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Disruptive vs. Sustaining Innovation- The Tale of an Innovator’s Dilemma…

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If you believe that merely by being the best in your field is good enough, then think again, as Harvard Business Professor, Clayton Christensen explains in arguably one of the most compelling and insightful explorations of innovation to date. Rachel Fenton delves into the academic world of innovation to unravel this intriguing theory…

‘The Innovator’s Dilemma- When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail’, first published in 1997, has had the global innovation community buzzing ever since, and I must admit, I can see why.

Christensen’s theory suggests that businesses fall into two distinct categories of commercial development; Sustaining and Disruptive Innovations/Technologies. Companies operating within a certain market, incrementally improving their product or service, are what Christensen would call Sustaining Innovations. Established firms tend to work well in Sustaining Innovations as they benefit from greater knowledge of their market and have the established capabilities and assets to keep costs down and entice consumer demand. In this situation, you may ask what are these Sustaining Innovations doing wrong, exactly?

The answer comes in the form of Disruptive Innovations. Like a deadly new strain of virus, they silently gather the appropriate data to devise a killer combination to strike terror into the intended body. Working well-beneath the radar, Disruptive Innovations bring new technologies to the table and turn Sustaining Innovations of their heads. They do this whilst operating at such a presumably insignificant level, that Sustaining Innovations only really sit up and take notice when it is too late, and this new technology has engulfed their market and stolen its consumer demand.

Take for instance the tape cassette. In the late 1970s and 1980s, the market for the cassette player steadily increased to hit an all-time high in the mid-1980s; music cassette tapes seemed a revolutionary leap forward from the era of the LP. Business continued to boom as the Sony Walkman cassette player gained great popularity. However, bubbling beneath the surface of this seemingly, fortuitous industry was the development of a new technology which would decimate the need for the cassette; this of course, was the compact disk. In fact, development of the CD occurred many years before its actual success, at the turn of the 1980s, supporting Christensen’s theory that Sustaining Innovations (i.e. Cassette Tape) did not acknowledge the Disruptive Innovation (i.e. Compact Disk) as a real threat. This being said, by 1993, shipments of CD players reached five million per annum, which totalled an increase of 21% compared to the year before, whereas the cassette player experienced a decline of 7% to approximately 3.4 million. Also, if we forward 8 years, the cassette accounted for minute 4% of music sold and the CD unquestionably dominated the recording industry.

So how could the musings of Professor Christensen possibly affect us in the XXXXX industry? Although the CD case can appear a rather niche example, the principle behind it could ring elements of truth in existing industries today, from mobile phones to petrol cars to XXXXX. With this in mind, in order to ensure we keep ahead of the game and ready to respond to changing needs and expectations from our customers, XXXX could do no harm in continuing to keep a keen eye on developing technologies from rival and related organisations, however small and early in their development stages, and continue to explore and embrace fresh ideas and innovative possibilities within our company, however avant-garde they may seem at the time…

“Let’s suppose everything you have been taught about the workings of your brain were wrong…

In 1981, Roger Sperry won a Nobel Prize for his work on the ‘Two sides of the Brain’ theory. Since then, the majority of businesses have adopted brainstorming techniques which attempt to stimulate creative thinking by means of tapping into the ‘right side’ of the brain, as well as catering for the ‘left side’ thought process used for logical thinking. However, a new book, ‘Strategic Intuition: The Creative Spark in Human Achievement’, published by Professor William Duggan is beginning to turn the innovation academic community of its head. Duggan attempts to dispel this universally accepted belief by forwarding a brand-new theory that flashes of insight and the ‘Eureka!’ moment are not the result of two distinct sides of the brain working together, but the result of something he calls, ‘Strategic Intuition’; In the Columbian University Professor’s words, “if we understand how innovation actually works, we can learn how to do it more reliably”.

Strategic Intuition works on the principal that from the moment you are born, your brain starts collecting information and memories of experiences, which are then archived for reference in the future. Every time new information is processed, your brain checks the ‘inventory’ for similar information. Any related information is then merged with your new findings to create a new thought; this is the ‘Aha!’ moment and what Professor Duggan refers to as our ‘Intelligent Memory’. He goes onto say that for truly successful ideas to be born; we must “recognise past trends, learn from them and have an attachment from a predetermined conclusion”. There must also be an acute awareness of the surroundings and have a broad knowledge of existing solutions.

Duggan supports his concept by referring to Google, Apple, IBM, AND Microsoft’s, and how they all achieved success by unknowingly using Strategic Intuition.  This means that by collaborating past experiences, ideas, academic knowledge and examples of similar situations with new stimulus, these companies were able to think up globally-recognised innovation sensations. Furthermore, Duggan believes that the study of Battle Strategy can give us a perfect demonstration of Strategic Intuition in practice.  Duggan explains that Napoleon Bonaparte won his first battle at the spritely age of 24 without any previous experience but a thorough understanding of the history of warfare and he combined this information with what he knew of the current situation to devise a new winning strategy. In Duggan’s words; “the elements were not new, but his combinations were new. His thinking process exemplified the way in which intelligent memory produces intelligent ideas”.

With continual research into neuroscience being conducted and businesses always aiming to improve their innovation processes, perhaps not today, but for the future, we should keep an eye on Duggan’s work and its developments in the global innovation community to see if his theory has any value for XXXX and its activities. Watch this space!”

A Fly on the Wall… at Apple

“Rachel Fenton takes a bite out of Apple’s Innovation Approach…

With the imperative slogan ‘think different’ emblazoned into the very core of the Apple business philosophy, it may come as no surprise to you that the technology giant is number 1 in the Fast Company top 50 listing of the most innovative companies for 2011, and this has been the general consensus for the last five years. How have they reached this commendable position? What types of innovation processes are they adopting? What could we, as promoters of innovation, learn from their approach to innovation?

