tie delhi workshop - systematic innovations & innovation management

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Systematic Innovation

Aditya [email protected] Practice Head, QAI Global Services

7 Core Skills of InnovatorEntrepreneurs


Agenda

A. What is Systematic Innovation

B. Successful Entrepreneurs are innovative problem solvers

C. What prevents us from generating innovative ideas?

D. Paradoxes faced by Entrepreneurs

E. The need for Systematic Innovation

F. Q&A


A. What is Systematic Innovation


What do we mean by Innovation?

• Innovation is about finding better ways of deliveringvalue to the customer – Mind to Market.

• Business innovation is about satisfaction and value, notnew gadgetry.

• “Innovation is not invention. It is a term of economicsrather than of technology.” Peter Drucker

• "An innovation is something original, new, and important—in whatever field — that breaks into (or obtains afoothold in) a market or society". Frankelius, P.


Does structure limit Creativity?

• Most Western music usethe seven-note majorscale.

– Does that limit thecreativity of thesingers/musicians?

• A waterbrush artist haslimited material optionsto play with.

– Does that make the outputless creative?


Seven (7) Core Skills of Innovative Thinking

InnovativeOpportunity

Thinking

Identify keystakeholders

in currentsituation and

proposedsolution

Identifypotentialzones ofconflict in

stakeholderrequirements

Generatefailure

scenariosusing theresourcesat disposal

Articulate theessence of a

given situationin simple

language freeof complexityand jargons

Apply ideasand solutions

fromunrelated

domains withsimilar

situations

Leverageavailable,latent andderived

resourceswithin the

givenconstraints of

a situation

Ability toidentify

innovativeopportunitiesfor creating &

deliveringvalue to

customers

Envisionthe state ofperfection

& theroadmap toachieve it

Identify thesystem and

thefunctional &time basedrelationshipwith others

ContradictionThinking

FailureAnalysisThinking

Abstractionand Analogy

Thinking

Resources&

ConstraintsThinking

IdealScenarioThinking

SystemsThinking

Generatewin-win

solutions toconflictingdemands

Envisionthe cause-and-effectlinkages toidentify the

root -conflicts

Prioritize toresolve the

failurescenariosfor robust

design

Review theproposedsolutionsfrom anIdeality

Perspective


What is Systematic Innovation(SI)?

• Systematic Innovation1. methodical in procedure or plan <a systematic approach>

2. marked by thoroughness and regularity <systematic efforts>


Levels of Systematic Innovation

Value Proposition

• BusinessModelInnovation

• Product /ServiceInnovation

Creation of Value

• Production orManufacturingProcessInnovation

Delivery of Value

• Supply ChainManagementProcessInnovation

What we sell? How it is Created? How it is Delivered?

Technology as an Enabler


Five Application areas of Systematic Innovation


B. Successful Entrepreneurs are InnovativeProblem Solvers…

…with a high risk appetite


Successful Entrepreneurs are innovative problem solvers!

Customerproblems

Businessproblems

Partnerproblems

Employeeproblems

And they have ahigh appetite for

risk -in exploring new

solution directions!


Not every entrepreneur is equally skilled in this ability

It’s not only about risk taking appetite!


B. What prevents anyone from generatinginnovative ideas?


Reason # 1: Creativity and Age of an Individual

10-12 years old

Peak of Creativity

Age

Creativity

The French psychologist, Antoine Ribot studiedthe effect of age on creativity in the early 1900’s.

He found the age at which the average personpeaks to be 14.

A few years ago MIT’s Sloan School ofManagement repeated the study.

They found that the peak age of creativity hadshifted down to 12.


Reason # 2: Our Mind is the Battlefield!

Psychological Inertia Types

• Image

• Function

• Functioning or principle of operation

• Manner of usage

• Typical Characteristic

• Typical Orientation

• Dimension of object

• Terminology or Jargon

• Traditional conditions

• Traditional values

• Superfluous Information


• A lot of emphasis has been laid on technicalskills and soft skills…

• However, one skill remains largelyunaddressed…


High I.Q. and E.Q.

≠

High Thinking Skills

Thinking Skills is a different category…


B. Paradoxes confronting Entrepreneurs& 7-core skills of innovators


Paradox # 1: Where are the customers?

• The product went through the product development lifecycle and looked good in the pilot stage.

• I even have patents to protect my invention.

• Why then, are the customers not flocking to buy?

OR

• Why do prospects limit themselves to “windowshopping”?


