The Business of Innovation
My wife and I have traveled numerous times over the past few years to visit her family in Wisconsin. Now, you would think that there is one, or possibly a few, viable routes for making the trip by car. Indeed, I have been instructed as to the fastest route according to my father-in-law's decades of experience with the same trek. So, should it come as any surprise that on nearly every trip, our course deviates slightly each time, and rarely do I accept the instructions that have been handed down?
With very few exceptions, any time someone instructs me on how to do a particular task, I will try to deviate. Why? No, I am not just a hyper-rebellious post modernist bent on questioning everything. I am simply eager to improve on anything—even the most tried and true realities. On more than one occasion, this has resulted in the frustrated passengers rolling their eyes again as we venture onto yet another god-forsaken rural highway. But over Christmas we had a break-through. An insider tip from a native Chicagoan led to a shortcut straight up Lakeshore Drive. You can imagine my excitement over the triumph.
So, two paragraphs into this anecdotal example that you were hoping would bring an inspirational truth about how to be innovative, I must confess something. That trip was not innovative. A ten-minute savings after years of trial and error is hardly the qualification of an innovator.
An innovator would be investigating personal aircrafts, train routes, or try to acquire a Heisenberg compensator with which to build a Mark VII transporter they used in Deep Space 9 (for the treky in us all). Innovation is planning years of strategy in order redefine the conventions of supply chain management and finally produce a car for $2,500 (curious? learn more).
The business of innovation begins with questioning not the path, but the origin. Are we asking the right question in "what's the best way to drive to Wisconsin," or is there a different question altogether? Suddenly, the question "what's the best way to get to Wisconsin," has all new meaning.
Is there a different question you could be asking yourself about the best way to solve your customer's problems?
With very few exceptions, any time someone instructs me on how to do a particular task, I will try to deviate. Why? No, I am not just a hyper-rebellious post modernist bent on questioning everything. I am simply eager to improve on anything—even the most tried and true realities. On more than one occasion, this has resulted in the frustrated passengers rolling their eyes again as we venture onto yet another god-forsaken rural highway. But over Christmas we had a break-through. An insider tip from a native Chicagoan led to a shortcut straight up Lakeshore Drive. You can imagine my excitement over the triumph.
So, two paragraphs into this anecdotal example that you were hoping would bring an inspirational truth about how to be innovative, I must confess something. That trip was not innovative. A ten-minute savings after years of trial and error is hardly the qualification of an innovator.
An innovator would be investigating personal aircrafts, train routes, or try to acquire a Heisenberg compensator with which to build a Mark VII transporter they used in Deep Space 9 (for the treky in us all). Innovation is planning years of strategy in order redefine the conventions of supply chain management and finally produce a car for $2,500 (curious? learn more).
The business of innovation begins with questioning not the path, but the origin. Are we asking the right question in "what's the best way to drive to Wisconsin," or is there a different question altogether? Suddenly, the question "what's the best way to get to Wisconsin," has all new meaning.
Is there a different question you could be asking yourself about the best way to solve your customer's problems?
Labels: innovation, Nano, product design, Tata Motors
1 Comments:
The best way to get to Wisconsin is to NOT drive through Chicago! Oh, the traffic snarls and delays any route that takes you there can cause!
By
James, At
January 25, 2008 7:41 AM
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