Trying to put together some thoughts about innovation, I have reread some chapters of “Non-bullshit innovation” from David Rowan, a book I recommend reading. I personally like a lot the chapter about Autodesk, “Find your blind spot” and ARUP, “Empower your team.”
Not trying to be exhaustive and pretending this is “the answer”, here are a few simple principles to be innovative, adapt, and potentially survive:
- Fund long-term experiments;
- Be obsessed with the future;
- Have a lab, change the culture, and show that taking some risks is fine (and necessary);
- Get involved by curiosity, not to make some public relationships;
- Follow the 3-horizon framework: 1. Maintain today’s core business; 2. Nurture emerging businesses that could become significant; 3. Conceive new future businesses in a more speculative way;
- Create organizational tensions that challenge the status quo thinking (link that back to the 3-horizon framework);
- Make sure you keep up with the speed of change in the industry. Otherwise, you will fall behind;
- Innovation must make it to the real world. Otherwise, it is not innovation;
- Tell stories, great stories.
Now, take these nine principles and turn them into questions, e.g., do we have a lab? Do we fund long-term experiments? Are we obsessed with the future? And so on. Where do you stand in terms of innovation?
Recommended reading: Non-Bullshit Innovation: Radical Ideas from the World’s Smartest Minds