JimCarroll

Innovator’s fail faster!

July 20, 2009 by JimCarroll

There’s quite a bit of traffic on my clip about the importance of innovation with social networking.

The experience learned here links back to a point I often talk about in my keynotes about the reality of innovation:

Innovators fail fast.
Innovators who fail fast learn faster.
Innovators who learn faster from faster failure master faster markets.
Innovators master faster markets because they master fast failure

I was on a planning call with the CEO of a large global company that is having me in for a leadership meeting in the fall. We discussed the reality of his industry — very rapid change in terms of branding, infrastructure, competition, business model evolution, customer loyalty and expectations.

You name it — they’re in a whirlwind of change.

And it’s their ability to learn from their faster failures that will help them to master this hurricane of change.

Fail fast!

Being innovative – it depends on the company you keep!

July 17, 2009 by JimCarroll

Even though it’s summer, I’m busy dealing with the CEO’s of a large number of clients for events coming up in the fall.

One event features me as the opening keynote speaker for a large global travel organization in Phoenix in October

I was on the phone with the CEO yesterday, discussing a variety of trends.

This CEO gets it in terms of the rate of change, and “how to innovate when faster is the new fast.”

During the call, I made a comment that I often raise with my clients as to the CEO’s key attitude that people need to possess when it comes to innovation:

“Many people see a trend and see a threat. Smart people see the same trend and see opportunity“

Think about that, and then ask yourself as to how do you keep yourself in an innovative frame of mind. A good part of it has to do with the company you keep! I’d suggest that you surround yourself with:

optimists. You need to hang out with people who see all kinds of opportunity – not gloomsters who are convinced there is no future out there!
people who do. Action oriented people. Folks who accomplish things. Those that do.
people with open minds. Innovators aren’t prepared to accept the status quo – they are willing to explore and understand different viewpoints, and use that as a kickoff for creativity.
people who have experienced failure. Innovation comes from risk; risk comes from trying things. Try lots of things, and many will fail. That’s good. That builds up experience, which gives you better insight into a fast paced world.
oddballs and rebels. Some of the most brilliant thinking and best ideas can come from those who view the world through a different lens. They may seem odd at times, but they can be brilliantly creative.
good listeners and debaters. They’re willing to challenge ideas, analyze issues, and think through the possibilities.
people who think differently than you do. If you really want to be innovative, go to two conferences a year that have nothing to do with what you do. You’ll be amazed at what you learn, and how it will re-stir your creative juices.

In every single keynote, I focus on future trends and opportunities, and link that to the process and mindset of innovation. I’m an optimist, continually try new things, listen to other people, watch, observe, and listen. Most important, I refuse to give in to the pervasive negative thinking that so many people seem to envelope themselves within. Maybe that’s why I see so many opportunities in today’s economy.

Think growth!

10 trends unfolding with the recovery

July 6, 2009 by JimCarroll

While the shape of the future economy continues to unfold, there are several strong trends at work which are playing a key role in the overall innovation component of the recovery:

Rapid movers start to predominate: some of today’s XBox/Wii players are going to be CEO’s of big companies within 15-20 years. The high-velocity economy is just starting to take off. Just wait until the Gen-Connect starts to run things.
Everything is gaining intelligence: chips and connectivity are immersing themselves into everyday, ordinary things, and you likely aren’t even noticing. Hyperconnectivity changes everything: bioconnectivity and device-intelligence are the things to watch. It’s all about the cloud.
Volatility is the new normal: increasing connectivity increases the likelihood of cascading failures. Risk management is becoming more important, and more complex. Fewer organizations pay serious attention to the complexity of risk, leading to greater potential for short, sharp economic shocks. Smarter organizations seek smoothing of risk.
Boredom increasingly drives markets: people can’t stop fidgeting with their cell phones long enough to pay attention to anything. Clarity of value is critical, creativity is crucial, engagement is the next brand foundation.
Transformational change is everywhere: there are lots of people dying to mess up the fundamentals in almost every industry, and they aren’t your competitors. Industry blurring will continue unabated, as rebellion against established business models becomes the norm; think GoogleCar, not Toyota. Flexibility with change is critical.
The bar of expectations continues to increase: you have to innovate to keep up with the expectations of your customer, partners and suppliers, or you don’t survive. An increasing number of brands will expire and become something from “the olden days,” simply because their organizations lack the ability to innovate.
The “created in China” phase comes next: half the population is under the age of 25. They’re wired, highly collaborative, and have tasted the early stages of economic success. Innovation is thriving – forget manufacturing, think design.
Big trends rule. Over 20 years, health care transitions from prevention to detection; ethanol moves from distillation to production; manufacturing goes from production to fabbing. There are big, sweeping industrial changes underway, and it has nothing to do with the current hype around “social networking,” et al.
Knowledge and discovery exponentiates: the new global-mind generates new knowledge at furious rates. We’re going from 19 million known chemical substances today, to 80 million by 2025, and 5 billion by 2100. Any new substance can lead to the emergence of a billion dollar market. Discovery rules, time-to-market defines.
Experiential capital dominates over financial capital: over a 20 year span, it’s the depth of experience that counts; the agility to respond to rapid change that will define the success or death of an organization. Money thrown at innovation doesn’t work; the knowledge that comes from trying things out, and learning from the experience, leads to greater innovation success

Increasing the stakes – why innovation is gaining more traction

June 29, 2009 by JimCarroll

As we end the first six months of 2009, one thing is clear: people are realizing that innovation is more than a buzzword. It’s a critical component of an organization’s success: it’s the lifeblood that makes the organization tick and survive a world of high-velocity change.

