Innovation Perspectives – No Shooting Stars

This is the fifth of several ‘Innovation Perspectives‘ articles we will publish this week from multiple authors to get different perspectives on ‘What is the most dangerous current misconception in innovation?’. Now, here is Hutch Carpenter’s perspective:

Most Dangerous Innovation Misperception: The Silver Bullet Approach

by Hutch Carpenter

When companies think every innovation has to be a shooting star, their innovation efforts aren’t going to get very far

A recent Accenture survey of 630 executives from large firms in the U.S. and U.K. found this alarming stat regarding innovation inside enterprises:

58% believe their organization is looking for the next silver bullet rather than pursuing a portfolio of opportunities

Taking this view is a dangerous misperception about innovation. It’s dangerous for two reasons:

• It relegates smaller innovations to second class status
• It negatively impacts the innovation culture

Let’s examine those two issues more fully.

The Go Big or Go Home Syndrome

There is a popular philosophy in the world of business and technology: Go Big or Go Home. It’s a good concept. If you don’t aim high, it can be hard to create enterprising new initiatives. This philosophy has an important place in the annals of industry for driving innovation.

But when this philosophy is your only view about innovation, you’ve set up a situation where smaller innovations are not valued. If they’re not valued, you’re not likely to see them. Yet smaller innovations can provide meaningful returns, individually or in aggregate. I love the example that management guru Jim Collins tells about the U.S. Marines.

The Marines would issue new enlistees a uniform on their first day in the service. After two weeks of intensive training, these recruits needed a new uniform because the initial ones no longer fit. Marine policy was that the recruits original uniforms were to be destroyed. That’s right, thrown away.

Archuleta thought that policy was daft, and that the uniforms could simply be washed and used for the next class of recruits. He asked his superior, and was told, “No. It’s against regulations. Forget about it.” Eventually, Archuleta got a new supervisor who thought he had a good idea, and promoted it up the military chain. The idea was well-received at the higher levels, and implemented across the Marines. It resulted in annual cost savings of half a million dollars.

It was not a silver bullet innovation by any means. But it does illuminate that a series of smaller innovations, in aggregate, can provide meaningful benefits to organizations. For another example, Toyota’s rise to a global automotive power was built on millions of small ideas from employees.

The challenge with an “all disruptive, all the time” approach to innovation is that the odds are stacked against you. There will be hits, but there will even more failures. Meanwhile, lower hanging innovation fruit goes unharvested.

Downside for Innovation Culture

A second problem with relying only on a silver bullet approach is that it becomes less a rallying cry and more a millstone around your neck. Culturally, the expectation has been set that you need to come up with game changing ideas.

The problem is that it can be hard for us to go from zero to 60 when we’re caught up trying to deliver on our daily work. I think in terms of the employee innovation spectrum below:

Where are innovations most likely to occur? When we have to solve problems we encounter every day. Greenlighting employees to innovate – and share those innovations more broadly – on the myriad problems and opportunities is a superior approach to relying only on Go Big or Go Home.

It’s better for customers. Do you really think customers are waiting for your silver bullet innovation? They’ll be happy to buy it assuming it fulfills a job they have. But in the meantime, they want to see improvements in the current products and services they enjoy.

It’s better for employees, who have an avenue for their innovation energies. It increases innovation share of mind without requiring the mental cycles required for breakthrough. But once these innovation energies are tapped, expect an increase in all forms of innovation.

Views on this Misperception from the Market

I posted the Accenture study to the Front End of Innovation Group on LinkedIn, and it received a couple interesting comments:

“That more than 50% of the executives are looking for a silver bullet rather than at a innovation portfolio is alarming. It is more innovation gambling than looking for the development of a solid competitive advantage.”

– Helmut Albrecht, Headway International Consulting

“There is nothing wrong with taking advantage of an opportunity but building an innovation strategy around it is just not sustainable. Unfortunately, this seems to be a growing trend in some parts of the Western world. Contrast this with the widespread mentality of many, many incremental product and process improvements in some parts of Asia.”

– Patrick Popp, Director, Global Electrical Engineering, GM

Game-changing innovations are invaluable for companies to stay on top of their markets. Just don’t let them be the only kind of innovation your firm seeks.

You can check out all of the ‘Innovation Perspectives‘ articles from the different contributing authors on ‘What is the most dangerous current misconception in innovation?’ by clicking the link in this sentence.

Hutch Carpenter is the Director of Marketing at Spigit. Spigit integrates social collaboration tools into a SaaS enterprise idea management platform used by global Fortune 2000 firms to drive innovation.