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I recently sat down with BIF Research Advisor Jean-Pierre Jeannet who shared his observations about the inherent difficulties of business model innovation. Jeannet has spent years analyzing emerging companies and has developed a spot on recommendation for established companies—if you want to innovate on your business model, begin with a ‘zero-legacy’ mindset.
The playbook for emerging companies is simple. Young start-ups spend considerable time nurturing a new idea or innovation while they build their business model from the ground up. With the right product or service, their competitive advantage over an established company can be huge. Why? They’re beginning in what Jeannet calls the ‘zero-legacy zone’.
It's a nice place to be if you’re a start-up. Established companies however have innumerable hurdles to jump in order to change a business model--legacy systems, managerial mindsets, employee inertia all play into it. But, they also simply can’t embrace new ideas or innovations without innovating on their business model. And unfortunately, all too often, companies won’t move unless there is substantial imperative to do so. [And then it’s usually too late.] But according to Jeannet, this is an avoidable trap.
Jeannet is convinced that companies should change their business models on a regular basis. Which means, first and foremost, business model innovation is as much a mindset as it is a process onto itself. [If you've read Gary Hamel, you know he's nodding in agreement.]
“It is hard to achieve business model innovation on a regular basis,” he says. “People get stuck and can’t get off of a tried and true process. But you can’t counter business model innovation with new technology. Companies must be skilled at including the business model conversation as part of the overall strategic conversation on a regular basis.”
So what do you do if you have the 'zero-legacy' mindset but are trapped in a quagmire of legacy systems? Jeannet sees advantage in organizations like the Business Innovation Factory.
“For some, business model innovation includes several technical or delivery or logistical components that can be hard to see, and even harder to experiment on. Having access to a real world laboratory is not only a good idea, but in the long run could be critical to a company's sustainability.”
There’s a great quote by Vijay Govindarajan who says “every strategy starts to decay the day it is created.” By maintaining a zero-legacy mindset, companies can manage the present and create their future all at the same time.
Posted March 31, 2006 by Chris Flanagan | Permalink
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Did anyone read Thomas Friedman's op-ed piece last week? In it, he writes, "innovation is often a synthesis of art and science, and the best innovators often combine the two." Isn't that a great way to define design thinking too?
Friedman writes about the pressures and anxieties countries face to nurture innovation through education. Here in the states, schools are in a frenzy over increasing our math and science graduates. In China and India, it looks like they're concerned with other end of the spectrum-creativity.
"Capital will now flow faster than ever to tap the most productive talent wherever it is located, so every country is scrambling to upgrade its human talent base," writes Friedman.
Now, since most of us are not bipolar, in that typically engineers aren't poets and sculptors aren't mathematicians, the companies or organizations that bring a diverse talent base into their gene pool will find success in the 21st century. This ability is the heart of 'design thinking' -- to converge art and science, synthesize great thinking and in the end, create something new and better. [Friedman includes a great snippet about Steve Jobs who took a calligraphy course in his early days. He ended up applying that learning to the design of the Mac.]
Which leads me to a great article in this week's New Scientist about Cameron Sinclar. Sinclar is a new kind of architect, less concerned [if at all] about his intellectual property rights and driven through his organization, Architecture for Humanity, to supply people with long-term, sustainable design and architectural ideas. ['Design Like You Give a Damn' is his motto.]
He's also the recipient of the Technology Entertainment Design prize. Here's why he won the $100,000 prize:
"If there was an earthquake measuring .0 on the Richter scale in Los Angeles, maybe a dozen people would die and a couple of buildings collapse, but a in the hillsides of Peru would kill tens of thousands because construction is technically poor. So I'm going to set up a community that will embrace and support sustainable and innovative housing for all. It will be a sort of global ideas exchange, a web that connects designers, engineers, planners, non-governmental organizations, research facilities, funding agents and, most importantly, local communities round the globe. If we are successful, we could improve the living standards of at least 5 billion people, all of them prepared for potential natural disasters."
Sinclar is a great representation of the missing link between all the jargon about collaboration, or idea exchanges, or social networking to actually make the leap to innovation. That's design-thinking.
