I read this article and instantly thought that this belonged in the building snowmobiles category. Innovation is such an important aspect of a company’s future and welfare, and that includes our industry. So for those in the companies looking for some inspiration on how to get there, here you go. Enjoy. –Matt
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JUNE 22, 2009
When companies try to come up with new ideas, they too often look only where they always look. That won’t get them anywhere.
By JOHN BESSANT, KATHRIN MöSLEIN And BETTINA VON STAMM
If you want to understand why some companies lack innovative ideas, think about the man who can’t find his car keys.
His friend asks him why he’s looking for the keys under the lamppost when he dropped them over on the lawn. “Because there’s more light over here,” the man explains.
For too many companies, that describes their search for new ideas, and it pretty much guarantees they won’t go anywhere fast. While such a company can marginally improve what it’s already good at, it misses out on the breakthroughs—those eureka moments when a new concept pops up, as if from nowhere, and changes a company’s fortunes forever.
Those ideas, however, don’t really come from nowhere. Instead, they are typically at the edge of a company’s radar screen, and sometimes a bit beyond: trends in peripheral industries, unserved needs in foreign markets, activities that aren’t part of the company’s core business. To be truly innovative, companies sometimes have to change their frames of reference, extend their search space. New ways of thinking and organization can be required as well.
In other words, they have to look away from the lamppost.
None of this is easy to do. But companies that succeed may just recognize the next great opportunity, or looming threat, before their competitors do. And that’s important in tumultuous economic times with rapidly changing technologies. Indeed, every once in a while, that blip on the horizon turns out to be a tsunami.