Ideafarm. Your creative partner in growing your business Innovation starts with an eye Simon de...

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Innovation starts with an eyeSimon de HaastChief Evangelist Officer

Ideafarm innovation catalystsCape Town

083 326 3496

[email protected]



My Goal Today

• Help you see the world differently– In 40 minutes?

• By seeing differently, help create capacity to develop novel marketing options

• At the very least:– leave you with questions to ponder– food for thought!



• Are we aware of the lenses we’re using?

• First some word fun…

Seeing Differently



Brain Patterning

Red Yellow Green Blue Green Black Yellow Red Blue

Orange Blue Yellow Green Orange Red



So how do you see things?

Write the word

R E A C T I V Eon a piece of paper.




Write the word

R E A C T I V Eon a piece of paper.

Now move the “C” to the front of the word.




R E A C T I V E

C R E A T I V E



The Status Quo

“It must be considered that there is nothing more difficult to carry

out, ... than to initiate a new order of things.

For the reformer has enemies in all those who profit by the old

order, and only lukewarm defenders in all those who would

profit by the new order, this lukewarmness arising partly from

fear of their adversaries, who have the laws in their favour; and

partly from the incredulity of mankind, who do not truly believe

in anything new until they have had the actual experience of it.”

Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince and The Discourses, 1537!



Status Quo Duo

You’ll soon see that I’m a big fan of Marshall McLuhan:

“When technologies impose themselves on societies, long habituated to older technologies, anxieties of all kind result.”

So what’s going on in the world today that highlights this? For example…



Atoms vs. Bits

• Put another way, a battle between the physical and digital worlds is raging.

• Not an either/or issue anymore– Digital technologies are massively

disrupting the status quo– Incumbents are clinging desperately onto

what they know



Current Situation

• Honey I shrank the growth• Inward view of business

– customoers?

But with• “Let’s innovate more” edicts



The Innovation Illusion

• New product development treadmill– incrementalism– keeping the product line fresh

• Yet market share remains the same, revenue growth static

• Loads of lip service to innovation• So what’s going on?

“Consumer electronics have become almost like produce. They always have to be

fresh.” Michael Fawkes, senior

VP of HP Imaging Products

“Consumer electronics have become almost like produce. They always have to be

fresh.” Michael Fawkes, senior

VP of HP Imaging Products



Real meaning of Innovation

• Process and culture• Making connections between diverse stuff• Bringing that back into your space• Completely re-perceiving the status quo• Discovering new sources of value

– value in the eye of the beholder...customer

• Not creativity.



Creativity is...

• A behaviour• A raw material to the innovation process• Can be ‘taught’.• We are ALL creative beings.

– Artistic/aesthetic the standard measure

• Needs constraints– Budget, time, technology



Innovation as Porn

• On porn: “...but I know it when I see it...” Justice Potter Stewart 1964

• Seems to be the same for Innovation.• No real measure, but...• Vital for a company’s success• One view...



Assessing Innovation

Creative Process

Distinctiveness(Remarkable)

ImpactWhen significant new value created from an invention, becomes an innovation

New & different vs improvement

Making leaps and new connectionsSource: Cap Gemini Ernst & Young Centre for Business Innovation, EL Chen, K Kai-ling Ho, June 2002



Segway

• Very creative• Very distinctive• How much impact?

– now not much, but time will tell.

• May very well lead to significant value creation as social dynamics shift



Marshall McLuhan

So, who was this guy anyway…• Canadian professor of literature • ‘Observer’ of media• Gave us

“The medium is the message” and “Global Village” aphorisms.

• Used the tool of language probes to pose questions of the world around him to gain new insight



Probes

Back in the days of LP records:-Are you in the groove? That is, are you moving in ever-diminishing circles?

And…-How can children grow up in a world in which adults idolise youthfulness?-To the blind, all things are unexpected.



Most telling one…

What haven’t we we noticed lately?

The smuggler and border guard.



Dirt or Wheelbarrows?

Conception vs. Perception– Conception: Our business plans, models, how things

are supposed to work– Because of this lens, unable to really perceive what

is really going on out there because of our embedded lenses



Questions vs. Answers

Quality of the idea depends on the quality of the questions.

Probes help.

(But not in an alien abduction sense)



What haven’t you noticed recently?

“I’m not sure who discovered water, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t a fish.”

Fish only aware of its environment (water) if introduced to an anti-environment (air).

How do we do this in our organisations?



How to see differently?

• Organisations are immersed in their own context

• They can’t see it• But the context is key to making

better decisions about the future• 60s & 70s media observer, Marshall

McLuhan can act as our sherpa.



Metaphors

• Extremely powerful insight tools

• Can also trap our thinking, create blind spots

• Eg. If dominant industry metaphor in IT business

is Roads-Cars-People, participants will unwittingly

use that sense-making tool to craft strategy.