Posted March 30, 2006 by Chris Flanagan | Permalink
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Last year I was blessed to tell a story at BIF's first Business Innovation Summit in Providence RI. We are a small company that until then had managed to stay off the radar screen in Rhode Island [and everywhere else for that matter]. My story was about the sequel to Charles Dicken’s Christmas Carol.
My partner (SquareMan) and I (GeekBoy) had started over in the year 2000 with a clean sheet of paper after selling a large public company. Our quest was to “do it again, only mo’ betta”. We decided that Friends Enjoying Work would be on everyone’s business card and that we would innovate everyday. We are and we have! There are now over 150 Friends Enjoying Work in seven States.
During BIF-1, I was riveted by businessmen and women, law enforcement professionals, politicians, and educators. There were some great stories. Many people approached my after my story and promised to get together after the summit. I had heard it all before. “I’ll have my machine call your machine and we’ll e-chat or perhaps break e-bread.” I wasn’t holding my breath. I just felt fortunate to have been able to tell our story and make fun of my partner at the same time.
To my delight and surprise, I’m here to tell you that people were truly interested in the concept of Innovating Everyday. I have been contacted, met and dialoged with many local and remote new friends about my story. Some, just to see if it was a story or reality. I usually just let them e-participate for a couple days so they see what I mean. Some don’t even need that:
The CTO at GTECH (Joe Nadan) saw what we do, and in less than 5 minutes wanted us to show more of his team how the innovation engine works. Bill Taylor of Fast Company and author of Mavericks at Work has visited and asked to “play for a day”. Booze, Allen and Hamilton friends have visited, Bearing Point folks have dabbled. The State’s Innovation Leaders like Mike McMahon (an innovator himself) and Saul Kaplan (the summit quarterback) have visited on a Saturday to learn more. The list of people who are truly searching for the secret to provoking knowledgeable people to engage in a State/company’s future seems endless.
We still remain under the radar screen (no marketing or sales staff), but thanks to Don Stanford (also a storyteller), we were nominated to receive the State’s first Excellence in Technology Application Award for an innovative product that improves productivity and collaboration within a company. Life is good!
My thanks to the Business Innovation Factory for the chance to tell the story of our sequel.
Jim Lavoie is CEO of Rite-Solutions.
Posted March 29, 2006 by Jim Lavoie | Permalink
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Earlier this year I interviewed Dr. Alan Duncan of the Mayo Clinic and reported on their SPARC Innovation Lab. Continuing its pace of rapid innovation, comes word of the clinic's latest endeavor, this time overhauling one of its primary business models.
Physicians aren't typically known for their business acumen. And up until recently, any technologies developed within the clinic were simply licensed to other companies which then turned them into products. But not anymore.
"There are a lot of innovations coming from our physicians. Why pass them off to others when you can do it yourself?" says Nina Schwenk, head of the Mayo Foundation's technology committee. So in 2003, when researchers decided they could produce a better-quality MRI device, and do it faster than anyone else, the technology committee put together a team, hiring IBM, GE, Siemens and Philips to virtually design, manufacture, sell and market the new device.
Now typical time-to-market for medical devices is 16 to 24 months. The Mayo Clinic did it in 8 months. How? It all came down to process and inspired relationships. Working closely and collaboratively with the entire virtual team, Mayo created a system in perpetual motion. Everyone had a job to do and no one waited for the other to finish. With jobs completed in tandem, expectations are clearly outlined and momentum isn't lost. And in the end, the Mayo Clinic is left with medical gear branded under its own name.
If the Mayo Clinic can get competitive giants like IBM, GE, Siemens and Philips to work together to produce a sophisticated product in 8 months, the possibilities for transforming other stale, intractable business models are limitless.
[See Business Week's Steve Hamm articlehere.]
Posted March 22, 2006 by Chris Flanagan | Permalink
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I admit that I am not the greatest vacationer. I know I am strange that way but I never take all of the vacation time allowed and when I do it is usually under duress from my family. Once departed I always enjoy the family time (it is nice to know that college kids can still be bribed to come along) and catching up on my reading (Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, Freakonomics, and The World is Flat). On our trip to Florida last week we were not even out of the airport in Rhode Island before my irreverent children gave me something to ponder while on vacation.
