{"id":4000,"date":"2018-10-17T20:05:49","date_gmt":"2018-10-17T20:05:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ixl-center.com\/?p=4000"},"modified":"2020-02-25T23:38:22","modified_gmt":"2020-02-25T23:38:22","slug":"bringing-big-ideas-in-the-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ixl-center.com\/index.php\/2018\/10\/17\/bringing-big-ideas-in-the-market\/","title":{"rendered":"How Do You Find the Big Bold Ideas\u00a0that Matter in the Market and to My Company?: The Need for Focus?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-3191 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/ixl-center.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Innovator-series-title-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"572\" height=\"114\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Volume II, Issue 4\u00a0 October 17, 2018<\/p>\n<h4>How Do You Find the <strong>Big Bold Ideas<\/strong>\u00a0that Matter in the Market and to My Company?: The Need for Focus<\/h4>\n<p>In previous editions of this The Innovator newsletter, we\u2019ve noted that maintaining energy and productivity around innovation often requires a balance between opposing forces \u2013 forces that both spur creativity and can cause friction (with both internal and external stakeholders). The same applies to today\u2019s question, \u201cHow do you find the <strong>big bold ideas<\/strong>\u00a0that matter in the market and to my company?\u201d The main balance in this domain of innovation is focusing on a significant unmet need or problem while at the same time being open to unexpected new opportunities or changes of course.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-4007 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/ixl-center.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/big-bold-idea-ixl-center.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"608\" height=\"344\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Some people might react with skepticism to this question: \u201cIf we knew what the big opportunity was, we\u2019d already be insanely rich.\u201d In answer to this, we would certainly confess that we don\u2019t have a crystal ball to predict the future; however, we do have an approach that will increase your chances to find that big idea. This goes hand in hand with having a well-functioning innovation portfolio, which is the mechanism to keep a wealth of ideas flowing so that the market sees that your company is consistently finding new ways to meet unmet needs. In this newsletter, we\u2019re going to drill down into that innovation portfolio and look more closely about how a few ideas \u2013 or sometimes just one idea \u2013 comes to fruition.<span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"#_ftn1\" name=\"_ftnref1\">[1]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>To find big ideas requires following these steps:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>1) Have a clear goal, <\/strong>which is the unmet need or problem<\/p>\n<p><strong>2) Have a method<\/strong> \u2013 some repeatable method \u2013 that will simultaneously<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>grow the number suggestions and insights about ways to satisfy this need and<\/li>\n<li>find ways to group the suggestions into meaningful categories<span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"#_ftn2\" name=\"_ftnref2\">[2]<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>3) Test the categories<\/strong> of suggestions and determine what should be done with them<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-4010 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/ixl-center.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/creating-big-bold-idea.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"784\" height=\"376\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>The first and by far the most important step in this process is having a clear goal.<\/strong><\/em> We might better understand why this is important if we recall this criticism of Aaron Burr in the recent musical <em>Hamilton<\/em>: \u201cIf you stand for nothing, Burr, what will you fall for?\u201d Essentially, having a clear goal to work towards gives participants in an innovation process parameters and reference points concerning what is germane to satisfying a customer need. Those parameters allow insights to accrete instead of becoming dispersed and incoherent. For example, if the goal for a yogurt company was a vague mandate \u201cto increase sales,\u201d then just about any and everything related to the existing company\u2019s efforts might be included in that goal. Better salespeople? (Sure.) Bigger containers? (It might work.) Lower prices? (Why not?) But if the goal is more specific, like \u201chow can we increase and broaden the ways consumers think about to using yogurt,\u201d then the insights connected to that goal have far more potential to be related and to grow into something like a meaningful idea.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>In accomplishing the second step in this process,<\/strong><\/em> we don\u2019t advocate any one method over another: it depends on your company and its culture. Whatever the method, you need people or systems (or some combination) that have responsibility for gathering <em>and<\/em> assessing ideas. A couple of brief examples may help visualize this step.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>People-oriented example. <\/strong>A company may task large cross sections to be on the lookout for new ideas and emerging or disruptive trends in the business environment. Teams or individuals are then in place who are specifically accountable for sourcing and managing emerging trends in their fields of endeavor. Eventually, these teams or individuals assess these insights and decide whether or not they should be terminated, undergo more testing, or should enter the pipeline of new offerings or product development.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>Systems-oriented example.<\/strong> To start generating insights, you can hold workshops and ideation events, invite online submissions and talk to customers. In processing these new insights, you should cross-reference them with existing and past efforts. By doing this you can avoid reinventing the wheel by eliminating \u201cnew\u201d insights that have already been assessed. You can also find current innovation efforts that might be given an extra boost of energy by a connection to a new insight.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>The final step is to test your categories<\/strong> <\/em>(or \u201cbundles of insights\u201d) and come to one of four conclusions about them:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">1) The category will not satisfy the unmet need.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">2) The category will satisfy the unmet need (maybe with some minor modifications). <em>This is the foundation of the big idea<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">3) Testing of this category might yield insights into another way to satisfy the unmet need.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">4) Testing of this category reveals a <em>new<\/em> unmet need \u2013 which requires beginning this process again.