Innovation is not just about bringing creative ideas, but it is a direct result of us organising our life and thoughts.
One of the first things we learn during ideation is the power of observation & organisation. These two are the key to bringing out any breakthrough idea.
Innovation does not happen overnight, it is a long process where you are working on something or learning something new, store the learnings and retrieve these at the appropriate time to incorporate into the thinking.
Sir Isaac Newton did not invent gravity in a day. He was an astronomy student and also a mathematician. He was working on his book for almost 10 years to understand how the universe works and during this process, one day when he saw the apple falling, it was his eureka moment. He understood that all objects stay in their place due to the energy of each of these objects. This is gravity and thus explains how all planets and stars stay at their place in the whole big universe without falling into each other.
Similarly, any idea is not curated on one day. It is a sequence of things which lead to the innovation. Now, if you wish to innovate, you need to collect your material consistently and store the information in a practical way so as to connect the dots when required.
The more organised in your data, the more easier it is to innovate.
So, in the recent past, there has been a lot of commotion, at least in India, where Mr. Narayana Murthy, the co-founder and ex-CEO of Infosys talked about 70 hours a week effort to ensure that we become economically stronger. Here is the interview if you have missed.
Look at the points he makes:
India’s work productivity is one of the lowest in the world.
Unless we improve our work productivity, unless we reduce corruption in the Government, unless we reduce decision making times in the Government, we will not be able to compete with those countries.
BTW, all these are true.
However, individuals like you and me (who are reading this) cannot fight the politicians and their atrocities, lets accept that. But there are two ways to give back to the country, contribute more so that the economy grows and help the right people win elections so that things can better up.
In this video by Ms. Palki Sharma (who I personally respect a lot), said that according to WHO, long work hours leads to health problems. (Amongst others, this caught my attention)
See the comments in either of the videos. One says “Billionaires exploit and they should donate wealth” and another one says “in the west people just work 8 hours and any additional work is compensated with money.”
Let me break these two comments down before I share my thoughts.
Billionaires should donate their wealth – Not necessarily. Why should they? They worked very hard to be where they are today and have made money with their work. Can you question your politician with the wealth they amass and don’t even give a single rupee in charity? No. Why? Because they will ensure you are out of the map if your comments come to hurt them. But these self-made men should distribute their wealth and up the economic status. If you ask me, more than Billionaires, Governments should stop giving free and meaningless schemes to everyone.
The person who commented said that he/she worked overseas in IT field and people are compensated when they put in long hours. I really don’t know which country or which company, but let me honestly give you my personal experiences.
In US, people are at their desk by 8AM (or even earlier). They have breakfast at their desk and also I have personally seen many having even their lunch at their desk. They focus without distractions and complete their work by 5 PM and leave. What is wrong with that?
Let’s come to India. First, we don’t come to work on time, giving lame excuse of traffic (In general). So, you are lazy to plan your day and you blame others for your delay. This is exactly the problem. We don’t take ownership of our mistakes but happily live by blaming others. Now, after coming to work, first switch on laptop, check mails and then will be a coffee or chai break catching up on last nights game of cricket.Then get to work and in short time, planning where to eat lunch. Get back to work and in a little while, chai break again. When is serious work getting done?
(I apologise if i am coming across strong, but this is the reality and this is my view and it is generic, does not and will not apply to everyone)
So, you see the trend? We do not actually put in extra hours, we only stay at office for late hours and then blame the company for that.
I am very sure that I will get very nasty comments. But, before you comment, just see for yourself and around you and tell me if i am wrong. This is 60% of the cases.
Yes, genuinely I have seen companies pushing their employees to over work and underpay. That happens every where in the world. Not only in India. Thats a very different problem to have.
All people who have a problem with 70 hours work, please listen to what he says. How Germany and Japan pushed their country men to work hard and today, you see the result. If you cannot see the result, then you are reacting and not understanding what he is saying.
As Ms. Palki was saying, today, China’s workforce has a problem with 9-9-6-6, but what is the result? We know where China is. There are pro’s and con’s to every thing and they might be wrong in a number of ways, but we know how China is the Manufacturing capital of the world. It didn’t come easily. How they are treating their workforce is a different conversation again.
Do US, Germany, Japan, China take aid’s from any country or institution? No. Fortunately, India too has stopped taking aid in the recent times.
Why should self made people donate their money to charity? They need not, and those who give, give with their personal interest.