“Hey Dad Isn’t that Innovation @ Scale sign up there part of your economic development job?” They were pointing at the big back lit advertisement that is easy to see as you wait to clear security on the way to your flight. I know from experience that the next comment would be sarcastic and I wasn’t disappointed. “ I bet no one in this crowded line has a clue what that means” . Before I could even reply they were gleefully off doing a random survey! No surprises. All the answers were the same. The woman who works for security spending a full work day right under the sign summed it up best “What sign?”. No one even saw it which amused the irreverent ones to no end.
Of course they didn’t stop there and proceeded to call attention to the sign and to ask what Innovation @ Scale meant. No surprises there either, no one had a clue! Perhaps the only surprise was that each of my kids can explain it better then I can. “The state is trying to create new jobs for Rhode Islanders by taking advantage of its small size so companies can test new ideas”. The security employee responded while looking up at the sign for the first time “ I hope they hurry up because we sure need the new jobs”
This humbling exchange reminded me of the real reason we created the non-profit BIF. It is because collaborative innovation is the key to economic prosperity (better higher wage jobs) and progress on the important social issues that we face (healthcare, security, education, and quality of life). The BIF community is growing rapidly and we have an important opportunity to strengthen ourselves, our organizations, and our communities. It also reminds me not to take ourselves (me included) and the catchy marketing slogans too seriously but to keep our eyes on the prize. In the end all that will matter is economic prosperity because “we sure need the new jobs”
Posted March 21, 2006 by Saul Kaplan | Permalink
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We’re currently mobilizing a collaborative innovation project here at BIF targeting the ‘consumer experience’. As we lay the groundwork for model testing in Rhode Island, I’m thinking how psyched I am that [finally] we’re finding ourselves with an alternative to the frenzied mass-media, mass-buying, super, mega-consumer experience of the 90s.
From ‘being spaces’ to pop-up retail stores, the how and where we buy goods and services, and what kind of experience we have doing it, is going to radically change over the next few years.
“There is a genuine opportunity [to offer] something truly new to consumers, who are not only looking for entertainment, but also for uniqueness, discovery, trying out, hanging out, empathy, and even transformation.”March, 2006 trendwatching report
If you head over to trendwatching.com you’ll see some great photos of the new consumer experience. Having read the report, I felt inspired to create my own ideal experience:
Being Space: TwoRooms [targets home-based workers with kids and supplies office and WiFi for me and child-care for the little ones]
Service Offering: Cleanicum [This is a German launderette/lounge, except in my version, they fold the clothes too.]
Product Offering: Rotating Pop-up stores. Once a month I want Banana Republic to come to me. [Check out the J.Crew Holiday Haberdasher as example.] I want my hair salon to come to me. And on Saturday nights, I want Dommelsch; a free pop-up concert of local artists.
Right now, BIF is recruiting collaborators to develop a network of Rhode Island retail outlets that would serve as a platform to explore and test innovative customer experience models. The platform would enable customer experience sensing, tracking, and measurement to serve as a baseline for testing customer experience innovation.
What’s your ideal customer experience?
Posted March 14, 2006 by Chris Flanagan | Permalink
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I had the good fortune to spend a day with marketing guru Seth Godin at one of his famous whiteboard sessions several weeks ago. Wow! Imagine getting permission from your customer for a connection strong enough to replace your Chief Marketing Officer.
I highly recommend all of Seth’s work (Permission Marketing, All Marketers Are Liars, Free Prize Inside!, and Purple Cow just to name a few of his books) but our BIF community will not be surprised by my over-the-top enthusiasm for Seth’s soon-to-be-published [Summer, 06] book, Small Is The New Big. It's a compilation of more than 100 of his most-linked-to blog posts, essays, columns, etc.
As we continue to build our real world innovation laboratory in Rhode Island where innovators can easily collaborate in our small state to explore and test better ways to deliver value, I offer some great reasons from Seth's blog why small is the new big thing:
"Small is the new big because small gives you the flexibility to change the business model when your competition changes theirs."
"Small means you can tell the truth on your blog."
"Small means that you can answer email from your customers."