As someone who spends a lot of time helping some of the world’s largest organizations adapt to and understand the new high-velocity economy, I’ve long realized that there are big, creative-stumbling-blocks that have restricted the type of thinking that is necessary to “doing-things-differently.”

Yet, I am encountering a new group of leaders who know that the emergence of the high-velocity economy means that they must have a a team that can constantly adapt and evolve, coming up with a regular stream of new ideas on how to better run the business, grow the business and transform the business.

There are several reasons why innovation will be the primary area of focus for every business, going forward:

people are finally “getting it“: They are realizing that innovation isn’t just about new products ; it’s also about looking at what you do, how you do it, and how you can do it better.
people are realizing that innovation isn’t optional: They have come to realize that in the fast paced world in which we find ourselves, with multiple competitive threats and unprecedented new opportunities, those who can think differently and who can do things differently will be those that make the leap from potential failure to massive success
people are realizing they can “do” innovation: they’re realizing that innovation isn’t some dark, mysterious ancient ritual: they’re realizing that it simply a mindset that involves constant probing to see how we can fix things, find new things, or transform things: whether those things be business processes, customer service methods, new products, marketing and distribution channel concepts, or just about anything else.
people know that innovation is driven by extreme velocity: In every industry, the certain minimum expectations which have long existed are now constantly rising. Whether it is issues of cost/price, customer service/support, logistics/delivery, brand coolness or new products, the rule is simple: to compete today, you have to keep up with high-velocity change. If you don’t innovate to maintain the same velocity as everyone else, you get left behind. It’s that simple.
people know it becomes easier to be innovative if you plug into the global innovation idea loop: What has happened in the last decade is quite simple: there is now a huge and massive global discussion underway. If you can learn how to tap it, you can discover a wealth of innovative ideas and thinking, new knowledge, wonderful insight and creativity.
people know that demographic change brings about more innovative thinking: quite simply, as change adverse baby-boomers begin to retire, they are being replaced by change-adept Gen-Connects: individuals who view innovative opportunities in the context of connectivity. They are always asking themselves, how can I do something cool with this business problem if I layer connectivity on top of it? Whether it’s supply chain reorganization, collaborative tools or something else, they bring a whole new innovative perspective to the game.
people are learning that innovation is not a one time thing: when it comes to innovation, the idea of a “suggestion box” is just so “20’th century.” There is now an understanding that a company must live a culture of innovation: everyone must be completely and fundamentally focused on the new things we need to do to stay in the game, and excel at what we do.
people know that innovation has gone mainstream: Everyday people are starting to use the I-word in conversation, and it’s becoming natural. Innovation has left the realm of the esoteric, and has become the next natural area of focus in business.
management is now focusing on the attributes of an innovation team: agility, insight and execution have become their guiding principles. They know that they must have agility to respond to the rapid change that constant innovation demands; they know they need depth of insight to discover where innovative ideas can work; they know that it isn’t just coming up with the ideas, but making them work, that is so critical to their innovation success.
people are seeking a head start on how to make the leap to innovation: A guy like me, who makes his living helping organizations understand innovation, now finds his agenda heavily booked. Management everywhere has put innovation on the agenda for the upcoming months, and they’re doing what it takes to get a kick-start on the process.

The most important thing? People are discovering that if you focus on innovation, you can break away from the dull, restrictive, boring routine activities that shackle you to the past. Instead, by focusing your energies on ideas, creativity, challenging the status quo, constantly seekling how you can do things better, grow things, or transform things, you ended up having a lot more fun — and see a lot more benefits.

People have come to realize that being innovative is just plain fun.

That fact, more than anything else, signals that innovation is becoming critical.

Major trend – the emerging smart energy infrastructure

June 25, 2009 by JimCarroll

For years, I’ve been advising my clients that one of the biggest trends for the next decade is the rapid emergence of an intelligent energy infrastructure.

It’s happening now — it’s happening all around you — and the implications are pretty huge in terms of economic growth.

Here’s a video that was filmed two years ago, in which I talk about what happens “when thermostats join the cloud.”

Today, I bought the new ipThermostat app for my iPhone; it provides instant, seamless access to the two Internet-enabled Proliphix thermostats in my home and ski chalet/cottage. I’ve written about these devices previously on this blog. (I could link to my thermostat before, but it was via a Web page. iPThermostat makes it seamless and fast.)

