Innovation Newsletter
Helping you improve innovation
Sept 2008
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With the holidays behind us it is back to school, back to work and back to innovation. The need to get back to work is well understood but we also need to go back to school to learn new skills and keep up to date. Technology and markets are changing so fast that we have to keep learning about what is new and how to use it. It is clear that in today's taxing economic environment deploying new skills and working hard are essential - but unfortunately they are not enough.

We need to innovate as well. The challenge is to find creative ways to use our skills and innovative ways of working in order to delight and surprise our customers. The first step is to ensure that innovation stays high on your to-do list this term.

Every time that we approach a problem, in any walk of life, we bring to bear assumptions that limit our ability to conceive fresh solutions. Brilliant thinkers are always aware of assumptions and are always happy to confront them.

  • Henry Ford challenged the assumption that automobiles were expensive, hand-built carriages for the wealthy.
  • Anita Roddick challenged the assumption that cosmetics had to be in expensive bottles. Her retail chain, the Body Shop, sold products in plastic containers.
  • IKEA challenged assumptions by allowing customers to collect their furniture from the warehouse.
  • The low-cost airlines like Southwest and Easyjet challenged the assumptions that you needed to issue tickets, allocate seats and sell through travel agents.
  • Apple challenged the assumption that a personal computer was functional and not aesthetic.

    • Innovative Leaders know that assumptions are there to be challenged and they relish defying them. How can you do this? Here are some tips:
  • Start by recognizing that you and everyone else have ingrained assumptions about every situation.
  • Ask plenty of basic questions in order to discover and challenge those assumptions.
  • Write a list of all the ground rules and assumptions that apply in your environment and then go through the list and ask, "What would happen if we deliberately broke this rule?" and "What if we did the opposite of the norm?"
  • Pretend you are a complete outsider and ask questions like, "Why do we do it this way at all?"
  • Reduce a situation to its simplest components in order to take it out of your environment.
  • Restate a problem in completely different terms.

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    It is always interesting to see innovation in financial services and here is a radical idea from Credit Suisse - a bank for gay customers. Nearly one in nine employees in London's banking, finance and insurance sector is gay, according to an article in the Telegraph, and such consumers typically enjoy significantly higher salaries than their heterosexual counterparts. Credit Suiss has targetted this market with a new banking service for the city's homosexuals. It will be provided by advisors at the bank who are themselves openly gay, and includes not just traditional banking offerings but also components tailored to such events as adoption and civil partnership.

    With earnings of £81bn last year, Britain's 3m-strong gay and lesbian community could provide a lucrative client list for Credit Suisse. As Stephen Connolly, who leads the unit, points out, the majority have no school fees to contend with, freeing up much of their short- term finances and allowing for greater risk taking and earlier retirements.
    The Boston Consulting Group carries out an annual survey on innovation among nearly 3000 senior executives. This year's report is just released. Here are some highlights.

  • 66% of companies rank innovation as one of their top three priorities.
  • Most executives are dissatisfied with their ROI in innovation.
  • The biggest problems are seen to be lengthy development times, a risk averse culture, difficulty selecting the best ideas and lack of co-ordination.

    • The report has many useful insights and concludes with the following words. Innovation requires and flourishes under strong leadership. The most innovative companies have a leader who wants to make a difference and leave a legacy of innovation.
    How can you make your name memorable and gain brand recognition in a crowded market? Here is a list of retail stores whose creative approach is to use outrageous puns.
    I am chairing the Successful Selling Conference on Wednesday 15th October at the International Convention Centre in Birmingham. There is a fantastic line-up of speakers including Larry Winget, Allan Pease, Neil Rackham and Mike Southon. It is the leading Sales Conference in the UK with over 1200 delegates. If you are involved in Sales or Marketing then make a date to see me there.

    If you are organising a conference and want a dynamic speaker on innovation or a conference chairman then please take a look at my speaker profile. I would be delighted to help.
    A truly innovative idea - the trunk monkey. These video adverts show how the idea works.

    Paul Sloane
    Destination Innovation

    phone: +44.1276.670236
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