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Innovation Redux
Steal ideas from corporate innovation
Rob Norris
June 04, 2024 • Estimated Reading Time: 9 minutes
Good morning Launch Key 🚀 community!
More than a few of you emailed and commented on Don’t Listen to the Bozos, so I’m revisiting the topic.
Building innovative products is hard – but its doable. And helpful tools are free.
Plus, its a lot easier to innovate if you’re not a behemoth trapped in the success of your past.
Comment below and let me know if we’re on the right track.
Table of Contents
Pull to Eject
72% of all new products fail according to global consultant Simon-Kucher.
And much of that failure is self-inflicted.
But the failure of existing products is even more spectacular.
Corporate innovation costs massive amounts of capex and R&D to gain a market leadership position.
Then the sports analogies come into play. Teams play more conservatively when they have a lead.
And they lose.
Just like these market leaders did:
Blockbuster
They maintained retail sales per square foot while competitors shipped DVDs to their customer’s homes.
Blackberry
They changed the mobile landscape with their keyboard, but failed to innovate as competitors moved to touch screen interfaces.
Atari
They pioneered home game consoles. And Pong defined the electronic entertainment industry, but they didn’t adapt to the network effect of shared gaming experience.
Tivo
They innovated the DVR, but allowed cable companies to infringe on their patented market lead.
Tower Records
They were the market leaders for retail music but failed to change with digital downloads.
Today's largest tech companies have the financial muscle to allocate tens of billions of dollars per year to projects.
But even the very best companies can get stuck.
Companies bet on big ideas that they can execute well.
Processes are optimized for managing a proven business model and value proposition rather than innovation.
It’s part of the reason why the longevity of the Fortune 500 continues to decline.
The Power of Small
One of the very best parts of having a small business is adaptability.
You can literally innovate new products or services during a lunch meeting.
I’ve done it.
A large client has a need and you quickly determine that you could solve it. Plus, you can think of 10 more companies who need the same thing – Voilà!
Lather. Rinse. Repeat.
Entrepreneurs saying ‘yes we can’ is how most businesses light their fuse.
You can be wrong - but you can fix that fast too.
Nimble, creative, risk-taking is part of the allure of not working for someone else.
A dream in a garage started a lot of today’s behemoths.
From Amazon to Harley Davidson to Google, Apple, Disney and Dell.
Gritty founders innovated huge ideas without the trappings of corporate overhead.
Steal These Ideas
The astronomical costs of corporate innovation has given big consulting even bigger innovation practices. Just a few examples:
And they share plenty of ideas that small business can borrow liberally.
Frameworks
Tools
Methods
One of the foundational starts is the Business Model Canvas.
Creating this visual chart with elements describing your product value prop, infrastructure, customers, and finances, is a solid way to fill in the gaps in your innovative idea.
Is it just a good idea? or can it actually flesh out a new business?
Organizing all your files can be as simple as creating Notion pages in a way that works best for you.
Or you can look at standalone innovation tools like:
I happen to like the 10 Types of Innovation framework I covered in the Bozo’s issue.
Your mileage may vary.
The point is – the technology is not the thing holding back your innovation.
You are probably not going to create something as innovative as Software-as-a-Service (Salesforce) or native operating system integration (Dropbox) or reusable rockets (SpaceX).
But you might.
Can you find a little space in your garage?
Now go launch something 🚀
Whether you think you can, or you think you can't -- you're right.
This Launch 🚀 kit guides you through market validation, customer definition and messaging examples to use your uncommon knowledge and create a standout product.
Frame up your unique experience and authentic voice.
Modern Tools
I have been a fan of Figma’s design tool for a while. It allows you to design and generate prototypes without coding.
Drag and drop easy.
But their brainstorming tool is just icing on an already cool toolset.
Of course it’s free.
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Whether you’re starting or scaling your company’s security program, demonstrating top-notch security practices and establishing trust is more important than ever.
Vanta automates compliance for SOC 2, ISO 27001, and more, saving you time and money — while helping you build customer trust.
And, you can streamline security reviews by automating questionnaires and demonstrating your security posture with a customer-facing Trust Center, all powered by Vanta AI.
Old School Wisdom
Originally published in 1973, Small Is Beautiful presents eminently logical arguments for building our economies around the needs of communities, not corporations.
Schumacher inspired such movements as “Buy Locally” and “Fair Trade,” while voicing strong opposition to “casino capitalism” and wasteful corporate behemoths.
Named one of the Times Literary Supplement’s 100 Most Influential Books Since World War II.
Free Knowledge
Steve Blank is an author, professor, founder, and speaker who is widely regarded as 'the founding father of modern entrepreneurship.'
His books and lectures have started tens of thousands of new companies leveraging his Customer Development model at the heart of any Lean Startup.
His class was adopted as the curriculum for the National Science Foundation I-Corps and is now taught at 98 universities.
Blank gives away a ton of free knowledge on his sites, but here’s his view on 3 types of innovation.
Recommendations
Visual Crapshoot
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