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March 4, 2010
Innovation Begins With You. (Whoever You Are.)
Over the last few days I have been bogged down working on some tedious projects doing simple marketing tasks and using no new techniques or technologies -- work we call "foundational". Twice, I was taken aback at how unsophisticated the client's processes were since the work was for large corporations.
So, as I was reading the current issue of BusinessWeek and came across an article titled "And Google Begat..." it was a not-so-subtle reminder of the evolving business climate.
Here is a little excerpt from teh article:
"Since going public six years ago, Google has generated more than $170 billion for its employees and investors. Many of the millionaires the company has produced are young, wired into the latest developments in tech, and at ease with risk....... More than 40 ex-Googlers have invested in about 200 fledgling companies since 2005."
These entrepreneurs, ranging in age from mid-20s to mid-40s, sometimes are starting/investing in "traditional" companies (in a staid, New England defintion) -- companies like MotionDSP (video enhancement software), Airline Intelligence Systems (aerospace technology solutions), or Pathwork Diagnostics (molecular diagnostic for oncology). More often, these very smart and very wealthy individuals are pushing the envelope...funding companies like Tapulous (social/game apps for iPhone), Etsy (handmade items exchange), or Yapta (airline fare tracker). And they've backed some game-changers like Facebook and Twitter.
In a world of open APIs, web services, high-speed connectivity and increasingly mobile computing, they are consciously or unwittingly accelerating the rewrite of the most basic rules of business, like:
- where should data, photos, or music be stored/archived (the cloud)
- what is a mobile phone used for (everything)
- how is software written (open source/rapid beta)
- how do you communciate with customers (social web)
- how is news reported (citizen journalists/real-time)
- who manages your corporate/product image (your customers)
Of course, if you are sitting in an office trying to determine how to design a new drug, how to sell a mass spectrometer, or how to build customer loyalty for your chain of bookstores, this may seem like nice information, but not very actionable. I disagree, and counter with these concepts that I believe need to be integral to every operations in business today:
- Step back and rethink your business (jobs)...before your customers (employers) do it for you. No business model is safe...or forever. Ask newspapers or broadcast networks...or healthcare companies in the face of potential healthcare reform.
- Understand the new tools for communication or your business will be left behind. Anyone with a little knowledge and a few pounds of hutspah can create a movement. (Think Lady Gaga in entertainment, TwitterMoms attack on Motrin, or the Obama election.) That is a powerful statement that can propel product success (if you know how to manage it), or doom a company to failure (if you don't).
- Speed matters. Globalization, Internet technology, etc... all have accelerated the pace of change. Markets wait for no company. Even mighty Microsoft has been left behind on mobile applications, online search, web conferencing, and more. Speed remains a cultural change initiative in many companies used to operating in the more cautious fashion of 20 years ago.
- Innovation never ends. AOL. MySpace. Both learned that getting to the top of the mountain was not as hard as staying there. So, "what you you done for me lately?" is a good question for everyone in a company to think about.
Whatever your job/role in a company -- from CEO to junior sales -- these concepts apply. Is your department as efficient as it could be? What tools does your sales team use to track opportunity? How does your company measure customer satisfaction? How do you converse with customers?
Which leads to my most important princple. There is no restriction on where good ideas come from in today's world. Meaning...innovation begins with you (whoever you are).
Posted by jcioban at March 4, 2010 2:57 PM
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