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Serious Innovation Newsletter no. 16 - 2004
Is it the funny looking bugs in the window rather than your boss that can tell you something real about innovation? Is biology a better way to understand the logics of product development than economics? In Fast Company Richard Watson, the man behind the eccentric publication Brain Fruit , is looking into a world where progress is created by adaptations and mutations that becomes the norm through the process of natural selection. Since Margaret Wheatley published "Leadership and the new science", the biological perspective on organizational management has been more and more acknowledged. Now it seems like this perspective is starting to influence the way we look at innovation processes as well. Mutations happen and success is created, like when the entertainment company Virgin becomes an airline business. A totally new economic biosphere is created in less than a decade. The Finnish telecom giant when from making rubber shoes to mobile phones after showing a remarkable talent in rethinking itself, cross-fertilization and a willingness to look for new ideas in the outskirts of the market. Both companies grew not by unfolding some great master plan vision, but through an "accumulation of learning and ideas caused by threats, accidents and luck". Watson means that these things happen when mostly when companies dare to experiment - and experiment in public. Not many industries dare to do that - the car and fashion industries do! The motor shows shows off fantastic creations of fantasy (or are it the future?) and the fashion industry put on their shows both to promote the brand but also to get a feel for the market. The Spanish firm Zara tries to work in real just-in-time mode to adapt to the market or if you wish local biosphere. Store manager's sends customer feedback and photos of "cool" or "edgy" dressed customer directly to the design department using PDA's. The new designs are often found in the subcultures of early adaptors or identity experimenters, i.e. the intersections and mutations of different spheres. The result is new clothing in the stores three weeks after breakthrough inputs - instead of the industry average of nine month. As Charles Darwin said: "It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change". Focusing on those words of evolution, what could be the Darwinian approach to innovation - the true idea Darwinism? Here are Watson's five suggestions: 1. Look at the big evolutionary picture - what are the driving forces in your biosphere (local market) and in the big picture (the global market as whole)? 2. Create mutations - unusual combinations of people, partners and ideas. 3. Look for new ideas and conditions that could disrupt your market and be ready to act upon your findings. 4. Treat accidents as opportunities for divergence and adaptation. 5. Cooperate with other companies to create mutually beneficial eco-systems. Or in two words, something that Body Shops founder Anita Roddick could have told you from the very beginning: GO NATURAL! N E W S Idélaboratoriet has signed a contract with the publishing company Brain Books of release of the book "Ideagenten - en handbok i idea management" (The Idea Agent - a handbook in idea management). The book is about the creatively wild but also rationally structured way of building innovation. The book starts with methods on how to find the right need, continues with lots of creative techniques for getting ideas and ends with different examples of exercises and forms on how to screen, evaluate and enrich the ideas into concepts. The book is aimed at the leaders of the future that wants to take an active role in the creative processes in all areas. An Idea Agent is a person that can create the base for optimal development and has a tool box of proven idea management methodology in his or her back pocket. "I congratulate the writers and the forthcoming readers to a book that is truly hands-on. I am impressed by all the practical process design suggestions that is in the book. The Idea Agent is a practical guide on how to reach the window of opportunity in the age of creativity" Leif Edvinsson Professor, Intellectual Capital, University of Lund - School of Economics and Global Brain of the Year 1998 The book will be released in late September 2004. For ordering copies of the book please contact us at Idélaboratoriet for more information. Quantity discount offered. The world leading idea management software ------------------------------------- |
