innovation, creativity, and strategy

Innovation, Leadership and

Creative Thinking

Pavan SoniInnovation.evangelist@gmail.co

mwww.pavansoni.com

What’s common?

Who ‘said’, ‘I want this’?

We do no market research. We don’t hire consultants. The only consultants I’ve ever hired in my 10 years is one firm to analyze Gateway’s retail strategy so I would not make some of the same mistakes they made [when launching Apple’s retail stores]. But we never hire consultants, per se. We just want to make great products

Jobs on market research

Invention + Commercialization Innovation

Creativity

Idea + Realization Invention

People

Process Techniques

Let’s dispel the myth!Problem Idea

5Innovation & Creativity: www.PavanSoni.com

Landscape Formation

Solution Vegetation

Best Case Solution

1

2

3

Diverge ConvergeIntent:Apply the Science of Creativity for Problem Solving & Opportunity Creation.

Deferring the judgment!!

The Systematic Creativity Process

6Pavan Soni, Innovation Evangelist.

Invention ≠ Innovation

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Most Innovative Firms- 2013

Highest R&D spent- 2013

Most patents granted- 2013

VolkswagenSamsung

IntelMicrosoft

RocheNovartisToyota

J&JGoogleMerck

AppleSamsung

GoogleMicrosoft

ToyotaIBM

AmazonFord

BMWGeneral Electric

IBMSamsung

CanonSony

LG ElectronicsMicrosoft

ToshibaPanasonic

HitachiGoogle

05/01/2023 Pavan Soni, Innovation EvangelistSource: BCG, Booz & Co., USPTO

When is listening to customers useful?

Disruptive innovations!

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Country cultures

Power distance

Individualism Masculinity Uncertainty avoidance

Pragmatism Indulgence

77

4856

40

51

26

Chart Title

India

Source: Gert HofstedePavan Soni, Innovation Evangelist

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Country cultures- In contrast

Power distance

Individualism Masculinity Uncertainty avoidance

Pragmatism Indulgence

77

4856

40

51

26

80

20

66

30

87

24

40

91

62

46

26

68

35

67 66 65

83

40

India China USA Germany

Pavan Soni, Innovation EvangelistSource: Gert Hofstede

Variance, not mean centric

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Innovation

Look for non-customers

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Twitter

Non- Customers

Who? Why? How?

Soon to Be

Refusing

Unexplored

Source: Blue Ocean Strategy

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The Medici Effect

15Great Ideas are born at the Intersection of Disciplines

Linear Growth

Discovering Intersections

I am imagining bringing 100s of people together from different backgrounds and disciplines within a region and have them work together to unleash an explosion of transformational

ideas.- Frans Johansson

Source: Medici Effect

70% and go…

Ambidextrous organization

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• Exploit the Present + Explore the Future• Teams autonomous at bottom, connected at top

Established companies can develop radical innovations and protect their traditional businesses. In our study, more than 90% of the ambidextrous organizations achieved their

goals.- Charles A. O’Reilly III

Let a million flowers blossom

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We call the projects late and give as much time as possible for these ideas to blossom, as innovation is a very fragile process.

- Douglas Merrill, formerly at Google

Call the shots as late as possible

Multiple Ideas

Project Clusters

Science of motivation

19Source: Drive (Daniel Pink)

Purpose

MasteryAutonomy

Putting the whole brain to work

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• If you never change your mind, why have one? - Edward de Bono

Think + Feel

Creativity calls for hunch, guts and reason

Left Right

Logic

Rational

Sequential

Objective

Emotion

Intuition

Subjective

Looks at parts

Looks at wholes

Holistic T Shaper Personalities

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Hone multiple affinities

Source: IDEO

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The Innovation DNAInnovative entrepreneurship is not a genetic predisposition, it is an active endeavor.

- Clayton M. Christensen

Questioning

Observing

Experimenting

Networking

Associating

Five traits of Innovators

Marc Benioff

Jeff Bezos

Michael Dell

Herb Kelleher

Mike Lazaridis

Pierre Omidyar

Scott Cook

You!!!

Source: Innovator’s DNA

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