– Metaphor-in-use becomes the water

– Develop an alternative representation and can change

the rules of the game



Language

• The most invisible of contexts• Hence the power of thinking probes• “We shape our tools, and thereafter

our tools shape us.” - McLuhan



Framing

Language as a tool• Downsizing -> Rightsizing• Estate Duty -> Death Taxes• Collateral Damage, Surgical

Strike, Friendly Fire• PowerPoint = de facto language of

management

• George Lakoff What frames are in use on your customers?

What are their frames?



Key point

How well do our customer questions surface the deeper contexts of your customers, the ‘invisible’ stuff

Maybe our tools need rethinking?



Other worlds- DNA, RNA -> Distribution model...

Seeing Differently



•Other worlds- DNA, RNA -> Distribution model...

•Naïve experts &

Dumb questions

Seeing Differently



•Other worlds- DNA, RNA -> Distribution model...

•Naïve experts & Dumb questions

•Vu jà dé

Seeing Differently



Innovation = Tomorrow’s revenue

• Most businesses are organised forToday’s revenue– Managing routine, consistency– Variance bad– Right Answers (customer satisfaction surveys)

• Innovation is all about Tomorrow’s revenue– Variety good– Experimentation– New Questions, insight



Today = Comfort zone

• Not only are businesses so frenetically caught in doing stuff, they’re also caught in the status quo trap.

• Disruptive influences abound, and natural reaction is to cling to what you know– Metrics, metaphors, language…

• What’s the key disrupter now?– Weak signals from market– Novice/edge consumers– Key insights freely available right in front of you.



Tools for a New Worldview

• Lenses to shift the way we see things• To create an awareness of what’s

around us• More importantly, test our

assumptions



Rear-view Innovation• “When faced with a totally new situation we tend to

attach ourselves to the objects of the most recent past.We look at the present through a rear view mirror. We march backwards into the future.”

• This should tell us something about the design of products, technologies and media - linear design thinking…first silent movies

• The best way to ‘predict’ the future is to look at the present, not the past.



Empathy Economy

“We're moving from a knowledge economy that was dominated by technology into an experience economy controlled by consumers and the corporations who empathise with them.” Bruce Nussbaum, Business Week.

The organisations that do this, will win the consumers’ trust and loyalty.

The reward will be very effective word-of-mouth done on your behalf - customer evangelists.



Putting this into practice

How do I do this in my business?



Open the conduit

• Create a conversation with customers– Rooted in remarkable experiences– Based on current product experience– Demonstrate that you’re listening– Put in place trust bridges

• Now in a valuable vantage point– Watch, observe, engage customers at a

deeper level– eg. call center rich source of insight

• Customer bug lists, positive hate (Honda)

The Cluetrain.com has a

rrived…

Markets are re

ally about

conversations, m

ore than ever.

The Cluetrain.com has a

rrived…

Markets are re

ally about

conversations, m

ore than ever.



Outsource Innovation to Lead Users

• Establish conversations with them• Peet - “Co-evolution”• Who are they

• “Connectors” “Mavens”• Demanding, Painful• Troublesome• Interesting, at the ‘edge’• Novice, new

• These guys will have the most to say.



Not sure you want these novices though…

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Implications for Product Design

• Design platforms, not products– allows for multiple uses beyond initial concept

• Create “tinker licences”– a licence to hack the product to figure out how

to do other stuff beyond your imagination – “conversation” departure point

• Make sure your brand infrastructure has the ability to listen and observe



Customer Evangelism

• Great tool for insight• Needs to be fully embedded in

design of organisation• Customer Experience as a gift:

"A good gift makes a connection … It means a fresh way of looking at something so the person that receives it thinks of you when they use it. They say: 'How clever, you thought about some part of my life and how to make it work. You didn't just go through the motions on this gift.' "



How design = experience

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The Apple Experience

...“insanely great” products.

Designed by Apple in California

“Good product design starts from the outside, and works its way inside.”



Good design...

• is embodied everywhere• fosters great experiences• which in turn gets me to tell

people about it• Also makes me more likely to

share ideas, problems or opportunities back to Apple

• Virtuous cycle repeats itself.



Unpack this

• Product features– Big things like laptop design– Small things like power cord clip

• Packaging • Retail environment• Service

– Till slip



Till slip



“Advertising”

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Thanks

Feel free to continue the conversation at www.ideafarm.co.za/blog

Thank youSimon

083 326 3496 / [email protected]



And remember…

Give it tusks!



Some really interesting innovations

Marketing centric ideas primarily Capture the customer imagination- maybe this sparks stuff for you



RFID

• Baja Beach Nightclub in Barcelona• VIP clubbers ‘membership card’ • Tues. nights “implant night”



GPS + GSM

• Coke’s “Unexpected Summer” campaign– You can win but you can’t hide

• Winners of big prize big fat SUV• 100 devices disguised as coke cans• You find one, just follow the instructions

on the ‘can’...• Track winners on website



Coke adds innovation



New take on Ambush Marketing

• Maker of home irrigation accessories– hosepipes, connectors etc

• Billboard at a train station in Germany• Can send an SMS to a number on billboard• Squirts water on unsuspecting passer-by• Can also do it from a website that shows web cam



I wonder if Germans have a sense of humour? :)

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