Next time, if anyone is saying the rich should donate, just ensure politicians also give. Else, its meaningless. Public servants don’t make so much money, but they amass large assets, while hard working people should pay taxes and also donate to charity, which is not fair.
Don’t put 70 hours, just put in 40 hours, but very truthfully work for those 40 hours and see the results for yourself.
I am not in support of any arguments, but these are my views.
How did I arrive at these views, the day I heard, read and then memorised what a great person said in the European Parliament..
Where there is righteousness in the heart There is beauty in the character.
When there is beauty in the character, There is harmony in the home.
When there is harmony in the home, There is order in the nation.
When there is order in the nation, There is peace in the world.
Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam.
Don’t think what the country has done for you, rather ask yourself what you have done for the country.
To close, what Mr. Murthy said is nothing wrong. Listen to him completely and then think and then debate. Lets put 40 meaningful hours at work so that it impacts our productivity score.
There is always a question in the global and Indian media, “Why can’t India build a Apple, Microsoft or Google or any other innovative company?”. There are many answers, which I call reasons.
I have few theories as to why we face these challenges and is there a way we can address these. These theories do not just apply to building innovative companies, but also apply to our kind of living.
Constant “Follow me” instructions
Our education system is good, but many things changed from the Gurukul system to today’s education system. Times have changed but we have stopped incorporating the learnings into today’s text books. How many of you remember Moral Science? Today, this subject is not even taught in many schools.
Education should teach self confidence and ability to solve problems. But, unfortunately, only few are able to learn these either from parents or seeing the society. Today, predominantly, we do not ask questions to learn, but only to check if the teacher knows or not. Students are not encouraged to explore outside the box, but the pressure is on completing the syllabus and writing exams. What after the exams? Ranks. These ranks are useless and do not help in anything.
We do not identify the uniqueness of each student, but just focus on mass teachings. There are many movies which pointed this out, but we do not incorporate any of the learnings, but enjoy the movie and walk out.
The same attitude continues to work. Almost all companies today hire Graduates based on their marks and train them they way they need them to work, but very rarely people are hired based on their skill and knowledge. What happens then? These freshers fall into the trap of working long hours and solving problems in the way their managers ask them to solve. Here too, if an employee thinks different, manager has a problem.
As time goes by, these new joinees become managers and the cycle repeats. Where do we end this?
Few people quit their jobs and try to do something different, start their own company and industry and as the company grows, new people come into the picture and again, the cycle continues. It is very rare for an individual to become a leader.
It’s mostly “follow my orders” rather than “what do you think” attitude.
So, where is the time to innovate?
Constant Pressure for making money
How much are you making is what defines the standard of living. It will decide how you live and where your kids go to school. The cycle repeats.
In a society where there is constant pressure for making more money, it becomes difficult to innovate. Innovation takes time and dedication and during this time, limited or no funds will kill the innovation process.
Failure is rewarded with coldness
Many organisations talk about innovation, hold seminars and workshops and pretend to encourage individuals to think different, but when they actually do and try to do something, if the idea fails, employees are treated cold. So, many individuals I know don’t tend to take the initiative because of the fear of failure.
One innovative idea comes to life only after at least 100 failed attempts. If one failure decides the fate of the employee, why will anyone think of doing something different?
Bureaucracy
Let us accept, bureaucracy exists everywhere, in the US, In India and any other country. Across the Governments and also across the private organisations. Even the so called innovative companies have bureaucracy built into the system. It is not wrong. However, designing the organisation to overcome this and encourage innovative team thinking is what makes the difference and for this, leadership should take a strong stand.
Evolution of open economy
In India, the economy opened in the 90’s which enabled a lot of western companies to open their extensions in India.
When foreign companies open offices in India, 99.99% of the time it is to get some back-end work done. Employees here are only instructed to follow their motherships. So, we are used to following. Undoing this mind-set needs a very strong leadership, which very rarely happens.
In Summary, all I am saying is that we should find ways to build innovative mindset with small steps by designing a new way of working. This will take time and until then, big innovations coming out of extended offices will be difficult. Not only this, the social stigma also does not allow for thinking different, one needs a very strong personality to achieve this.
When ideating, the most important aspect of creating a business model is understanding the true Value of the idea.
What is the Value?
In true definition, Value can be tangible or intangible. Not every idea needs to create tangible value, but if does create intangble value, it needs to be very clearly articulated.
For example, when you place an order through Swiggy for groceries, what kind of value is Swiggy giving you? Tangible or intangible? Definitely tangible. You are not saving money, but you are saving time.
