Innovation through Customer Insight

So many stories lately about how the downturn in the economy will impact innovation.   Many are saying that innovation will be the saviour that will lead us back to more prosperous times.  But, what TYPE of innovation will be more prevalent in this environment?

I was recently taking the InnovationLabs survey on the topic of Innovation in the downturn.  As I answered the questions, it became clearer and clearer to me what the innovation trend is going to be.

Companies are going to create closer relationships with their customers.  Nobody is willing to risk much.  They don’t want to develop a new product or even modify an existing one unless there is a clear revenue stream on the other end.  Tightening the bond with customers is a good thing and will not only increase GOOD innovation now, but it will set us up for even better and faster innovation as we turn the corner.

Michael Treacy and many others talk about sprinkling innovation money around lightly and then dropping what is not working and adding more funds to things that are.  ”Working” should be defined as what customers want.  Companies should be polling their customer base and desirable prospects throughout the innovation process.   

What types of innovation do you believe will thrive right now?

Open Source Government

I was listening to Obama’s financial speech on the economic stimulus package from GMU last week.  The thought occurred to me……open source.

People contribute every day to open source project s because they believe in a brand/product-line and they want to make it fit better with their needs. Why can’t we do the same thing for government technology.

There are few reasons why this might work

1. Obama has indicated that he wants to improve government efficiency through better use of technology.
2. Obama seems like a spender, but also one who likes to get good value for his money
3. The most important factor – Obama has such high approval ratings and such high Kennedyesque “what can you do for your country” emotion that he could rally people to volunteer forthese projects.

I’m not suggesting that we do this for projects of high national security.  But for the myriad of projects that are not secret or top secret, it could drive innovation, speed, and capability by crowdsourcing.  Of course, there would be a need for some paid employees to do quality assurance on all the developed code in order to check for anything malicious or backdoor, but that would be better than having to build everything themselves.

Not only would this get the government free labor, but it would likely inject innovation and cutting edge thinking that government employees may not have, and it will make sure that the solution is something that the end-users want to use. It would be in essence “government by the people for the people”.

Is Obama doing anything like this?  Has any government tried it?

Future Business Resolutions

If “Future Business” were a person, she/he might have resolutions for the new year. Of course, similar to a person, business is not going to become perfect inside of a year. So, let’s examine some areas where progress can be made.

1. Seek out Collaboration – customers, employees, partners: they are all sources of valuable information.  Collaborate with them to see how you can set-up win-win relationships.  There are many new social media IT tools that can help you with this.  Likely your GenY employees will be able to help you there.
2. Encourage creative thinking – most businesses have spent the last decade trying to lock down efficiencies.  Unfortunately, this is often to the detriment of supporting creative thinking.  Take a cue from Google who lets their employees work on a side-project a few hours a week and help your employees get more creative.
3. Understand your customers and lead them – this is somewhat like resolution #1, but it goes a step further.  First of all “understand” takes a lot of listening.  It means listening not just to how they would like to interact with you, but what are there overall goals.  What are some of the things they are doing on the periphery of your product/service.  Once you understand them, develop something useful for them and lead them to it.  Often they will not tell you exactly what to build because they do not know what is possible or even what you might be able to accomplish. 
4. Adapt quickly – create a learning organization and one that is nimble.  Cast a wide net for ideas, but have a method of honing those ideas down so that you can focus on the ones that are going to be most beneficial to your business.  When a product or a market is not bearing fruit have the ability to analyze and decide when it is right to change direction.  Creating a senior position that is focused on innovation is a great way to support this.

Of course inside of a year, businesses are not going to be perfect in any of those dimensions.  However, they can strive for some improvement and invest some money in programs that start down the road.

On what else do you think that businesses should focus in 2009 in order to drive for a “Future Business” nirvana?