Such connectivity allows me to actively manage my energy spend, and better manage my own little environmental footprint. Take us into a world in which hundreds of millions are doing the same thing, and you put a serious dent into heating and air conditioning spending.

Device connectivity is but one small trend in a number of major trends that are coming together all at once:

HVAC 2.0: major industrial players are adding intelligence to the next generation of commercial, industrial and resident heating, ventilation and air conditioning equipment. We’re seeing remote monitoring and management; better analysis and insight into ; rapid response to out-of-norm operations. All of this allows people to more actively control overall energy usage
increasing energy / electrical system demand: quite simply, despite the recession, the demand on our electrical grid continues to increase. This demands new solutions, with the result that a lot of people are putting a lot of mindshare to the issue of how to squeeze more out of our existing energy infrastructure.
the new NIMBYism: one impact of social networking is that it is far more difficult for any utility to build a new power plant. The new activism can slow and delay such efforts, and often, successfully shut them down. This only makes the challenge of doing more with what we have now ever more important.
Energy grid 2.0: do a search for “smart grid” and you’ll see a flood of news stories. There’s a tremendous amount of hype, but much of it is real. Cisco recently suggested that the connectivity component of the infrastructure will be worth more than $100 billion over five years. That’s some serious spending.
the impact of analytics: raw computing horsepower will help to build the smart grid — companies like Google are aggressively involved. The same horsepower will help consumers and users better understand their usage, and allow more intelligent demand. Big, big trend!

So what does it all mean?

As thermostats plug into the cloud, everything changes.

iPThermostat app from Our Home Spaces
Blog post When thermostats get connected
Blog post Silicon Valley: Is Innovation Dead?
Blog post HVAC 2.0
Trends document (big PDF); page 3 Analytics & the energy grid
Proliphix Internet enabled thermostats

Innovation and the future of energy

June 24, 2009 by JimCarroll

I spent some time with the CEO and senior management team of a large global energy company.

They engaged me to provide them with insight on the trends which will impact the global oil, natural gas, energy and distribution sectors in the years to come.

It was a small, intimate get-together with about 40 senior executives; I provided my insight into the trends that I believe will have the most impact. That was followed by about an hour of very intense, deep probing discussion; I obviously stirred up some creative thinking within the group.

While not going into the specifics, the broad brush strokes of what I covered off included my observations that they should be thinking about these issues.

presume massive market disruption: Think GoogleCar: don’t limit your view of the future as to what might transpire. The future of any industry will likely bear no resemblance to the industry structure of today. Future competitors will probably come from completely outside of an existing industry. Challenge every assumption that you have about the future.
prepare for significant transformation: realize that existing insurmountable challenges are simply a big opportunity to someone else. Someone, somewhere, is going to figure out how to plug hundreds of thousands if not millions of small, local, home based renewable energy sources into the energy grid. It’s mostly a computation/mathematical issue: the energy grid was not designed for two way electricity transmission, and so there will have to be an intense amount of computational dynamics to structure a solution. Result? An organization that is a master of massive computational capabilities — and hence, grid management — might very well be the new energy company of the future.
find opportunity in scientific rapidity: we’re in the era of global collaborative knowledge generation, and R&D is rapidly externalizing. The infinite global idea loop means that scientific discovery is now happening faster than ever before, which provides for more product and market opportunity. Innovative organizations plug in, ensuring that all staff are in tune with the rapid rate of scientific advance that surrounds them, and are prepared to ride new emerging ideas as soon as they begin to emerge.
capitalize on skills fragmentation: the war for talent will define future success. We’re entering a time of massive skills specialization and ever smaller knowledge niches. As I covered off in my keynote to a global financial audience in the Cayman’s, it’s the organizations that can build a culture, structure and flexibility to attract and retain skills that will find the key to success in the high velocity economy.
structure for volatility: extreme volatility is the ‘new normal.’ If you have the capability to quickly adjust strategy, structure, plans, skills, projects and teams, you’ve got the right stuff for the new world of constant change.
prepare for business intensity: innovative organizations plan for more rapid entrance and exits from new markets. They do so through flexible structure. Partnership takes on new role in era of exponentiating, fast complexity and the rapid emergence of new opportunities: if you can scale up, you can win big.

The Economist Intelligence Unit recently noted that “the ability to swiftly adapt to change represents the greatest challenge manufacturers face in creating long-term value.”

That’s the bottom line for innovating in the high velocity energy industry.

Related posts:

The Google Car and massive market disruption
Global infinite idea loop
Talent, not money, is the new corporate battlefront

JimCarroll

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THE FUTURE BELONGS TO THOSE WHO ARE FAST features the best of the insight from Jim Carroll’s blog, in which he covers issues related to creativity, innovation and future trends.

THE FUTURE BELONGS TO THOSE WHO ARE FAST features the best of the insight from Jim Carroll’s blog, in which he
covers issues related to creativity, innovation and future trends.