Continuing on the framework for innovative thinking…

Posted by This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it at December 19, 2007 3:37 p.m.

I'm going to merge concepts from Peter Drucker with my own here targeting a more distilled and practical one to adopt.

We have 7 different ways to look for innovative opportunities and 5 strategies to go after. Let's start with where to look for innovative opportunities.

First four of the seven innovative opportunities are within an industry or business:
○ The Unexpected - An unexpected success, an unexpected failure or an unexpected outside event can be a symptom of a unique opportunity.

Why is eBay failing against Taobao and Google failing againt Baidu in China? The failures are not by a small margin, we're talking about a 60% market share versus 20% for search engines, it's huge. What is the root cause of this? Is it the Chinese nationalism, different value proposition for search experience, usability, no listing fee approach or what? The answer to this question will lead to many innovative and entrepreneurial opportunities to do business in China, as well as importing concepts of what works there into America.

○ Incongruity - A discrepancy between reality and what everyone assumes it to be, or between what is and what ought to be, can create an innovative opportunity.

The lately merging mobile phone and internet technologies are making the old concept of a phone obsolete. Looking at what Apple, Microsoft's Smart Phone model and some of the hand-held devices do, and comparing them with internet service providers and wireless/wired infrastructure moguls' services will lead to a lot of innovative ideas. What could that be in your industry?

○ Innovation Based on Need - When a weak link is evident in a particular process, but people work around it instead of doing something about it, an opportunity is present to the person or company willing to supply the "missing link".

Why are the Japanese more advanced in robotics? It's not because it's cool and they are more talented in designing robots, in fact, most of their original designs were coming from The US. The main reason for that is because Japan had the "baby bust" about 5 years earlier than America and 10 years earlier than Germany. It took them about the same time as Americans to realize the labor shortage problem.

○ Change in industry structure - The opportunity for an innovative product, service or business approach occurs when the underlying foundation of the industry or market shifts.

What is happening as the online advertising and internet technologies converge and collapse? YouTube, MySpace, Microsoft's offer to Facebook, Double Click deal and other countless headlines in the last 2 years on the news? There are innovative opportunities there.