Finding the Next Big Idea

Innovation Strategies:
Finding the Big Idea
WITI July 10, 2006

About Nilofer

• Started at Apple
– As admin. Worked thru undergrad
– Had 23 managers in 7 years
• VP Sales & Marketing, GoLive (bought by Adobe)
• Chief of Staff, Americas, Autodesk
• Started Rubicon in ‘99 as sole proprietor

©2006 Rubicon Consulting, Inc. | Proprietary & Confidential

About Rubicon
• High-Tech Consulting
– Business & Marketing Strategies, since 1999
– Market Definition, GTM Design, Revenue Optimization


Innovation Is Critical

• Economic growth is based on continuous
innovation
• Some big wins from just by out-thinking, out-
creating
• Ideas and developing something “strategic” is
critical
– To our careers
– To our companies
– To our communities


The Idea

• Speciﬁc thought which
arises in the mind
• The capacity to generate
ideas is associated with the
capacity for reason,
reﬂection, and perspective
• Ideas are linked to
concepts
• An idea can arise on
anything


Innovation

The process of making
•
changes to something
established by introducing
something new
A new idea, method or device
•
Successful exploitation of new
•
ideas
Change that creates a new
•
dimension of performance


Is Innovation Available to All of Us?

• Some think YES
• Some think NO

Let’s take a look at some “great” innovators


Some Case Studies & Lessons


“Borrowed” Idea from Different Industry

• Wrote a paper as an
undergraduate. Got a C.
• Applied idea from
telecommunications and
banking industries to
transportation -- Using a
central clearinghouse
Fred Smith, CEO
with a hub and spoke
system of dissemination.
• “Even we didn’t know
what we were creating.”


Solved a Daily Problem

• Needed a bookmark
during choir practice
that wouldn’t fall out,
wouldn’t mark page.
• “No one understood
what I was talking
about.”
• Formal research
showed a potential of
$750,000 TAM Art Fry, Inventor


Designed the Opposite of the Industry

• Entire industry facing price
pressures; price wars were
constant.
• No one believed you could
make money on hardware.
• “So I just figured out how
to do the opposite thing
that would work in that
context.”
• “No one believed in me.”


“Simplified” Existing Product

• Originally invented in
1963.
• Shown at conference in
San Francisco in 1968.
• “Reinvented” 20 years
later by a company who
recognized its value to
ease of use.


Innovation Sometimes Comes from
Simply Doing What You Do Best
• Learned Russian while
children were born
prematurely
• I had “social skills so I
threw parties and
introduced people”
• “After doing some parties,
I got asked to coordinate a
campaign, and I did. I liked
it.”


Sometimes Innovation is “Just”
Refinement
• A wooden platform of two skis
was around since the 1920s.
• I had no idea it would become
popular.
• “I found a shortcoming in the
current solution, and a market
interest.”
• “If the original product is a
hassle for people, they’ll fork
over money for the better
solution”


And Sometimes It’s About Performance

• Born in 1948 in
Minnesota in a town of
~1,000 people
• First woman brought in
from outside to head
major high-tech firm
• Took company from
single product company
of 20 years to multi-
segment, multi-product
company


Some Lessons

• Not always about the out
of the box idea
• Options:
– Build on existing concept
– Do more elegant solution
– Serve the new demand
– Serve existing customers
with more


Can You Do It Too?


Absolutely!

• 5 part framework
– Map It
– Listen & Knit
– Seek out New … Minds
– Get out the Wand!
– And, the Magic Marker


Step 1: Mapping it
• Compare to Competitors
– What do they do well / not so well ?
– What do you / could you do differently
• Technologies
• Culture
• Partnerships
– Discover what you have (ease of use, ready acceptance, fraud
management, underdog status, brand power, etc) that is central to
who you are
• To Benchmarks
– Identify any and all parallel industries to see if you could combine
products, services, or customer values


(Sample) SWOT Map

Strengths Opportunities

Weaknesses Threats


Step 2: Listen & Knit

• Ask customer service what they get yelled at for
• Ask sales people why they lose deals
• Ask non-customers what they need
• Listen to yourself learn
– Check out other products
– Open it, try it
– What can be fixed?
– What bugged you?
• Make a list of all of this as they each represent
“innovation opportunities.” Knit together, they become
bigger opportunities.


Framework to Organize Knitting
New Customer Opportunities
Current Competitive
Customer Pain Pressures
Losses New Needs


Value of Research

• Early market • Mature Market
– Focus on the influencers – Look for statistically valid
– Do well designed sample sizes
qualitative research – Study with segmentation in
– Focus not on ‘answers’ or mind
price sensitivity but on
– Ask questions you can act
thinking, reasoning, and
on
insights
– Don’t bias responses with
– Don’t ask “knowing” the
answer question structure
– Ask open ended – Study over time


Step 3: Seek Out New … Minds

• Find out the other good thinkers
– Websites
– Associations
– Networks
– Blogs
• Be curious. Ask questions. Read.
• Set up an RSS feed on topics of interest.


Step 4: Seek the Wand!

• For any problem, there is a solution
• For any need, there is an opportunity
• Ask powerful, enabling questions
– What would you do?
– Is this people related?
– Could we fix this with a process?
– Do we need to create a new product?
– Should we pursue a new customer?
– Does this need a new tool?
– What’s the first step? And in 3 years, we would have…?


Step 5: Plot Out Options

• Develop alternative
scenarios of what the
future might look like
– Connect all sorts of random
points together
• Work on scenarios with
industry leaders and
partners.
• Connect Disparate dots


Scenarios
Direction A Direction B Direction C

Product Market Rate of Competitive
Direction Adoption Pressures (High,
(Integration, Medium, Low)
stand alone, etc)
Pricing Moves New Entrants Low Switching
Moves
Global Economy Transportation Lawsuit
Costs
Etc Etc Etc

Another good framework
New
Markets:
Existing

Products:
Change New

A Fundamental

• Innovation is about being able to develop
something
• It does not happen in the shower, all by itself
– It requires time to research and gather ideas
– It requires focus to synthesize and combine
– It requires inspiration to imagine solutions
• Give yourself a 5% reserve


Conclusion

• Coming up with the Big idea is not the exclusive
territory of Einstein, Steve Jobs or Jeff Hawkins
• You have it in you
• Now:
– You have to do some work to research, learn.
– And have courage
– And believe.
• And, you too, will win markets


Win Markets
Trusted Advisors to high-tech firms seeking
to transform their visions into strategies,
strategies into plans, and plans into results.

Practices:

Define / Design / Defend / Optimize


Finding the Next Big Idea

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