Key Skill # 1

• Key skill of innovative entrepreneurs: Ability toidentify the pain point of value to the customer

• Successful entrepreneurs know that customersbuy on Benefits linked to the specific pain pointof high importance.

• Unsuccessful entrepreneurs sell their products onFeatures!


Paradox # 2: Why are customers not loyal?

• I have a high adoption rate for my product.

• But why don’t the customers stick around for too long?

OR

• Why do the profits not keep pace with the adoption rate?


Functions remain constant

Solutions keep on changing/evolving

We are mostly arguing about solutions while…

…Customers are loyal to the Function and not the specific solution


Key Skill # 2

• Key skill of innovative entrepreneurs: Ability toidentify the Useful Function of the product orservice and look for better solutions that retainthe useful function.

• Functions remain constant but the solutionskeep on evolving!

• Customers are loyal to the Useful function of aproduct and not the product.


Paradox # 3: Will success be a flash in thepan?

• How do we ensure our offering stays relevant to themarketplace after the initial launch and excitement?

OR

• How is competition able to latch on to the new customertrends much before I do?

OR

• The marketplace is flooded with competing solutions.Imitations abound. How to differentiate?


Key Skill # 3

• Key skill of innovative entrepreneurs: Ability tomap the industry and product evolution toobjective laws of evolution.

• Customers and technical systems have knownpatterns of evolution.

• Successful entrepreneurs make use of thesepatterns to generate future road map of productsand services.


Paradox # 4: Is there hope for my failed product?

• My product bombed in the marketplace.

• Can I hope to revive?


Key Skill # 4

• Key skill of innovative entrepreneurs: Ability tofind the resources to generate solutions.

• Innovators have the trained mind tosystematically locate resources that areoverlooked by others.

• These resources are preferably free, easy toaccess and abundant supply.


Paradox # 5: Life is full of contradictory demands!

• I will get seed money once I prove my business model, butI need money to prove my business model works

• I want good quality staff to make my company successfulbut they will join only when the company is successful(and can pay!)

• Customers are willing to try my product for free but I needmoney to run my company profitably!


Key Skill # 5

• Key skill of innovative entrepreneurs: Ability toresolve contradictions to generate win-winsolutions for key stakeholders.

• The heart of innovative thinking is the ability toresolve contradictory demands.

• Seemingly intractable problems withcontradictory demands can yield innovative ideas.


Paradox # 6: How can someone from anunrelated industry tell me what to do?

• I have spent years learning how to do myjob.

• Suddenly someone NOT from my industrystarts telling me how I can innovate.

• How can that be?


Key Skill # 6

• Key skill of innovativeentrepreneurs:1. Abstraction thinking which

is the ability to express agiven situation withoutusing technical jargons.

2. Analogy thinking which isthe ability to identifysituations with similarproblems that appeardifferent because they usedifferent technical jargons.

1. SpecificProblem

3. GenericSolution

4. SpecificSolution

2. GenericProblem

The essence of a problem remains similar

The way we express a problem makes it look different


Paradox # 7: Who am I competing against?

• Can someone from an unexpected industrycome and make my offering irrelevant?

OR

• Who is my competition?


Key Skill # 7

• Key skill of innovative entrepreneurs:

1. The ability to envision the ideal system to create theevolutionary roadmap

2. The ability to identify the innovative directions basedon the five categories of innovation


Paradox # 8: Employees and creativity

• My employees deal with customers all the time.

• Why do they not generate innovative ideas for addingvalue to my customers?

OR

• Why does everyone expect me to have all the innovativeideas?


B. The need for Systematic Innovation


1. Growth is not Constant…


2. The Luxury of Time is no longer there…

Technology Invention Production Development Time

Fluorescent lighting 1852 1934 82 years

Radar 1887 1933 46 years

Ballpoint pen 1888 1938 50 years

Zipper 1891 1923 32 years

Diesel locomotive 1895 1934 39 years

Cellophane 1900 1926 26 years

Power steering 1900 1930 30 years

Rockets 1903 1935 32 years

Helicopter 1904 1936 32 years

Television 1907 1936 29 years

Kodachrome 1910 1935 25 years

Transistor 1940 1950 10 years


Conventional Trial-and-Error Approach is Inefficient


• Humans have evolved to “understand” problems veryquickly – we “naturally recognize” and apply knownsolutions.

Problem analysis ~ 1 second

Solution generation/execution(trial and error):

Until it works (Darwinian)!

3. Known solutions may not work out all the time…


Aditya Bhalla

[email protected]

AnyQuestions?

tie delhi workshop - systematic innovations & innovation management

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