Redefining Innovation
Eunika Mercier-Laurent does a yeoman job of reviewing innovation strategies and types of innovation around the world, which helps newcomers and experts alike to place their ideas of innovation into a broader context.
As a Silicon Valley serial entrepreneur and a Japan watcher, I find her framework useful for thinking about new ways to innovate since it’s easy to get lost in the details when launching new ventures. In particular, the idea of co-innovating with clients is particularly useful in order to overcome the tradition bias of technology-, product- and service-push
strategies. Among venture capitalists (VCs) and angel investors, technology alone is insufficient since over 80% of VC-funded startups fail.
To raise funding and survive, entrepreneurs must validate their products, services and business models with customers before refining and marketing them.
Recently, the concept of lean startups has become popular, but it too may be a fad reflecting the bias toward “fast-flip” (quick acquisition) strategies and social media startups.
Eunika’s diagram of the Silicon Valley startup process is useful for understanding our thinking. In particular, we believe in the idea of “failing fast” to discover what solutions work and are commercially viable.
The idea of failing is anathema to many regions outside of Silicon Valley, which is why they have a difficult time innovating. Perhaps the most useful observations and advice that Eunika provides is Hamel and Prahalad’s concept of core competencies in the context of creating demand.
Like Facebook or Zynga, the most innovative companies create demand for services that people do not realize they have. This notion of tapping latent demand is perhaps one reason why Akio Morita noted that entrepreneurs must just develop new products after careful customer observation and see what happens. It is that serendipity that often leads to breakthrough products, services, and businesses.