What kind of value Co-working spaces provide? Intangible. How? Because, it might be expensive to work out of a co-working space many a times (based on location etc), but what they are saving you are all your efforts in renting, making and maintaining the space. Instead of all these efforts, you are simply paying a monthly rent to someone else who maintains the office for you. If you calculate all the aspects of renting, making and maintaining the space, this can bring out a tangible value too. However, in this case it is more intangible because it provides convenience and reduces lot of man-power.
Now, for your idea, look at what tangible and intangible value you are creating to the end user.
Consumers are now more demanding then few years ago. Thanks to the competition. There are newer and innovative products coming out more frequently and also the iterations to market are coming down. According to TrendWatching.com, the five key attributes for any successful startup are Affordability, Simplicity, Sustainability and Design.
Any product/service wins market share which balances these five attributes.
The brain works just like a computer, so, let’s program it.
Innovation, the most commonly used noun around us. The word is so very powerful that all of us wish to use it in our daily lives, in our resume’s and most importantly, when we talk. But what actually is innovation? Why is this noun so powerful and can change lives, how do we become innovators?
There are quite a lot of books, articles, write-ups, videos and many more just on this topic. Most of these touch on the aspects of why innovation is important to organisations, but here, I would like to touch upon the very same thing for us, individuals.
The Why?
Why should we innovate ourselves? Just as organisations create innovation process to increase their value every day, we as individuals should also think outside the box from time to time to enhance our value to the family, organisation and society we live in. The moment you stop creating value, there is nothing much left for you to do.
The What?
According to science, we use 100% of our brain. However, thoughts and ideas which emerge depend on how sharp your brain is. For instance, say you never ever played basketball in your life. One day, you suddenly started playing a tournament. What would be the outcome? Other players are using techniques and methods to beat you to the game. And they will. Why? Because, they have been training their mind and body to the game. They know all the technical details of the game which will help them to visualise more permutations and combinations to scoring than you.
In the similar way, if you continuously think and exercise your brain, you will be able to bring out the best in you.
The Where?
The big question, where does innovation happen? Is it in the mind or brain?
Innovation happens in our mind supported by the activities of the brain.
Let me back this up. Mind is mental aspect and the brain is physical. When a thought arises in mind, depending on the status of the brain, the reaction comes. If the brain is active, producing normal amounts of serotonin, thoughts are backed up with meaningful thought process. But if one is not producing enough serotonin, the same thought might not yield the same result.
The How?
To learn something new, one must pay attention to two things – The Principles and Methods. Principals are the foundation stones. Principals are nothing other than the domain knowledge. Understand the domain, to better strengthen the idea which can create a higher probable solution / innovation. Methods are which in which you depict the solutions.
Sounds simple, but it’s a lot more effort than one can see.
Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it.
Henry Ford
Times are changing. Even though you have the brightest of the ideas, investors and consumers are looking at the fact that it is not about only solving the problem, but reaching the consumers.
As entrepreneurs, we need to embrace the fact that solving the right problem is just not the only way, but what becomes important is how we message and help our consumers understand the solutions. There are two aspects which we need to consider seriously before embarking on the journey of building solutions – First, we need to understand the view of traditional logic and secondly, we have to employ the view of association theory.
What do these mean?
The view of traditional logic provides us the understanding of the problem and the kind of solutions which have traditionally been accepted by consumers. When you identify the problem, depict how consumers have accepted solutions to similar kind of problems earlier and design the solutions based on the principals of approachability.
Let us look at a simple case study of an online grocery store in India. Traditionally, the way we shopped groceries was to go to a Supermarket or a local vegetable market and purchased our daily needs. Over the period of time, it was acceptable for us to call the local grocery shop and have them deliver to us. As times changed, now, we do not even call the local grocery store, but open a website/app and select all the groceries we need and they get delivered home.
The progression happened step-by-step. First, consumers were accustomed to not requiring to go to the shop to select their goods, and then slowly, consumers have been introduced to the concept of shopping in more than one store and select what they like.
When you are designing a solution, if it is a progressive step to the daily workflow, it becomes easier for consumers to understand and use the solution appropriately.
Look at how banking has changed in India. Initially, it was ATM Cards, then Net Banking and now, API Banking, making it easier to send money by just using a mobile number. The transition was step-by-step.
This does not mean solutions cannot be radical. Few years ago, SpaceX said that they would put people on Mars and asked interested people to sign up and after their selection, they would undergo rigorous training before they are sent to mars. This is radical progression and the company was looking at not many people in their first batch, but a select few. Since the world is definitely made up of early adapters, they got their numbers.
