Markets
move based on new innovation. Market leaders know this and constantly
look for ways to create and bring innovation to market.
Are You Thinking About Innovation?
Accenture writes:
To further understand how companies are addressing innovation in this
economic climate, Accenture conducted an online survey of more than 630
executives in May, 2009 in the United States and United Kingdom.
Respondents represented a broad cross-section of industries – including
automotive, banking, capital markets, consumer goods and services,
electronics and high tech, insurance, manufacturing, pharmaceutical and
medical products, and retail.
Key Findings
According to this Accenture research, almost half of respondents
said they increased funding for innovation in the preceding six months,
while one-third said there was no change in funding for innovation.
Additionally, nearly nine out of 10 these respondents said that
innovation is as important, if not more important, than cost reductions
to their company’s ability to achieve future growth.
However, the Accenture study found flaws in corporate management of
innovation, including process shortcomings and a lack of business
discipline that result in internal barriers to success. Additionally,
there is widespread risk-aversion and a failure to learn from past
mistakes. Past innovation failures are most commonly attributed to
incorrect pricing, failure to meet customer needs, and being late to
market, which can be mitigated by approaching innovation with the
appropriate structure and rigor.
What Does It Take To Innovate?
Dan Robles writes:
Harvard Business Review contributing editor Bronwyn Fryer conducted a
six-year study surveying 3,000 creative executives and conducting an
additional 500 individual interviews. During this study she identified
five “discovery skills” that distinguish them (reference article here)
The 5 Discovery Skills
1. The first skill is what we call “associating.” It’s a
cognitive skill that allows creative people to make connections across
seemingly unrelated questions, problems, or ideas.
2. The second skill is questioning — an ability to ask “what
if”, “why”, and “why not” questions that challenge the status quo and
open up the bigger picture.
3. The third is the ability to closely observe details, particularly the details of people’s behavior.
4. Another skill is the ability to experiment — the people we
studied are always trying on new experiences and exploring new worlds.
5. And finally, they are really good at networking with smart
people who have little in common with them, but from whom they can
learn.
Encourage Childhood Curiosity
The study was further associated with an enriched childhood
experiences and early development of the child’s curiosity. It is
difficult to disagree with any of these findings and it is of dire
importance to duplicate at any expense these conditions for our
children the sake of their future and the world that they will inherit.
The 6th Discovery Skill; discovering the missing pieces.
Suppose that a person has a high surplus in skill # 1, #2 and #4 and
but an extreme deficit in #3 and #5 ? The profile can then be just as
easily associated with a sociopath destined for incarceration. So what
do we do with the other 99.99% of people? Are they incapable of
Innovation? Are they not the ones to “bet on” in the race for a cure
from ourselves?
Mirror Mirror on the Wall…
It is not surprising that Harvard, the bastion of top .01% humans
would, in fact, find themselves in the proverbial mirror. However,
they do leave us a hint in skill #5; the ability to network with smart people who have little in common but from whom they can learn.
The great opportunity for an innovation economy built on social
media is the ability to purposely match most worthy knowledge deficit
to most worthy knowledge surplus so that teams of people can be
designed to simulate the ideal top .01% human and thereby vastly
increase the innovation and entrepreneurial capacity of society.
Let’s rethink this
Such as structure for an innovation economy built on a social media platform is specified by the Ingenesist
Project and others. It includes a revised definition for innovation, a
knowledge inventory, a percentile search engine, a system for matching
knowledge assets, and a feedback system to capture and duplicate
desirable outcomes – all integrated and securitized in a financial
instrument. Will the secret sauce resemble the 5 discovery skills that
made the morning headlines? Who knows? After all, that’s exactly how I
wrote this article.