20.1. The need for an innovation molecule

Most firms have learned to work in innovation, which means they strive to produce advanced results, or sometimes avail themselves of some innovation process that leads to such results. Apple seems to work on innovation:

1. 1) by permanently seeking the gradient path in lieu of a priori innovative results – this grants a formidable anticipation capacity;
2. 2) by subordinating its catalog to this gradient process. This happens by stepwise incrementing the intermediary prototypes long before they are plunged in the market;
3. 3) by capitalizing on the impressive gap created as a result, which entails being careful not cannibalizing previous gaps, hence refraining from changing the rules too often.

This builds a metaprocess that agglomerates the genes into an irresistible innovation molecule, We have not seen quite as often such disposition in our client base at any time (Figure 20.1). And far less for a longer period of time. The mastery that is required behind this metaprocess sets a company at top level in maturity scale.

In our previous book, Innovation Capability Maturity Model [COR 15], five levels of maturity are being distinguished:

1. 1) Initial. An initial product development project (no knowledge capitalization is made).
2. 2) Repeated. A series of innovative projects makes little capitalization. Trials and errors dominate the development.
3. 3) Coordinated. Projects are coordinated between themselves. With a mutualization of the corresponding accumulated knowledge. A new strategic dimension appears: the progressive integration of what innovating entails in the enterprise.
4. 4) Managed. All that pertains to innovating is integrated within different departments. An innovation policy appears and the innovation activity is managed.
5. 5) Sustained. Innovating is embedded in the firm’s culture. Methods and tools (including processes) are evolved to strive over time.

In [COR 15], we observed the roller-coaster path of Apple’s historical phases across these levels and noticed it took Jobs many years before aggregating the genes into a coherent whole that established his company at level 5 (Figure 20.2). The result so far has been cohesive innovation capacity and the ultimate aggregative embodiment obtained is its cohesive brand. Actually it is a whole brand, created from all possible interactions.

20.2. A need to revisit risk-taking

An innovation molecule is like a restless engine. As we have seen for Leonardo Da Vinci, its indigenous aspiration is to re-interpret a different world every once in a while, for each of us. Actualizing it, however, requires overcoming one single barrier in the background: a repeated capacity to take risks. In Part 1, Chapter 2 showed more a personal attitude toward risk-taking. Let us take another contrastive look at a term that casts hazard, venture and chance, all at a same time.

The following two tables take risk-taking as a subject matter and expand the associated meaning in order to formulate actionable propositions. Methods for expanding the understanding include: singling out the relevant dominant business designs, mobilizing the associated knowledge, breaking them by delineating the rupture axes, charting the resulting innovation fields, etc. Applying C-K theory works them thoroughly. Table 20.1 is more indicative of a conservative view on risk-taking, while Table 20.2 expounds what Apple has been up to.

In our consultancy, when coaching start-ups, incubating companies and mentoring novel young and less young entrepreneurs and executives, a natural tendency to shield from risk was frequently observed – a possible reason is that risk was perceived as an outside factor – hence the multiplication of market studies to create confidence. The point is whether the entrepreneur has sincere gut feelings: the venture and possibility come just from within, where he/she knows…instantly. It is the meaning within us that inspires our productions and makes us move; and it is impossible to cheat with it. It is the meaning consistently spoken about through this book: with the Arts/Science of Leonardo, within the genes, built in the products, etc. Famous consultant Stephen Covey says it in a few words: “Motivation is a fire from within. If someone else tries to light that fire under you, chances are it will burn very briefly”.

Students graduating from business schools, engineering schools and universities share the same, perhaps inherited, feeling about risk. Could we instead advise business schools with a quantum approach to risk-taking: a whole new domain of coaching where intuition and inner guidance, assurance and visualization of the desired aims aligns the forces within and sets an outward stage for realization? This would unite Eastern with Western culture, arts and science in the Leonardo sense, and benefit the economy at large.

The early Apple employee Guy Kawasaki, already quoted in the introduction, stated: “The best reason to start an organization is to make meaning – to create a product or service to make the world a better place”.

Combining technology and liberal arts was a leitmotiv for Steve Jobs. Here is a citation relating to Apple’s philosophy at an special event held by in March 2011:

“I’ve said this before, but I thought it was worth repeating: it’s in Apple’s DNA that technology alone is not enough. That it’s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the result that makes our heart sing and nowhere is that more true than in these post-PC devices. And a lot of folks in this tablet market are rushing in and they’re looking at this as the next PC. The hardware and software are done by different companies. They’re talking about speeds and feeds just like they did with PCs. Our experiences and every bone in your body says that that is not the right approach to this – that these are post-PC devices that need to be even easier to use than the PC. They need to be even more intuitive than a PC and where the software and the hardware and the applications need to intertwine in an even more seamless way than they do on a PC. And we think we’re on the right track with this, we think we have the right architecture not just in silicon, but in the organization to build these kinds of products. And so I think we stand a pretty good chance of being pretty competitive in this market and I hope that what you’ve seen today gives you a good feel for that”.

“Once it’s been done, it’s done – you know.”

John Lennon