With an expanse of articles floating round the virtual ether, I have found a number of examples of where innovation has particularly stood out. In this article, I will try to explain the Apple design process and how it has helped to conceive some of the most iconic and popular innovations of the 21^st Century; most notably the iPhone, iPad and iPod. Apple aspires to continually improve and develop its business and this is apparent from its strict dedication to a set of creative and innovative meetings scheduled on a weekly basis.  Firstly, we can see this from its commitment to fortnightly, ‘Pony Meetings’  which are based on the notion, that even though some wishes are misguided and unrealistic ‘I want a pony!’, they are nonetheless, a true reflection of the current demand and this cannot be ignored. That being said, Pony Meetings aim to make these desires a reality. Pony Meetings allow important stakeholders the opportunity to express their wishes in a regular slot in the company schedule. Such proposals, however outlandish, are delivered to the Apple designers.  

From this session, the ‘10 to 3 to 1’ process is put into place, where the designers are asked to produce 10 ideas based on the proposals, which are then explored, evaluated and proto-typed until three ideas and eventually one idea are short-listed. Another important aspect of the Apple innovation process is the ‘Paired Design Meetings’ which are a set of two meetings, the first, a creative brainstorming session to truly get the designers creative juices flowing, and the second, later in the week, to talk practicalities and decipher how these ideas could be made feasible from a technological and commercial sense.   Finally, Apple produces  ‘Pixel Perfect Mock-ups’  detailing the exact appearance of the product down to the very last pixel, for every single interface screen. It is a crucial aspect of the innovative process in order to validate the creative thought process and remove any ambiguity.

The innovative company strategy at Apple does not stop at the way in which it designs products. In fact, Apple sticks to a number of unique innovative principles:

•  Refusal to adhere to market research

•  Uses and improves the ideas of others, referred to as ‘network innovation’

•  Apple does not aim to stigmatise failure, but decides to tolerate and learn from it.  

•  Concentrates on a few quality products to be marketed which are developed to perfection.

So there you have it! Although a somewhat brief summary of Apple’s main innovation efforts, we can clearly see that Innovation is not a bonus, but the foundations to this hugely successful firm; it is an integral part of their daily business structure and working life, and for Apple, thinking innovatively is the difference between success and liquidation. Primarily, I think that the success of Apple’s innovation process has a lot to do with the nature of its industry; in such a fast moving area of design, Apple simply cannot afford to sit back and enjoy the good times as they are. It must focus on staying ahead, improving and developing as technology and computing continue to move in leaps and bounds. Notwithstanding the nature of its industry, we as majority at XXXX, could take a few leaves out of Apple’s book, and reinforce our awareness that our industry too, will change and evolve, and by realising just how crucial innovation is we can remain a leader in our field of expertise.

The Innovation Behind Bio-mimetics

“Rachel Fenton looks at why we, as budding innovators and aspiring problem solvers, have a lot learn from the common fruit‐bat…

Developing fresh yet effective solutions to highly complex dilemmas may seem like a daunting task for the modern‐day engineer or scientist, but sometimes the best inspiration can be found, not drawn from the depths of a research laboratory, but by venturing outdoors, into the elements, in order to take a master‐class from the best designer and innovator of all: Mother Nature.

Since the dawn of primordial slime, our planet’s eco‐system has never ceased evolving in sync with the constantly changing environment we find ourselves inhabiting; we only need to observe the way in which today’s fauna and flora have adapted to their natural surroundings to develop an appreciation for the wonders of biological design. The bullet‐proof jacket, the sonar system, adhesive glue, camouflage, the hypodermic needle, the Speedo swimsuit and Velcro. What do all these products have in common? Every one of these modern day innovations is the bi‐product of learning from and modifying natural innovations within the Earth’s great expanse of wildlife. That is to say, a great number of celebrated innovative solutions to human problems, whether commercial or societal issues, were not conceived in vigorous brain‐storming workshops or rapid‐prototyping sessions, but in fact by lending a hand from nature.

The common fruit bat is a perfect example of the theory of bio‐mimetics (also referred to bio‐mimicry and bionics). Bats use an echo‐location system which allows them to ‘see’ in the dark. The bats call out in such high frequency that the supersonic sound waves can only be distinguishable by human ears as a series of clicks. The sound waves move through the airspace until they reach an object within the surrounding perimeter, where they bounce off these objects and return to the bat; the time delay between emitting and receiving back the wave allows the bats to determine the distances between themselves and their environment. Such ingenuity inspired the resolutions of a number of human issues, such as radar and sonar navigation technology (greatly evident within the XXXXXX) as well as medical imaging which were inspired by the echo‐location abilities of bats. Therefore, in the context of XXXX, we have already directly benefited from bio‐mimetics for a number of our XXXXXX in the utilisation of radar technology.

On a finishing note, with the knowledge that hundreds of new species of animal are being discovered every day, the question posed is how much more have we left to learn from the other wildlife with which we share our planet? Also, with our political, economical and environmental climates reacting as volatile as they are at present, perhaps the importance to businesses all over the world of observing the way in which nature evolves, in order to survive in times of change and difficulty, is greater than ever before.

If this has whetted your appetite and you’d like to learn more about this intriguing approach to innovation, please keep an eye out for future blogs, where I hope to expand on the intriguing topic of bio‐mimetics and explain how the concept can benefit XXXX.”

Rachel Fenton

Innovation Development