Stop Searching for Answers

Do you want to innovate or imitate ?

It's become too easy to fire up the browser and seek out the search results for answers.

Has it ever occurred to you that the existence of answers mean that it has been done before ?

There comes a time when the search reveals nothing useful. Instead of giving up, you should be excited that you may be on to something new and unique (or merely that the inventor never bothered to post it on the web).

Stop searching for answers and start creating the right questions.

Are Facebook and Twitter innovations or just apps ?

We obviously live in an internet era.

Many recent graduates are forming startups hoping to reap the rewards like Yahoo (in the oldest days) Google (in the old days) and Facebook/Twitter in the present.

These are popular services, no doubt about it, and the press just can't stop talking about them. Valuations and IPOs are completely without realism. It's like saying that the most successful company in world commerce is the Yellow Pages.

These silly valuations come from investors fear of missing out on the next big IPO.

But are we forgetting something ? All these billion dollar-valuation companies are all single dimensional. They are all just web apps. Software really. So while their services may be innovative in their offerings, they are really just very big software houses.

I see complaints that the US is losing it's edge in innovation and R&D. No surprise really. While US is busy building web apps, China and Korea and the rest of the world are doing R&D in flat panels, lasers, semiconductor materials, acoustics, vehicle safety, and green energy. Multi-dimensional.

Vision, or lack thereof

Over recent weeks there has been a great deal of chatter about the future of Apple - now that their great visionary leader has called it a day, for his health reasons. It shall be interesting to see how Apple continues to innovate and delight users several years from now once Job's ideas-in-the-pipeline are all used up and they have to create their own.

In contrast, we have Hewlett-Packard announcing all sorts of departures - from the PC business, the Tablet business, and possibly the Hardware business, wanting to solely focus on financial software services. Good luck entering that uncrowded sector...

Back in my days as an engineering student, HP was to be seen everywhere - scientific calculators (together with Texas Instruments) and all their lab gear like oscilloscopes (as was Tektronix). HP was seen as an innovator, or should I say Bill and Dave were, not HP the company. Today, what does HP actually stand for ?

A lot has been said about Carly Fiona's poor decision for the purchase of Compaq - it was a reactionary buy rather than a visionary's. And when did a great instrument company become a computer company anyway ?

The tech industry loves heroes, and pretty much ignore faceless corporations. Rational's stuff was great to use while there were the "Three Amigos". These products are now buried deep within Big Blue's catalog. The trio have long gone as has market share in modeling tools.

What is your vision, HP ? What is your identity ? Leave out all that "Maximizing shareholder value" because you are being sued by your shareholders. Companies need to innovate now more than ever, and communicate those visions of the ideal future. Apple does this well - products are well designed, manufactured, and packaged - and a pleasure to use. HP needs to dream big and create a new category or it will not survive.

Two companies, on opposite sides of the spectrum, both requiring a Vision. One to maintain their leadership position, the other from irrelevance.

Recommended reading for Managing Innovation

A list of recommended books to accompany my talk on Managing Innovation at Chandrakasem Rajabhat University:

• R. Verganti (2009), Design Driven Innovation: Changing the Rules of Competition by Radically Innovating What Things Mean, Harvard Business Press
• V. Govindarajan, et al. (2010), The Other Side of Innovation: Solving the Execution Challenge, Harvard Business Press
• T. Brown (2009), Change by Design: How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires Innovation, Harper Business

Upcoming Event: Talk on Managing Innovation

Infowave shall be delivering a 3 hr talk on Managing Innovation at Chandrakasem Rajabhat University, on Saturday 30th April 2011. This talk shall include examples of innovation from the military domain.