You can read Seth’s entire blog post at:
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2005/06/small_is_the_ne.html
As we launch our BIF Blog I have to admit that I am more then just a little intimidated and yes, even frightened, by making the promise to our community of innovators that we will sustain an interesting conversation on business model innovation.
Knowing that we had committed to launch this week, Seth scared me even more by reminding me that 18,000 new blogs are launched every day and that the average blog only gets 4-5 readers a day. I plan to take Seth’s advice on our blog to heart—“fewer words, more pictures, less about us, and more about you!”
This conversation will only work if it is more about you. Join our conversation, come on in, the water is fine.
Posted March 09, 2006 by Saul Kaplan | Permalink
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I had the luck and privilege of being awarded the Business Innovation Factory’s N-GEN Scholarship to attend Clay Christensen’s workshop, Creating Innovation-Driven Growth on March 3, 2006. Christensen is a professor at HBS and author of The Innovator’s Dilemma and, the more optimistic, The Innovator’s Solution. In particular, I took to heart five lessons that deeply impacted the way I see my own company, N-GEN and the business world, and I think you might too.
1) The most ideal market segment is the one that isn’t being served.
When the only other option is nothing, by default your product is better. So strive to find that product and market.
Solar panels cannot seem to find their place in the United States; the power they generate is insufficient and the
technology is cumbersome. However, in Mongolia, solar panels are sold everywhere for powering TV sets. The reason the market is better in Mongolia is because the alternative to solar power is no power; there is no competition with a better form of energy.
Seems like a no-brainer concept, but a lot of companies aren’t catching on. In 1979 all the major electronics companies were trying to develop their vacuum tubes for high-end tabletop radios, floor-standing TVs, etc. Meanwhile, Sony realized that their technology wasn’t as good as the competition’s but it was good enough for teenagers who couldn’t afford to buy the high-end products. Sony sold thousands of Walkman portable music players because the alternative to poor quality music was no music.
The lesson is to figure out which markets are not being served because its easier to compete against no competition. This somewhat segues into the next point:
2) Launch the product that is good enough.
If a product will suffice for the market, do not spend millions of dollars in R&D refining it or trying to improve it for the high-end. Just launch it.
Kodak was trying to find a way to replace the traditional glass lens with a plastic one. Though they had a decent plastic frame, it didn’t produce the professional quality pictures they had wanted. For five years Kodak kept working on a way to improve the plastic lens but had few advances. Finally they gave up, changed the market and decided to launch the FunSaver disposable camera. When the alternative to decent pictures of Disneyland is no pictures of Disneyland, everyone was grateful to purchase the FunSaver.
This is entirely speculation, but I think part of the concern Kodak had with launching an inferior product was the detriment to the brand. If done correctly though, I think that there is a way around it. The Kodak Funsaver and Mini Cooper (though not officially BMW, is still associated) are good examples of selling a lower-end product without harming the brand.
The big question is how to apply this lesson to our every day lives? What exactly is “good enough” and how do we know when the R&D team has reached that point? How many features suffice and what development will only result in marginal returns? I think these are questions all R&D teams need to ask themselves, including my own. One way to figure that out is by internalizing the next lesson:
3) Understand the job and you will understand the market
If one can figure out why someone is employing the product/service, then one can better design and market the product. This might have been the most adamant lesson of the day, and it is not as obvious as it seems.
Clay uses McDonalds Milkshakes to explain his lesson. McDonalds wanted to increase milkshake sales, so it brought in consultants to observe how the shakes were being used. They noticed that they were purchased for two distinct jobs. First, commuters were buying them for the long drive to the office. It was better than breakfast sandwiches, bagels, fruit and candy bars because it was cleaner, easy to eat, entertaining, took a long time to drink, and kept the stomach full until lunch. The second milkshake job was for parents looking to buy a child a treat for dinner- the problem was that it took so long for the child to drink that it often tried the parent’s patience and was eventually discarded half full by a stressed-out parent. Because there are two distinct jobs that require different characteristic shakes, there is no one-size-fits-all solution to optimizing the milkshake.
