoy the rewards of their existing products. The fear of pulling investment, resources or customer attention from existing offerings can be one of the biggest hindrances to future innovation.

8. Customer connection

for me, it starts and ends here. In just leaving it with marketing to sales to occasionally update and to not be constantly seeking market feedback directly leaves the very great risk of incompatible products

Sustainable Innovation

There’s a million great ideas, but execution is the game! how many have we heard people say, I had that idea before they did. The difference is always execution. 

In my experience many companies still only pay lip service to innovation. Those who are serious about doing innovation well, in contrast, are pioneering and looking to change people’s lives.  

I’ve been fortunate enough to to be hands-on involved in a number of innovative designs and so I thought I’d share a few thoughts that have always made sense to me and the process of innovation:

Structure for innovation

Unless new ideas play a part in everyone’s bottom-line the vast majority will ignore and take the easiest route to achieve their metrics. Anything less risks encouraging inaction or the belief that innovation is someone else’s job.

Knowledge management

There’s always innovation process knowledge to be learnt from each new project and it’s vital this is collected and deployed on new projects in order to free-up time and brain power to the creative aspects. Time and again, we’d fine-tune plans, schedules to reduce time into the customer’s hands. 

Flexible collaboration platform

If you’ve fixed your culture then innovation is happening at all times. It’s in the field, it’s in maintenance, it’s throughout your ecosystem. You want to capture and harness these new ways and for that you need a platform containing it all. 

Execution means from idea to delivery

Innovative organizations understand ideas are prevalent and it’s the need of the platform to incorporate the entire product/service lifecycle 

Enhanced collaboration

Innovation rather than collaboration fires up engagement but it’s wise not to take employee contributions for granted. Innovation is not part of the job description so their engagement needs appreciating and nurturing.

Innovate at speed

I’ve always been a great believer in speed wins. The faster you run, the quicker you get to the inevitable mistakes and learn. In these unprecedented times, it’s hard to overly plan and see what’s around the corner. 

Furthermore, you‘ll start with an MVP and need to be ready to evolve and update regularly, because that’s what the consumer has come to expect. 

Innovate to survive & thrive

I’m Andrew Sparrow and the reason I became interested in the 4th Industrial Revolution was to innovate. Working with entrepreneurs all around the world has helped me find my wheelhouse - to help them bring their ideas, their value and beliefs to communities, in order to spread the word and deliver value.

Joining me in my Blogs, Vlogs, Live Shows and hopefully soon podcasts

Best wishes, Andrew

#innovate #4ir #3dexperience #catia