Innovation by Outliers

I’ve been reading the book Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell and it has emphasised something about creativity and innovation for me. The book's premise is that the people who are outliers, meaning someone who is outside the statistical norm in wealth or physical prowess, are often usually that way only because of very hard work and not necessarily innate talent or intelligence. There are several points relevant to creativity which come out of the book:

· If you’re innovative / creative but don’t see things through, you won’t necessarily achieve your potential. Average people can beat you if you don’t put the time in.

· Being creative is not enough to get you ahead, even in a profession where this skill is crucial.

· Even where you might be of an average skill level for creativity or innovation, if you consistently apply your skill over a period of time, you will not only improve, but will excel ahead of others who have not put in the time – even if they are more creative than you are.

· Due to the timing involved, your idea might or might not work – so you need to keep trying.

· Culture can have an effect on how creative you are, and how likely you are to put your ideas forward.

For me, the overall message, from a Profit Power point of view, is that you need a sustained pipeline of ideas that you are working on over a period of time. That way, you capture the most ideas and have the best chance of capturing the ideas that could make the most impact. He also says most outliers achieve their best after 10,000 hours of work in their area! If you’re not getting the ideas you want, maybe you need to spend more time at it.

Uncle Big

Once upon a time there was a man who woke up and realised there was a giant sitting in his garden.  The first morning the man didn’t say a word, just slowly closed the door and didn’t go out the rest of the day.  Unfortunately, the giant was there the next day – and the next.  The man needed to go to work, and couldn’t keep calling in sick, so he decided to risk sneaking past the giant.  The following morning the giant was there as usual.  The man started to quietly walk by, but the giant turned and looked at him.  The man stared right into his eyes, but the giant said nothing and let him go on his way.

Frustrated and worried, and after another week of slowly creeping past the giant, the man grew braver and said, ‘Hey!  What are you doing here?’

Finally, the giant turned to him and said ‘I am Uncle Big.  Don’t Be Afraid of Uncle Big.  And don’t be afraid of change!’  He then stood up and in one giant step was gone.

The man never saw him again.

Are You the Icon of Your Industry?

Dealing with domestic appliances this morning (i.e. ironing my shirt) I started to think about name brands and, going beyond this, icons within an industry.  Take for example Hoover who so dominated the vacuum cleaner market their name has become synonymous with it in England.  Or, more recently, Dyson.  Then I thought, ‘who is the ‘Dyson of ironing boards’?  My answer was – no one!  And then I thought there must be a business opportunity for someone here.

If you need a new business idea, consider what areas of your chosen industry have become so unnoticed – so routine – that someone could come in and change everything.  Then think, ‘how could I radically change things to such an extent that I (and my product) become an icon in this area?’  There are numerous ways to do this.  Think about the following:

·       What could I combine with something else?

·       What could I rearrange?

·       What could I eliminate?

·       What could I make smaller?

·       What could I make bigger?

There are a dozen other ways to change what is now not seen as a valuable area into something better.  Have a go and let me know how you get on.

Visceral Innovation

Combination.  In order to innovate, you must often combine something in an unexpected way with another thing.  The easiest examples are ones where a management or production technique are ‘borrowed’ from another industry and used in new ways.  One great example is the Dyson vacuum cleaner, where the original idea came from saw mills using cyclone ventilation to remove sawdust particles.

An easy way to make combinations with your product or service is to consider emotions and how these can be built into them.  This can be very easy because you can look at what other industries are doing and apply it to yours, especially industries where emotion is very important.  And often, many products and services ignore emotions and sell only benefits.

Think about i-Pod advertising and the emotion of the iconic advert with the person dancing around with their white head phones on.  How could you apply a similar idea to your legal, accounting or tax service? (I didn’t say it would be easy!)

The way to apply this is to suspend judgment for a time and think, ‘If I were going to do this and knew it was all going to work, what crazy ideas could I come up with?’  Be sure not to stop yourself, as an unworkable idea may give way to an idea that could be used.

Let me know how you get on.