Tag Archives: Strategy

What leads to innovation?

in Innovation
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The worlds most recognizable brands where born out of some innovative product or service that created new value for consumers. But what lead them to that specific innovation? Why not check out this custom interior signage here for more info!

The Branding Strategy Insider came up with a short list of factors that lead to innovation:

 

•    A penchant for experimentation and action over analysis

•    The realization that in many industries, approximately 70% of innovations are developed by users, not the firm bringing the product to market (from research done by Professor Eric von Hippel at MIT)

•    The importance of connectivity. An enterprise has a much higher success rate if it is interconnected with the widest variety of potential idea sources, suppliers, business partners, customers, universities, governmental agencies, etc.

•    Build on your strengths, don’t waste your efforts on hiding or compensating for your weaknesses. Identify your assets and amplify them.

•    Envision the positive outcome that you seek.

•    Be optimistic and constantly work until your optimism is justified.

This is by no means a complete list but in my opinion it’s quite simple. If we were to trace these factors back and look for patterns these would show up in one way or the other.

 

What other factors lead to innovation?

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Must read innovation stories of the week: Everything you need to know about innovation

in Must reads of the week

Innovation is difficult to do. There are numerous books out there about innovation that teach you a certain aspect on how to innovate yet are clearly written for experts.

Richard Watson put together a well written comprehensive article about innovation that any person can understand. Read it, share it with your team, discuss it and accept that if you want to create anything new you’re bound to fail more than a few times.

There is no magic formula!

 

 

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What is strategy?

in Strategy

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So many definitions, so much complexity. Nobody really knows what strategy really is.

So, what is strategy?

To me strategy is not pursuing a detailed plan step by step, it is finding or creating options that give me an advantage at any moment.

Let me explain why:

The world is full of people looking for a secret formula to success and power. They don’t want to think on their own; they just want the recipe to follow. For this very reason they are attracted to the idea of strategy.

In their minds strategy is a series of steps to be followed toward a goal. They want these steps spelled out for them by some expert or guru. Believing in the power of imitation, they want to know what others have done before. Their maneuvers in life are as mechanical as their thinking. They are predictable.

The essence of strategy is not to carry out a brilliant plan that proceeds in steps; it is to put yourself in situations where you have more options than everyone else. Instead of going for A as the single right answer, true strategy is positioning yourself to be able to do A, B or C depending on the situation.

Our society values people who have the right answer but in reality there is no single right answer, there are many. At any moment one approach can be better than the other, being aware of this is what separates true strategists from the one’s following a game plan.

Do you agree? What’s your definition of strategy? This is an important topic, let’s get a discussion going!

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What a cave diver can teach us about leapfrogging the competition

in Strategy

 

I was looking at some very last week and one in particular caught my attention not because of the picture itself but because of the story behind it:

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The diver in this photo has descended about 20 feet into the opening of Devil’s Eye Spring. Without carrying breathing gas, free divers can usually swim down only about 40 to 45 feet, but Heinerth says that a few brave souls venture further. “In Russia, I met a guy who they nicknamed ‘Aqua Man,’” she said. “In water temperature just above freezing, Aqua Man would put on a wetsuit, enter the cave, and swim a couple of hundred feet before surfacing to sip from an air pocket on the ceiling of the cave. Then he’d free dive even further in, eventually getting 300 feet into the cave with no air. He was free diving by leap-frogging from air pocket to air pocket inside the cave.” Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit

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Obviously there’s no such thing as Aqua Man but clearly this person is called such for the feat he accomplishes. Any skilled diver can stay underwater longer by swimming from air pocket to air pocket, but because of the uncertainty of the unknown (as well as the chill) nobody is likely to try it in a cave.

What separates Aqua Man from the rest is his mental preparation. How do I know this?

Because Aqua Man has the same abilities that the other divers have, mainly to be a competent swimmer and have great control of respiration.

The ability to stay underwater and dive to depths both you and I can’t go isn’t a talent. It’s preparing your body, your mind through constant practice and then being curious as to what he might find inside the cave,

What the other divers overlooked was that there might be air pockets inside the cave. They just couldn’t see beyond their own fear!

 

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Key takeaway: You don’t leapfrogg the competition by beating them at their own game, . Sometimes what they ‘can’t do’ is a fear and most of the time it’s something they’re overlooking. Exploit it!

Don’t out compete your rivals, change the rules of the game

in competition, Innovation tips, Strategy

On his way to becoming the greatest military genius to set foot on Earth, Napoleon Bonaparte broke the rules on how military campaigns were waged. From a young age he was always overlooked, to get the respect of his peers he understood he had to fight differently. In doing so he went on to rewrite the rules of military history.

Just like Napoleon we too can learn to fight ‘differently’ than our opponents, because doing so is the only way you’ll ever stand out in a world full of ‘me too thinking’.

Here are a few ways that can help you to start thinking about how to change the game in your industry:

  • Do what others are unwilling to do. Established companies have a strong incentive to maintain the status quo, it’s to their advantage to keep doing ‘what’s working’. Don’t compete on their terms, do what they’re unwilling to do and define your own rules.
  • Look where your competition is not. Go out to the fringe, where’s things are changing. Stepping out of the mainstream is the only place where you’ll get unconventional insights. What’s happening in another part of the world that you could adopt and adapt in your environment?
  • Challenge industry orthodoxies. Time and again, the strategy innovations that radically change customer expectations, competitive rules and industry structures come from questioning beliefs that everyone else has taken for granted. What drives success in your industry? Could you imagine alternative ways of doing things?
  • Collaborate. Innovations that matter arise from cross-boundary perspectives.

How to create new value in the 21st century

in Strategy

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Umair Haque @ Daytona Sessions vol. 2 – Constructive Capitalism from Daytona Sessions on Vimeo.

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Looking to inject yourself with some fresh thinking?

If you’re interested in economics, competition and strategy (specifically why our economy sucks and how we got to where we are today), here’s a great speech by Umair Haque. download Big Nothing

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If you haven’t been following him at his Edge Economy blog, just watch this video and you’ll understand exactly what he’s talking about in his blog.

Umair’s talk is structured around his Laws of Constructive Capitalism which I list here.

  • Strategy is a commodity
  • Competition is obsolete
  • There is nothing more asymmetrical than an ideal
  • Tomorrow is today
  • Connections not transactions
  • People, not product
  • Creativity, not productivity
  • Outcomes, not incomes
  • Advantage is in the DNA
  • The Next Revolution is institutional

A lot of the ideas (which he goes into a lot of detail specifically on how to resell SEO) he discusses on his blog are presented in this speech, so do yourself a favor and watch the video.

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