So you’re innovative, Now what?
Blog: Brian's Blog - Enterprise Strategy, Architecture and Management
Over the weekend, between home projects, I started reading “The Corporate Startup”. The one standout comment so far was the authors’ definition of Innovation: “The creation of new products and services that deliver value to customers, in a manner that is supported by a sustainable and profitable business model”. This suggests several things to me:
First creativity is not necessarily innovation. One can be creative but not necessarily creating value to a customer, e.g., Rube Goldberg
Second value is in the eye of the customer, so maybe a new and novel approach that doesn’t reduce cost or produce more effective results but provides a more entertaining or satisfying experience is of value. Pines & Gilmore highlighted this idea in their book in 1999. Examples of experience multiplying value are demonstrated by such corporations as Apple with the IPhone, etc. Where style and experience are often the major differentiating factor IPhone verse Windows Phone.
In earlier research I came to the conclusion that value for customers is manifested in at least one of follow three categories:
- Efficiency, reducing costs or time
- Effectiveness, producing better results
- Experience, enhancing enjoyment or prestige. Consider how Rolex, Apple, DeBeers, etc. positions themselves and products
Lastly a sustainable and profitable business model, is a fantasy. A look at the Dow Jones 30 over the years indicates sustainability is ecosystem dependent. As it changes a business needs to change its business model to remain profitable. U.S. Steel and U.S. Leather Company are entities that are no longer included in the top 30, their offerings and business models no longer enable these firms to continue as before.
In some cases companies tried to be “creative”: six colors of pens. But those efforts failed to reach a tipping point in the experience category, neither did these enhance the other two categories. So the musing for today are your company’s efforts creative or innovative?
Filed under: Enterprise Architecture 
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