Business Exposed166
So then I gave up.
Might the answer simply be that innovation is really not such a
smart thing to do for a rm? It seems, as an organization, your
chances of success are quite a bit better, and have less risk, if you
simply stick to your knitting, or at least not
try come up with new stuff yourself (but just
wait patiently to imitate it).
But if that is the case, perhaps we shouldn’t
tell anyone . . . Because innovation really
is great and, as a society, we need it. But if
everyone nds out that you, as an individual
rm, are better off without it, people might not do it anymore
. . . So let’s keep this one under wraps, and between you and me,
alright?
Customers? Ah, forget about them
Let me quickly make amends for the prior section. I like
innovation! Honest. I am just not so sure everybody should
do it, and that everybody should be aiming for radical change.
Paradoxically, in a turbulent business where the turbulence
isn’t caused by innovation (like the Chinese pharmaceutical
industry), but by all sorts of other things, perhaps some of us
are better off focusing on what we already do well, and doing it
even better, rather than coming up with (even more) new stuff
all the time.
But that does not take away from the fact that some of the
greatest and most interesting companies in the world were – and
are – very innovative. And that innovation can be very exciting.
And that innovation can make you very rich – if done well (but
that is a big “if” . . .).
The aforementioned ndings also suggest that not many
companies that try very hard to be innovative succeed at it. That
is why I regularly research companies that are great innovators. I
am trying to gure out what they do that makes them successful.
‘‘
innovation
really is great and,
as a society, we
need it
’’
1677
n
Making far-reaching decisions
How do they organize for innovation? What do they do differ-
ently than rms that do get stale, and sometimes even end up in
a success trap?
This path also took me to a small dance company, called the
Akram Khan Dance Company. The Akram Khan Company
focuses on creating contemporary dance. It is small but
extremely innovative (and extremely successful . . .). I inter-
viewed a guy called Farooq Chaudhry, co-founder and
producer. Farooq had several interesting things to say about
creating an organization that excels in delivering continuing,
successful innovation. One thing that stuck to my mind was,
“In order to be truly innovative, you have to forget about your
customer.”
What?! I don’t know much about marketing (and would prefer
to keep it that way), but don’t these people always go on and
on about “customer focus”, “client-driven innovation”, “the
customer always comes rst”, and so on?
So I said, “Farooq, do you perhaps mean that you should only
have the customer in the back of your mind?”
“No, no, I mean, customers – just forget about them altogether”.
OK . . . What (on earth) did Farooq Chaudhry mean? After all,
this is one of the most innovative companies of its kind, since
. . . well, like ever.
According to him, if you want to be truly innovative, you have to
purposely not try to give the customer what he wants. Because, as
he argued, if you set out to develop what you think the customer
will like, you end up satisfying existing needs and tastes; you
follow the customer, rather than leading him. True innovation,
according to him, is about changing the tastes of customers,
and giving them something that they have never seen or even
imagined before.
I found his view quite appealing, and logically sound. If you
really want to do something new, you might have to be brave
enough to not ask people what they want, but to give them what
they want (although they don’t know they want it yet).
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