Concept Levels - Using the Ladder for Profitability

A recent book by Jim Champy called Outsmart reminded me about one of the ways to be innovative beyond just having a new product.  It is more about changing your business model and approach to clients.  The book has several vignettes about various successful businesses and what their experience means for innovation.  He mentioned how Shutterfly transformed from being a photography site to becoming a networking site based on photos.  After the change in view, revenues began increasing rapidly.

This made me think about the creativity technique of the ‘Up and Down Ladder’ of concepts.  What happens in this type of creativity is that you look at something that is already a good idea, or where you need some inspiration.  You then define what is the concept that you are getting at.  You are always looking for what is the idea behind the solution you need.  If you need to get to the top floor of a building where the lifts aren’t working (to choose a somewhat strange example) the concept is not ‘lifts’ but moving upward – i.e. it is the broad concept.  You then think about all the specific things that fit within this concept.  Examples might be things like:

·       Flying

·       Climbing

·       Jumping

·       Teletransportation!

You keep going and get as many as possible on the list.  You then go back down a level and try to apply these specifically to your current situation, adapting as necessary.  In our example, climbing might suggest using the stairs.  Teletransportation, though a strange idea, might suggest using the telephone to be ‘in two places at once’.  While the examples here are slightly less innovative, this technique can often come up with multiple ideas which you might not have considered previously.

Take some time and think about your current way of looking at your business and market.  What is the concept you’re trading under?  What need are you fulfilling?  Once you’ve got your answer, what other general ways are there to fulfil this need or fit with this concept?  How can you specifically apply these other ways of looking at the issues to your business?  If you’ve come up with any inspirations, please let me know!