We know innovation when we see it – iPhone, X-Box, Wii, Prius, Twitter, etc. And we are seeing a great deal of chatter and a fair amount of good writing about the critical importance of innovation to sustain organizational success and vitality. But what are the characteristics of truly innovative organizations?
There are several things that truly innovative organizations have in common. For today’s post, I am going to focus on two characteristics or traits I believe are at the core of both creativity and innovation – optimism and a willingness to take reasonable risks. Optimism is vital. If an organization goes into an initiative without a belief that it will work and yield positive results, the organization runs the risk that this core lack of belief will dominate the thinking and approach, and you end up with a self-fulfilling outcome of failure. Now optimism alone will not mean every innovative initiative will work, but optimism about the project and its objectives must be present throughout all participants, or the initiative will fall flat. Risk taking is likewise, vital. But its not about recklessness. The risks organizations must embrace to be innovative must be rooted in their long term objectives and linked to their core value system, otherwise there is no framework for determining whether risks are reasonable or not.
The i-Pod serves as a perfect illustration of these two crucial traits in action. The development team at Apple did not build the I-pod in a vacuum. In fact, when the i-Pod hit the market in the late fall of 2001 (yes – just weeks after 9-11) someone (Steve Jobs among others) had an optimistic perspective that THIS MP3 player would make an impact into the portable, digital music playback device market. (Now doesn’t “i-Pod” sound better?) There were other players on the market, so the i-Pod was not an entirely new concept. But the i-Pod introduced a completely different user interface and a truly unique software application that enabled users to buy and organize their music in a truly innovative way. It was this link between an application and a specific device that represented the disruptive innovation Apple sprung on the market in 2001. Who wanted to buy a device that could ONLY link to ONE application? Well – as it turns out, quite a few of us!
But think about the risks Apple took. Apple dropped millions into the development of a product that would not work with any music applications Apple did not sell and deliver. Would we even consider another device that would could not link to generally available music download and organization applications? Probably not. Anyone remember the Microsoft Zune? But Apple had already carved out a niche in the desktop and laptop computer space delivering products that were not compatible with other applications. So i-Tunes and the i-Pod weren’t so far outside their organizational experience as to be unreasonable risks. In fact, the very foundation of the concept was entirely CONSISTENT with Apple’s already successful business model. The results of Apple’s marketing and product development are pretty clear. They now occupy a dominant market share in the MP3 player space, and i-Tune is as common as – well – it’s just everywhere.
The great lesson we can learn from Apple is how critically linked risk taking and a sense of optimism are to innovation. Organizations simply cannot afford to be defensive or afraid to take reasonable risks – especially in this economy. But we are seeing a huge majority of organizations hunker down, button down the hatches and try to “survive” this downturn. This rather pessimistic outlook cannot foster an environment where creativity and innovation can take root. We need more. We need a view to the future that sees possibilities, not threats. We need organizations willing to move their culture to a place where people are free to pursue the ideas and concepts that can position organizations for true success going forward, not mere survival.
I will be posting on another pair of key characteristics in a week or so, so stay tuned!