A nice side effect of understanding the job is that it changes the market for that product. The competition for morning McShakes is not just the milkshake category. It’s the entire morning commute job: breakfast sandwiches, bagels, fruit, candy bars and boredom. Not necessarily earth shattering, this lesson has already impacted spec modifications for my company’s product.
4) Disruptive companies can enter all industries
Assuming the trend that all companies try to move up into selling higher-end products where margins are higher, there is always room for companies to enter in the lower-end market where the more established companies care less.
This trend can be seen in several industries including steel, automobile, animation, computers, digital cameras, airlines, healthcare and several others. Take retailing as an example. Department stores such as Macy’s originally sold hard goods (paint, tools) and soft goods (shoes, clothes), where the highest margins were. When Wal-Mart and other mass discount stores came into the industry, they sold the lower-end hard goods. Meanwhile, the department stores were willing to give up the lower-end products and focus on the more profitable soft goods. Slowly but surely, the mass discount stores started selling more soft goods (which are even considered trendy, a la Target) and eating into the department stores’ space. So what is coming in below mass discount stores? Perhaps e-commerce retailers will be the next phase of the retail industry’s evolution.
This provides a good framework for thinking about how industries are changing and what to expect for the future. It also gives a strong warning to think twice before exiting a product segment and entering a new one. It certainly is not a bad idea to market the more profitable product, but keep an eye out for the evolution and figure out where you fit in.
5) Outsourcing can be dangerous, so do it with care
Be careful when outsourcing functions of the company; if one goes overboard he or she might outsource the value of their company.
Computer manufacturers are notorious about over-sourcing, but it could easily happen to any company. Well-established, vertically integrated companies are always seeking to improve stock price by raising revenues or decreasing costs, or decreasing assets. Ways to decrease costs and assets is by outsourcing work, which will close down factories, and lighten up salaries and benefits. True story of one computer manufacturer: what began with outsourcing chip making and board manufacturing, continued to design and supply. Each time the outsourcee told the computer company, “its not your core competency to do this, let me do it for cheaper.” Meanwhile, revenues stayed the same, while the assets and costs decreased and stock price improved; it was in the interest of the stockholders to outsource. Eventually the company had nothing left but its brand. And then the outsourcee went directly to Best Buy, and said, “forget about that computer manufacturer, would you like us to make you ‘Best Buy’ branded computers?”
The way to get around the dilemma above is to own the outsourcee. If that is not possible, consider this: core competency is not the way to determine what to outsource. Instead, one should determine where will value be in the future (which is where the company will need to make core in the future) and internalize that job.
Christensen’s workshop was eye opening and inspiring (“successful ventures change strategy on average four times before they are successful”). It changed the ways I think about business and marketing, and interpret trends. His talk is resonating in a lot of what I do at Axon Labs and I appreciate N-GEN and the Business Innovation Factory for providing this opportunity to learn more from such a great business mind.
N-GEN Member Jason Donahue is the co-founder and Director of Business Development for Axon Sleep Research Laboratories.
Posted March 08, 2006 by Jason Donahue | Permalink
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Musical artists are natural innovators. But they’re also fiercely protective of their artistic integrity (and intellectual property). What happens when an artist willingly gives up control, allowing others to innovate? In an experiment relevant to record producers and CEOs alike, Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter Duncan Sheik is finding out.
His first single, 1996’s “Barely Breathing,” catapulted him to fame, with the track staying on the charts for 55 weeks. But, according to Billboard Magazine, “somewhere along a career path that started with the promise of pop stardom, Duncan Sheik cast of the weight of expectations and freed himself to pursue a succession of film scores, theater compositions, soundtrack appearances and other non-conventional collaborations.”
Sheik’s latest release, White Limousine, promises more collaboration with an unconventional group: his fans. The album comes with the standard CD of Sheik’s music, recorded and produced by the artist. But it also includes a DVD marked “Yours” that contains the album’s individual musical layers and access to Ableton Live, a loop-based software music sequencer for the computer. This means that listeners don’t have to be spectators, taking Sheik’s musical decisions for granted. They can actively remix the album, manipulating each track to arrive at a melody that is personalized and meaningful. His fans can innovate.
