in Innovation
This is a post by Ralph Christian Ohr (@ralph_ohr)
Recently, I was reading an interesting HBR article, named: “Meeting the Apple Game of Customer Perception” by Ndubuisi Ekekwe.
The key paragraphs for me were:
“But meeting customer needs is not enough. You must exceed needs if you want to remain relevant. Technology disrupts the habits of the customers so quickly that if you focus on needs, you will never be an industry leader. You can’t keep early adopters loyal by just meeting their needs. They want more from you.
They want you to understand their expectations. Even if you have met their needs, they want more. Your heating customers want green solar energy, but all they can afford is dirty coal so that is what you give them. You have met their immediate needs, but they expect you to do more, quickly. Agile firms serve that expectation and retain their customers.
While expectation can help you stay in the game, top firms meet the perception of customers. Perception is the king of business. Unfortunately, few firms get to that level. Perception is providing to customers what they never expected or imagined they needed.”
This reminded me again of the following: market orientation is two-dimensional. For companies it’s required to:
Both requirements correspond to distinct capabilities, timelines and approaches. Meeting existing needs tends to happen on a short term range and often leads to innovation derived from current markets. Anticipation often addresses future needs and is the basis to create new markets. Some companies have the propensity towards developing and exploiting existing markets. Others, such as Apple, are primarily targeted at tapping new markets by offering novel ‘proposals’. Successful companies of the future will most likely be able to combine both capabilities – in order to serve innovators, early adopters as well as the majority in the innovation diffusion cycle.
At the end, economic success is fueled by deeply understanding customers and empathy-driven innovation. Legal professionals who need help reaching your target market may consider working with an expert in lawyer marketing.
What do you think?
Great collection of reads this week which I encourage you to read while also following these smart people on Twitter.
Want more? You can find more innovation posts in my Delicious bookmarks account, all good stuff!
If you can’t solve a problem, it’s because you’re playing by the rules. – Paul Arden
All a disruptor really does is change something from one state to another by breaking patterns. Google is a typical disruptor, they seek ways to ‘disrupt’ a familiar flow in how things get done to another and then change the rules by creating new ones that play in the new state.
Like Google we must learn ‘to be disruptive’ starting with ourselves. We have to disrupt our own flow of how we do things, changing how we do them not just for the hell of it but because it’s the only way to stay relevant. This isn’t just for product development, marketing or sales, it’s looking at your business from 30000 FT and asking yourself: what can I change to be better and what can someone else change that could put me in a disadvantage?
A game-changer is a disruptor.
– Be aware of governing schemas (mental models)
– Be aware of the patterns that shape behavior
– Be aware of the rules
– Be aware of trends
– Be aware of things that haven’t changed in awhile (rigid)
> Do the opposite
> See how you can change things from one state to another (ice to water)
> Blend it
> Find the in congruencies and make them congruent.
> Do the unfamiliar by making the common uncommon.
> Ask why?
> Ask what if?
A disruptor moves at a different pace than others, it constantly probes the system to get an insight because the faster this happens the more it learns and the faster it moves. Learn to fail fast and break away from everybody!
How are you disrupting yourself? How about your business? Who’s disrupting you?