<\/p>\n<p>This approach represents an efficient way of processing insights. While relatively simple and straightforward, the process is made robust and coherent by being consistently measured by its ability to satisfy a specified unmet need. Meeting that need in a way that leverages different parts of the value chain will likely yield a big bold idea. Almost equally important is to be on the lookout for surprises and new insights that can lead to the discovery of a <em>second <\/em>unmet need, which was found (somewhat ironically) because of the focus on the first. This brings us back to the first step of the process and the beginning of another potential blockbuster.<\/p>\n<p>We all know that big bold ideas don\u2019t come easy and that innovation (especially for internal stakeholders) is more a marathon than a sprint. Outside stakeholders may marvel at the speed and quantity of business concepts emerging from your company, but insiders know that those new entries into the market represent a fraction the overall effort and insights that their company was investigating and testing over a long period of time. Helping employees to run that innovation marathon is a big challenge. One answer to that challenge is the appointment of a Chief Innovation Officer. Examining the pros and cons of having a CIO is the subject of next month\u2019s newsletter.<\/p>\n<p>__<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"#_ftnref1\" name=\"_ftn1\">[1]<\/a> <\/span>We should take one moment here to explain what is meant by the word \u201cidea\u201d in an innovation process. An idea that is worthy of the name in an innovation process usually comes towards the end of that innovation process because it deals with the interlocking parts of the value chain that have to work together to create an innovation that\u2019s successful because it is hard to imitate. Smaller insights or incremental improvements <em>within<\/em> a link of that value chain are better understood as the younger cousins of a fully-fledged idea: suggestions, insights <\/span>and<span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"> hunches. We often call them \u201cidea fragments.\u201d For instance, an R&amp;D researcher at a food processing company might have a hunch that making a richer version of an already existing brand of yogurt might satisfy a segment of their customer base. This incremental step may indeed increase the loyalty of existing customers and perhaps attract a few new ones, but it doesn\u2019t represent the creation of a new business concept that grows from <\/span>new<span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"> set of interlocking links on a value chain. In the example above, competitors could imitate the creamier version of this yogurt relatively easily.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Q6A3ZSxvuF8\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"><a href=\"#_ftnref2\" name=\"_ftn2\">[2]<\/a> Categories could represent groupings of idea fragments that meet an unmet need. If an unmet need for yogurt consumers was finding more ways to integrate the health benefits of yogurt with other foods, the categories of suggestions could range from seeking ways to partner with other food companies and restaurants to educating consumers on how to use yogurt in a variety of foods and meals. Because the categories are related to a goal, they can sometimes be combined in a final <em>idea<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/goo.gl\/forms\/RmuxUMKyEEhDbugI2\"><span style=\"font-size: 15px;\"><span style=\"background-color: transparent; color: inherit;\"><img decoding=\"async\" id=\"hs-cta-image-2165452-e6142c11-e422-491f-814c-4f87f2803a08-1\" class=\"hs-cta-img hubspot-cta-button hs-mce-draggable hs-cta-placeholder-image hs-cta-temp-img\" style=\"margin: 20px auto; display: block;\" src=\"\/\/cta-image-cms2.hubspot.com\/ctas\/v2\/public\/cs\/il\/?pg=e6142c11-e422-491f-814c-4f87f2803a08&amp;pid=2165452&amp;hs_preview=true&amp;_=1530819296623\" data-hs-img-pg=\"e6142c11-e422-491f-814c-4f87f2803a08\" data-mce-placeholder=\"true\" data-hs-cta-style=\"justifycenter\" \/><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p>_________________________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n<p>ABOUT THE AUTHORS<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #003366;\"><a style=\"color: #003366;\" href=\"https:\/\/ixl-center.com\/index.php\/mark-rennella\/\"><strong>Mark Rennella. Senior Editor at IXL Center<\/strong><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"background-color: transparent; color: inherit; font-size: 14px;\">Mark Rennella is a writer, editor and teacher who uses a historical perspective to examine and unpack today\u2019s complex business trends. He has authored popular Harvard Business School cases on a variety of topics as well as a book on leadership, Entrepreneurs, Managers and Leaders, co-written with Nitin Nohria and Anthony Mayo (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009). Mark\u2019s many books, articles, business case studies, and collaborative writing endeavors have garnered him critical praise from historians, academicians, and business leaders alike. In 2001, Mark earned a PhD in American History at Brandeis University.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><a style=\"color: #000080;\" href=\"https:\/\/ixl-center.com\/index.php\/hitendra-patel\/\"><strong>Dr. Hitendra Patel. Managing Director of IXL Center<\/strong><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"background-color: transparent; color: inherit; font-size: 14px;\"> Dr. Hitendra Patel\u00a0is the Managing Director of the IXL Center and Chair of the Innovation and Growth Program at the Hult International Business School. He has coached new emerging leaders and managers of new and fast growth businesses.Hitendra was a senior leader and co-founder of Monitor Group\u2019s Innovation Practice and was responsible for Asia and Latin America. Prior to Monitor, he was a senior manager at Arthur D. Little. As a management consultant, he has made lasting impact with all types of companies by helping them identify new engines for growth and develop their own capacity to innovate.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Volume II, Issue 4\u00a0 October 17, 2018 How Do You Find the Big Bold Ideas\u00a0that Matter in the Market and to My Company?: The Need for Focus In previous editions of this The Innovator newsletter, we\u2019ve noted that maintaining energy and productivity around innovation often requires a balance between opposing forces \u2013 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[29,28],"tags":[58,61,45,59,62,60,31,34,37,30,42,47,40,41,32,38,43],"class_list":["post-4000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newsletter","category-innovator-series","tag-america","tag-concept","tag-eu","tag-idea","tag-idea-fragment","tag-ideation","tag-innovation","tag-innovation-faq","tag-innovation-standard","tag-innovator","tag-integrity","tag-latam","tag-leader","tag-network","tag-strategy","tag-success","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ixl-center.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ixl-center.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ixl-center.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ixl-center.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ixl-center.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4000"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.ixl-center.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4000\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4013,"href":"https:\/\/www.ixl-center.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4000\/revisions\/4013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ixl-center.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ixl-center.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ixl-center.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}