The second of the intersections between the 3 dimensions of creativity is market and business model. This will be especially important where you don’t have a product which is differentiated from those of your competitors, or where you did at one time but everyone has now caught up with you and your innovation has become a commodity.
The best example of this type of innovation, and a very strong one, is the case of Walmart in the US. Here we have a store chain which did not have any one great product that was so innovative it drove sales. In fact, they sold most of the same items you could get in any discount store.
But their business model was one of delivering these goods as cheaply as possible. They invested heavily in time and money saving techniques to get the products to the stores more cheaply. They were certainly market leaders in this area.
Their market was also one being ignored by many of the big players. They invested in stores in rural areas which didn’t have easy access to larger grocery or goods stores. By doing this, they became the only shop in town. And because they were outside of big cities, they could have loads of free parking and get cheaper shopping space (strengthening their cost cutting drive).
So, you can see how the intersection between the two was really one which made Walmart what it is. Can you see how this approach was ignored for quite some time? Many of the big stores couldn’t see how to make profit from the smaller populations, so ignored them. By combining cost savings innovations along with market penetration, Walmart made themselves one of the biggest retailers in history.
Consider this – where is there a market that looks unpromising? How could you adopt your business model to serve this market?
Or turn it around – why is your business model so strong? Could you apply this strength to a market that you never thought you could?
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