Gijs van Wulfen
Founder of the FORTH innovation method, Author & Speaker on Innovation
1. Start without a business need. It’s as simple as that. So, if your company’s current business is booming, it’s unlikely that the people in your organization will readily break with their habits. Don’t try to convince others to innovate when there is no business need; you will be turned down.
2. To first appoint an innovator. You can invent on your own. But in an organization you can never innovate alone! You need R&D engineers, production managers, IT staff, financial controllers, marketers, service people and salesmen to develop or service the product, produce it and get it on the market. The moment you appoint an innovator, you run the risk that everyone else will lean back and wait for the appointed innovator to come up with his or her innovations.
3. Start with your idea. Innovation is about getting the right ideas and realizing these ideas in practice. The global symbol for innovation is a bright, shining light bulb. Once an idea comes to you, you’ll probably fall in love with it. That’s a great feeling. But, unfortunately, love is blind.
4. Bet on one idea. For every seven ideas for a new product, about 4 enter development, 1 to 2 are launched and only 1 succeeds[2]. Therefore, never bet on one ship. There’s a huge risk that it won’t return.
5. Start with a brainstorming session. I love this quote by the American businessman Dee Hock, he says: “The problem is never how to get new, innovative thoughts into your mind, but how to get old ones out. Every mind is a building filled with archaic furniture. Clean out a corner of your mind and creativity will instantly fill it. Once you get the old ideas out of your mind, new ones come automatically!”
6. Start by neglecting customers. Meeting potential customers to discover their frictions belongs to a set of highly effective techniques you want to apply when creating new product ideas. Don’t go looking for what your customer wants. This is because customers, themselves, aren’t always able to articulate their needs. Start by exploring customers’ relevant future problems. You’ll soon find that neglecting customers in your innovation will lead to a dead-end street for sure.
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