And, Shiek hopes that fans can innovate in ways that he can’t. He noted in a recent interview that “ultimately, I wanted to present the material so that an 18-year-old kid could put it on his laptop and make some kind of cool minimalist electronica record. That’s the album that I was going to do at first, but I didn’t have the nerve.”
Though Sheik’s experiment is still very much in progress, there are a few take-away points:
1. Sometimes, others can implement the innovation that you can’t: Even musicians face constraints and rely on others for creativity.
2. Innovation isn’t just invention: The innovation for fans who remix Sheik’s songs doesn’t come “inventing” any new elements, but by combining existing elements in new ways.
3. There isn’t one “right” way to innovate: Innovation can have multiple outcomes, just as there can be a thousand different mixes of the same track.
4. Technology can democratize innovation: A couple of decades ago it would have been impossible for fans to access sophisticated software like Ableton Live.
Posted March 06, 2006 by Matthew Guilford | Permalink
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Today BIF welcomed Clay Christensen and the Innosight team to talk about disruptive innovation and the risks organizations face when they play too strictly by wall street rules. This morning, Clay poignantly reminded the group that focusing only on meeting existing customer needs--and not on understanding and defining the job a customer needs to get done--is unsustainable in today's world, where conditions change rapidly and competition for growth is fierce. Now, above a buzz of energetic conversation, BIF members are busy plotting their own ideas to see which have the potential to blossom into profitable "disruptions."
This morning, Clay shared a story about how a well known fast food restaurant discovered some pretty interesting things about milkshakes and the people who buy them. For years the company invested resources to build a better shake. Improve flavor, texture, color, packaging, etc. Despite all of these "enhancements" shake sales still slagged behind.
As it turns out, in making these changes, the company was improving on what Clay described as irrelevant dimensions of the product. By changing the lens and asking the customer "why'd you hire that milk shake" the product team was able to focus on the "job" the customer was trying to get done with the shake, which as it turned out, was only marginally dependent on the shake's obvious dimensions.
Seems like an no-brainerway to frame problem, doesn't it? But to be honest, it's not the way I usually operate. Until now. Focusing on the job that needs to be done rather than the customer doing the job, you open up a whole new world of opportunity. Personally, I am excited to take a fresh look at the problems I've been working on this year using this new way of thinking.
Posted March 03, 2006 by Melissa Withers | Permalink
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I am jet lagged and back on Rhode Island terra firma having returned from eg 2006, Richard Saul Wurman’s incredible three-day dinner party. (The dinner party he always wanted to have and swears is his last gig). Schlepping to LA for a three-day smorgasbord of incessant twenty minute teases was the least I could do after RSW co-hosted our successful BIF-1 Collaborative Innovation Summit last October. Honestly, you could not have kept me away from this mind-exploding experience.
It was as Richard always reminds me, up to the audience to make the connections. He brings together storytellers that interest him and the rest is up to you. It is exhausting. Just peek at the list of presenters and you will know what I mean.
Here are a few impressions from the conference while they are still fresh in my mind:
Yo Yo Ma might be the most unpretentious superstar I have ever met. It is hard to imagine being the best in the world at something. We are fortunate to have his Silk Road Project and collaboration with RISD headquartered in Rhode Island. We all know his music is mesmerizing but the way he engaged us in a conversation about the patterns and connections that provide the context for his music was incredible. Listening to him bring Bach alive wasn’t too bad either!
I am truly a dinosaur when it comes to gaming. This exploding phenomena is a “must understand” if you have any hope of keeping up in our shiny new networked world. I had never heard of Will Wright but when I called home and spoke with my sixteen year old daughter and told her I had met the inventor of Sim City she said “ Dad you are so out of it….you mean Will Wright….Did he tell you about his new game Spore?”. How easy it is to fall behind. My daughter is right. I am out of it. Will Wright shared a demo of Spore at the conference. These new games are not the shoot em up, blood spurting, mindless activities that all of us dinosaurs think are taking too much of our children’s time. They are about individual creativity and expression, collaboration, and innovative problem solving. Silly me, but these seem like the skills required by the 21st century economy, and unless I am missing something, the skills that our schools seem unable or unwilling to teach. I will be paying attention to what Will Wright is doing from now on.
