Focus on What People Cannot See...

“…we don’t focus our attention on what is seen, but on what is unseen, for the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever”

-Paul of Tarsus

Some people like Aristotle or Seneca. I like Paul. So don’t judge.

As you may already know, Innovation means the introduction of something new. 

In business, this could mean a new product or a new way of doing something which is faster, better or easier than what already exists.

Innovation is such a powerful force in business, and hinges on one’s ability to see or imagine what everyone else is blind or oblivious to, and then to work to bring that into physical existence.

It is choosing to focus on the unseen, instead of what is readily seen. This is one of the most sought after skills in the world. 

It is a rare ability and is often a determinant of the value of an organization and how long it’ll last. 

Sometimes it even creates new industries altogether; Think of the telephone when letter writing was the norm or the invention of the internet.

Paul was ‘right on the money on this one’ Human wants are insatiable, and what satisfies us today will most probably not have the same effect tomorrow, when a better alternative is made available to us. 

It’s therefore safe to say that for businesses to keep satisfying customer needs while making profit, they must be innovative. 

They must not only focus on giving the giving the best customer experience in the now, but also be concerned on the future needs and wants of their users, to identify and articulate the unseen solutions, to meeting those needs and then putting in the work to make them a reality.

                                                    

 

This is hard sometimes because humans naturally don’t like to leave their comfort zones, and venture into the unknown, and I know for a fact that humans are the driving force behind businesses . . .[well, except Amazon . . .Amazon is driven by machines [No offence Jeff Bezos]. 

Trust me; no one wants to think of introducing a new product when their present cash cow is making a boat load of money. 

Every individual or business that innovates does it not because they enjoy the ordeals of innovation, but because they’ll be dead if they don’t... 

Well, except maybe Steve Jobs or Elon Musk [I’ve concluded that they’re aliens].

Steve Jobs created Apple and set the foundations for it being a trillion dollar company, by incorporating elegant innovation into its DNA. 

Many people have predicted that Apple will fail in the near future.I believe that if or when it does happen, it’ll be a long way off from now and it’ll happen because Apple got complacent, and stopped making leapfrogs in innovation just like any other large company that has folded up in the past.

Large companies remain in business because they’re so very well versed in “Incremental Innovation.” 

According to the “Innovators Dilemma” a book written by world renowned management expert Clayton Christensen, this term refers to small changes in industry standard products, that make it a bit easier for use, cheaper to produce or more affordable for the consumers, and it gives a short-lived competitive advantage to the innovating company. 

They’re not big game changers or deal breakers and fall within the already existing trajectory of existing products, so they rattle no cages at all. 

They’re the innovations that you look at and think to yourself, “I can see how that fits into this”.

What large companies struggle with, which is the mainstay of startups, is what Clayton termed “disruptive innovations”. 

These are innovations that upend an entire industry, or create a new one in the twinkle of an eye, making obsolete already existing procedures, policies and products. 

                                                

These are innovations that make you say out loud “Wow! I never saw that one coming.” Think Facebook, Amazon, Uber, Tesla or the iPhones at its launch. 

You may wonder why even with the vast resources at their disposal, large companies still struggle with these. Were they blind to it or somehow just miss it?

No! No! Many times, these large companies laid the groundwork for disruptive innovations or had prototypes already developed but they were just too entrenched in their own processes, markets and steady profits to rock the boat. 

They defer and defer, hoping for an opportune time and in the end get overtaken by a little known startup willing to take the plunge. After all, a startup is basically a risk machine.

Startups are in the Innovation business; and therein lies a respite for large companies. 

Clayton concluded that large companies handle disruptive innovations in 2 ways; either create a small subsidiary, independent of the main company, to develop and expand on the new opportunities created by the disruptive innovation, or invest in a startup that’s already on their way with the new innovation.

In the end it all comes down to this: Innovate or Die. And hey, who wants to die?

Right?