It all depends on how you wish solve a problem and how you want to make your clients utilise your solution. Either make it a progressive approach or a radical one. But, before you begin solving a problem, spend time on understanding the progression of the domain/industry and illustrate to yourself how things have changed over the period of time. This makes it easier for you to design, educate your consumer and implement the solutions.
In view of association theory, what you would understand is the consumer behaviour. You can use various techniques and methodologies to understand this – Consumer interviews, survey’s, having conversations with potential users etc. These methodologies will help you understand what the user is looking forward as a progressive next step. To contradict this, Henry Ford famously said, “If I asked people what they wanted, they would ask for faster horses”. So, we should be very specific in what we are looking for and understand the trends and the industry before we even begin solving the problem.
The objective of this post is to help aspiring innovators/entrepreneurs ideate and provide a framework for the same.
Yesterday’s Apple event was not much awaited (let us be honest about it, at least I was not) and what apple fans are looking for is the 10th anniversary of iPhone next year. However, as with each year, we did look forward to seeing if there are any pathbreaking innovations coming out this year.
The two major features which were predicted came true – a dual camera and removing the headphone jack. Are they really path breaking?
Is this really innovation? Let us go back into a little history. When Steve Jobs was at the helm of Apple, suddenly there were outbursts of innovation beginning with iPod to iPhone to iPad. The rhythm continued till about 2010 and then things started to slow down. Except for the change in the size of the screen, not many new innovations have come out from Apple. Every year, the only dialogue you hear is “the biggest thing ever happened to iPhone since it was born”. Definitely. This is an improvement from the previous version, but not a major change or new feature coming in except that they have started to bring out more and more accessories which will generate alternative revenues because we know iPhone sales are slowing down.
Innovation Quotient
It is important to understand at this juncture that there is a cycle of innovation and all companies have to go through it. There is a limitation – in thinking, in market acceptability and accessibility.
Apple over the last 15 years has bought out products which had a different perspective. This increased the hype of their offerings and together with Steve’s obsession for beautification and practicality (read design thinking), Apple products have changed the way the world looks at technology. Competition evolved. Even though not many are able to match/catch up to the beautification (many companies are coming close these days), there is a tough competition which has evolved. With the IP protection and patent laws, Apple was able to withhold many of its innovations and keep them in-house. Alternatives evolved.
When disruptive innovation happens, the level of hype comes down. We take the time to understand the long-term impact of a new feature/functionality. This has to be playing in as time goes by. Let us go back a little into history and look at iPad. iPad initially came in as an offering between a smartphone and personal computer. People predicted that there is no need of this offering and there is no long-term impact, but today, we look at devices like iPad and tablets as a serious alternative to a personal computer because it is easy to carry around and worked with. This lead to bringing in lighter and more compact laptops. It took a while to accept the concept of iPad and tablets, but now, all of us are using them.
During the latency period companies like apple cash in on the current needs. Look at the new iWatch, yes, good load of new aspects came in, water resistant, inbuilt GPS and ability to track your workouts, but bringing Pokemon to the watch is only going with the market craze and if they can add few bucks to their kitty by bringing this game to the watch, why not?
It is not all about Innovation all the time. It is very difficult to sustain the innovation business model. Companies need to offer best what their core is – for Apple, it is any of their products and we know they are very good.
IMHO, Apple’s Innovation Quotient has not come down. It is just that the hype level is coming down and this is a natural phenomenon. This will settle down and for a path breaking innovation to shake the markets to come in, will take a little while longer.
Every flight is equipped with a Blackbox, which records all the conversations in the Cockpit and each and every instruction given to the plane. There is no debate on how this is helpful to track how the plane has been operational.
Our brain is our blackbox and it records each and every instance of our life, making us what we are and how we behave and handle our thought process. What if we decode our brain from time to time and look at how it has been processing our experiences?
Many a times, our mind takes over our thoughts. It clubs our emotions to our feelings and gives out instructions on how we react to situations. Only few of us can actually note these reactions and understand the instructions from the brain and then take action. This comes out of practice. The practice of thinking and practice of handling instructions from brain and mind.
When it is a good news or success, we celebrate. But, when there is failure, we allow our mind to rule over and react according to what it feels. Success comes from managing this reaction. This is the reason successful people become successful. They look at their failures and downtimes, practice thinking and understand the reactions from the brain and then take action.
So, the next time you experience failure, evaluate what your feelings are and act according to what the brain says. This will give you the required result rather than a