The conference took place at the Skirball Cultural Center in LA which was designed by Moshe Safdie. I am always in awe of great architects. The environment that Moshe designed played a significant role in my experience at this conference. Moshe is a great architect. He humbly claimed that the staying power of an architect’s work can not compare to the staying power of a great musical performance like the one we heard from Yo Yo Ma. I disagree. When Moshe shared his personal story and design of the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem I was moved in a way that compares to the emotion I feel when Yo Yo plays a Bach cello composition.
One of the best presentations of the entire gig was by Peter Hirshberg from Technorati. Just adding to my dinosaur status I have not been following the exploding blogosphere. I will not make that mistake going forward. Peter painted a very entertaining but clear picture of the new world of viral ideas. Traditional media channels are way too slow. Ideas (good and bad) now spread like viruses via the web through the blogosphere. If you ignore this trend it is at your peril.
There was more, so much more, but you get the idea. I am inspired to recombine the ideas in ways that advance the Business Innovation Factory’s mission of enabling collaborative innovation. I apologize to everyone I met at the conference who had to put up with my incessant droning on about our innovation @ scale strategy to turn Rhode Island into an innovation test-bed. No one was spared.
Posted by Saul Kaplan | Permalink
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This past Friday, an interesting group of entrepreneurs and executives gathered to hear Clay Christensen present his research and theories on disruptive innovation. Clay is a skilled speaker who engaged the group and provided both enlightenment and entertainment. As well, Clay's colleagues at Innosight walked the groups through a set of questions linked to a Monte Carlo simulation to help evaluate an idea's disruptive potential.
I found both the presentation and question exercise particularly interesting because eight months ago, one of my recent ventures struggled between sustaining and disruptive mindsets without ever really knowing how to describe the way in which the organization was at odds with itself. Ultimately, what decided the battle was pure pragmatism - it just wasn't possible to move forward using the strategies, tactics, and metrics that work in a large organization bent on sustaining innovations. Eventually, techniques more applicable to a startup company had to be used, and progress began in earnest.
I couldn't have communicated my company's past dilemma clearly unless I had read Clay's book, The Innovator's Solution and attended this event. The book immediately provided me with a well-articulated framework and vocabulary to describe my experience last year, and his presentation this past Friday was a good, easy-to-digest review of the theories presented in his book. I come away from the experience thrilled to be armed with new tools to harness my entrepreneurial intuition.
Posted March 02, 2006 by Owen Johnson | Permalink
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Last year, a coation of of young innovators came together and N-GEN, the Business Innovation Factory's next generation network was born. Two things have become clear since the launch of N-GEN - people want to work collaboratively AND on projects they are passionate about. But like a tenth grade term paper, the hardest part is getting started.
N-GEN seeks to create a platform where people can solve problems, pursue new ideas, and create new opportunities. To begin, we’d like to help people “see” what issues others are passionate about. If we’re lucky, making this information visible will enable us to create new problem solving “dream teams”— motivated players willing to focus their resources, talents, and energies to collaborate on a project or idea.
It’s a humble start, but we would like to invite you to participate in what we are calling the BIF “Idea Exchange.” The idea is pretty simple (thanks to N-GEN Chair Josh Silverman for helping to bring some focus to this plan).
Here’s how it works: Name the problem(s) you wish to solve by simply filling out the framework document and submitting it to Melissa Withers here at the Business Innovation Factory. We'll then post your submissions at the BIFSpeak blog for comments and feedback.
Assuming there is interest and people get involved, we'll coordinate a few workshop opportunities for people to get together face-to-face, or on-line, to focus on the ideas that attract the most interest.
Ideas that get serious and sustained traction may ultimately transition into collaborative innovation projects within one of BIF’s experience laboratories. BIF is currently hosting experience labs focused on patients, consumers, citizens, and students.
Several of our N-GEN members have already posted some great ideas:
Improving the lifecycle of newspapers on the MBTA
Creating affordable spaces for collaboration
Retaining and recruiting young talent
As always, we encourage you to get involved, stay connected. and share your own ideas and stories, as we seek out new ways in which we might collaborate.
Posted March 01, 2006 by Chris Flanagan | Permalink
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