Innovation is About Behavior

I just read an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal on how the video game industry prepares to launch new technology-based developments such as new motion-based controllers.

In the article, we are told that one of the biggest challenges for the video game industry is the rise of free or cheap games on mobile phones and social networks. Consumers have changed their behaviors.

This is a common, simple, yet crucial observation that many people working with innovation often tend to overlook. Companies can deliver all the latest technologies and the coolest products, but it does not really matter if we do not make this work together with new business models that adapts to the changes of consumers and customers.

Scott Anthony gets into this in this nice article, Three Critical Innovation Lessons from Apple. The lessons are:

Don’t just focus on building beautiful products. Build beautiful business models, new ways to create, deliver, and capture value. The iPod and iPhone would not have had nearly as much impact if they hadn’t been matched with iTunes and the AppExchange respectively.

Think in terms of platforms and pipelines. Competitors that chase Apple’s latest release find themselves behind when six months later Apple introduces its latest and greatest offering.

Take a portfolio approach. While Apple has been on a phenomenal run, not everything it has introduced has been a home run. For example, Apple TV hasn’t had the “revolutionary” impact that Jobs predicted upon its launch in 2007.

Check out the full article by Scott Anthony. Please also let me know your thoughts on the behaviors of consumers and customers in relation to innovation.

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Stefan Lindegaard is a speaker, network facilitator and strategic advisor who focus on the topics of open innovation, intrapreneurship and how to identify and develop the people who drive innovation.