The Twelve Truths of Innovation

I perhaps should have started my posts on innovation by defining what innovation is. Here are twelve truths about innovation that I hope will help you in coming out market leading innovations.

The 12 Truths

1. Innovation is more than a creative idea
   • It is about converting your intangible creative ideas into providing tangible business value.
   • Know what are valued by your customers. Your customers go by rational thinking of cheaper, faster, better, safer, easier and never-fail(trust). However, he also go by emotional value of look-good, feel-good, high-status and fashionable. He also decides by significance and meaningfulness like pro-life, pro-health, pro-community and pro-environment and justice. In fact, stickiness increases from rational, to emotional to significant value.
   • The present thinking is about creating a wow-experience that they may ask for more. See Innovation Defined.
2. Innovation is must – see the facts.
   • It is very easy to copy. Innovation is the only way out to create profits. But you must know how.  It is much more than offering more features.
   • Apply MiniMax principle of differentiation. See Strategies and Presidential Election - Bill vs Steve - Part 2 and Choices could be Bad – Dummies are right!
3. Innovation is more than a product
   • know the ’much more’ to bring your offering to new height.
   • Customers don’t buy products. They buy them to achieve their effects. They pay for outcomes and wow-experience. They want holes not drills said some guru. We could go higher. They want to stick things together – holes, screws and nuts are but one way to stick them. Go further to satisfy the real needs of customers. That is how you differentiate.
   • Innovation types include: 
   • The front-end: method, solution, product, service, customer experience, branding. 
   • The back-end: processes, management, supply chain, network and business model game rules.
4. Innovativeness can be measured – know the levels.
   • There are incremental and there are disruptive or radical.
   • Understand where you are on the S-Curves of technology and market.
   • Innovation is measured by how much you achieve a win-win, a breakthrough, from a compromised situation.
5. Innovation need not come by chance but by design on demand.
   • Learn the systematic innovative method – BVITS.
6. Understand your offering don’t not just take off
   • It must grow with Market Life Cycle or die.
   • Different stages of the life cycle require different kinds of innovation.
7. Innovation need not come solely by new technology
   • Know how to create a New Market without Competition by understanding the multi-stage and multi-touch points of the experience creation process.
8. Not get caught by Disruption.- It can be Predicted.
9. Innovation must follow a process – know the keys to build one
10. Don’t Do it Alone – know the new ways.
    • Get customers, suppliers, partners and other involved in your innovation.
    • Work with, ride on others production, distribution and other channels as well.
    • Stand on their shoulders and not step on their toes or provide the shoulders for others to stand on.
11. Innovation must be measured – execute With Balanced Scorecard
    • Without measurement, there is no learning and no control.
    • Innovation is about execution too.
12. Innovation must be sustained with Culture and beats the one-off success.
    • We need the culture and the environment or the ecosystems to sustain innovations.
    • One off innovation is one-off. It will have it success and also its death.
    • Sustainable growing companies have a innovative culture where innovation flourishes.

Here is a mind-map in the 12 truths of innovation.

If you want to know more, perhaps you can sign up in one of courses through NUS Extension.

See also Understanding The Smartphone Battle – Rise of Apple & Android & Fall of Nokia & Others

Bvotech Copyrighted 2011 Feb.