22 unexpected things about digital innovation that have changed your business
1. 22 unexpected
things that Digital
Innovation has
changed in your
business
Origin of ideas . The new
unicorns. Competition . The
other Valleys . Transformation
By MARTA DOMINGUEZ
3. 1
It´s the innovation,
Stupid!
To innovate is to exploit an idea
commercially. Any idea that is new.
Ideas in isolation are never to be
called innovation but creativity. New
means advance for consumers. Some
examples: Technical advances are
Internet, broadband and smartphones.
Non-technical advances are non-
traditional distribution and low cost.
models.
Image courtesy of Jeyp
4. 2
True innovators
True innovators act like giraffes: they
emerge from the forest. True innovators
can think without constraints from the
market or their current customer base.
Many companies mistakenly call what
it´s just a good product innovation.
Image courtesy of Pablo_marx
5. 3
Ideas
The good and
The bad
Ideas can be selected 1) By hygienic
attributes 2) Like an entrepreneur and 3)
Like an intrapreneur. A good hygienic
idea is one that solves a problem and is
applicable, relevant and deliverable. A
good entrepreneurial idea is original,
uses technology and is profitable. A good
intrapreneurial idea is one that has a big
market, a sound margin and has been
tested with clients.
Image courtesy of Rob-qld
6. 4
One
of the three
To innovative your business must be one
of the three: 1) Better, 2) Easier or 3)
Cheaper.
Better Easier Cheaper
Image courtesy of The-i-thread.com
8. 5
Disruptive
Google glasses, 3D printers and big data
are often thought of disruptive
innovations. But disruptions can only be
verified in rear view. If five years from
now any of these great technologies 1)
has changed the strategy gear of other
companies and 2) has put upside down
an entire industry, then they have proved
disruptive. No losers, no disruption.
Image courtesy of Digitalnc
9. 6
It´s the value,
not
the price
Here´s the experiment. Some parents
come everyday late to your school to pick
up their kids. Tweak the experience: Tell
them next time they are late they will pay
a 10 $ fine per each 30 minutes of delay.
At the end of the week I guarantee you´ll
have a big piggy bank and a full class of
kids waiting. The important lesson:
consumers are eager to pay any price
worth value.
Image courtesy of Teegardin
10. 7
The simplest
format of
a business model
A good business model must solve a
problem, have customers, generate
income, as well as be scalable. In short, a
good business model is one that creates
true value to a customer. There is no
business model in bringing water where
there is water.
Image courtesy of Gapingvoid Art
11. 8
Pizza rule
for
market size
Your market size is always much smaller
than the total available market. I called it
the “pizza rule”: never expect a big pizza
but a small pizza. You must feed from
your potential market not the total
available market.
Image courtesy of The-i-thread.com
Pizza Rule
Your
potential
market
13. 9
The pricing
Problem
Paying for what you want is ok. Paying
for things you don´t want is not ok.
Welcome to the context of abundance in
Internet! We were 6 billion people in
2011. Then: 3 billion had a mobile phone
and 1 billion had Internet. Now: We are
over 7 billion and 2 billion have Internet.
Joichi Ito (MIT and Creative Commons)
says “in the future consumers will be like
sponsors”. Till then a problem remains
unsolved: how to price consumers?
Image courtesy of Nasa
14. 10
Fear is good
for innovation
You choose the ideas you want to work
on. Innovation is a game of resisting fear.
But fear is also good. Fear helps you with
“your (business) first times”: starting a
project, dealing with the irrational...
Innovation is a path of uneasy moments.
You need to pass those steps to
(hopefully) get to transformation.
Image courtesy of Gapingvoid Art
15. 11
Competition
DO exist
Most of entrepreneurs and innovators
rather don´t look at competitors.
Finding there is a competing innovative
idea is bad news. But knowing it is good
news. Innovators can learn about 1)
deceases similar failed businesses died
from, 2) what is a good growth rate in
their area, 3) who is competing with you
outside your business
Image courtesy of Gezric
16. 12
A tech trend
Victim?
Most people feel they are always late for
big tech trends. Here are three possible
strategies. “The academic model”: go and
make lists of influential people to follow.
This includes investors, startups, tech
news journalists, Stanford and MIT
professors. “Against the tide model”: go
and look for unsolved problems. Mark
Cuban says: “Look where others are not
looking”. Finally, “Being late but nailing
it”: Best is better than first. Think of
Facebook, Google, Apple, Ford, Boing,
Quora and Tumblr.
18. 13
Valley of
Death
You start your idea. Then between the 19
and 22 months the curve of interest
stagnates. Fresh ideas are like TV show
scripts: episode one thrills and early
adopters get interested, but then you
have to probe the idea is worth to the
mainstream.
Image courtesy of The-i-thread.com
19. 14
Your product
is fiction
Lisa Gansky says “any new idea you start
is a fiction product”. To create an original
thing means doing a puzzle. There are
technology pieces. And there are non-
technology pieces: Do customers want it?
Does a market exist for it? Pricing? Did
early adopters tell you any clue for
adding new customers? Who I should
partner with? Many people use a shortcut
“The bestseller strategy”: they launch
many short and low cost projects hoping
that one of them will make it.
Image courtesy of Greenplasticamy
20. 15
At your service
Here is a new customer service paradigm.
Prior to social networks clients were at
the service of a company. With social
networks it is the company that is at the
service of the customers. Customers now
click the search box. If they like the
opinions they find… they will trust you.
21. 16
On pivoting
Making decisions is not for dumb people.
To pivot to a new model is not a piece of
cake. It takes loads of courage. Sarah
Lacy (Pando) says: “I criticize
euphemisms like to pivot. Few startup
leaders are able to recognize they made
an error”.
Image courtesy of Nicolas Raymond
23. 17
On cockroaches
Startups should be like cockroaches. A
famous quote by Paul Graham
(YCombinator) says: “Apparently the
most likely animals to be left alive after a
nuclear war are cockroaches, because
they're so hard to kill. That's why you
want to be as a startup, initially. Instead
of a beautiful but fragile flower that
needs to have its stem in a plastic tube to
support itself, better to be small, ugly,
and indestructible.”
Image courtesy of Tom Spinker
24. 18
The F Generation
Hackers are the new heroes to a
generation of millenials that enter the
workforce. Gary Hamel called them “the F
generation”. Instead of hierarchies, fixed
tasks and closed groups the new
employees will demand open companies.
Users (and not the bosses) will have the
power.
25. 19
Students
for a lifetime
Sebastian Thrun saw it first: “the very
pattern of employment is changing. A few
generations ago, a single job often lasted
for a lifetime. In 2012, the average job
tenure was 4.6 years. Tech start-ups like
Airbnb, Lyft, and Uber are using freelance
employment models to disrupt
hospitality, transportation, and many
other industries. As a result, workers are
under increasing pressure to keep their
skills current. This has enormous
implications for the educational needs of
the global population.”
Image courtesy of jdlasica
26. 20
Crucial
Imbalances
Kodak had on its peak over 140,000
employees. Instagram had 13 employees
when it was sold to Facebook.
Technology and Internet has been good
for our society and our world. But new
voices from Internet sceptics are arising.
Is technology killing our middle class as
Jaron Lanier defends?
27. 21
Innovating on the
move
Ideation is an important but insufficient
part in innovation. “To act in innovation
you have to ideate new things”, we were
told. But innovation means solving
problems. Innovation is more than that
unique time that you started your
business. Innovation is not sole harvest.
Image courtesy of El Roto
28. 22
Design Thinking is
the new black
Design thinking is like Lego bricks: blocks
to work on original concepts. Map,
Explore, Build and Test.