How to Use Innovation Design to Drive Innovation

Designers must deliver the orchestration of the total experience with a brand, product, or service or face irrelevancy

 

In a previous era, all the talk was of strategy, strategy, strategy. More recently, it's been innovation, innovation, innovation. As design thinking seems poised to sweep away some of today's celebrated innovation practices, we must be wondering what new provocation is on the horizon. Relax, I'm not planning to conjure one up.

For those of us on the design consulting side of the business, it has not exactly been a smooth ride lately. But then again, I can't say that I ever remember it being all that smooth, even when the demand for all forms of basic design and new production capability was sky-high.

Having lived one career on the corporate design side of the consumer-products industry and now a good part of another on the consulting side, I've seen the ascendancy of design as a profession and the movement of design toward business competency. At the outset, designers were about style and the creation of bright shiny objects, and we dutifully manned our post at the last decoration station on the way to the marketplace.

Today, there are arguably two design strategies in the marketplace. You either succeed as the low-cost producer, or you successfully differentiate your offering by design in a relevant, meaningful way that is valued by shoppers, consumers, and sellers. As such, the theoretical role of design in business is relatively uncomplicated and straightforward.

Design in Business

The complications come with these two questions: Where does the core idea around a differentiated, relevant, valued offering come from? And what is its relationship to this thing we used to call design? You know—the bright shiny objects.

In our practice, we refer to the former as innovation strategy, and to the latter as design strategy. Somewhere in between resides the opportunity for brand strategy, and we hope to create a system in which there is a seamless flow from ideas to brand meaning and, finally, to how that brand or product or service is expressed and communicated.

Putting all three aspects of this brand-building practice together provides validity in thinking about design as one of the primary idea generators for the creation of viable business platforms. Assuming that the manifestation of a business offering is realized in the context of a brand, that brand requires meaning, a defined expression, and then, given some success, a plan for continued opportunity development that sustains and grows the business.

How to Innovate

True innovation requires the adoption of a belief system that sometimes must prevail in the face of other data metrics. Read up on the great inventions and business wins and you will note that at the core of most of them lie belief, dedication, and the passion to succeed. Today's business leaders are often too afraid to move ideas forward without ironclad data proofs that they will be successful. All too often, they are the losers. Use your head, listen to your heart, and feel what's in your gut.

As long as the human spirit and the marketplace lives on, I'm sure we will be inventing and innovating. Innovation is the commercial side of discovery and invention. Change is a huge driver of both discovery and invention. The world changes around us and we discover new things and we observe change and invent new things to deal with change.

If designers are content to function as purveyors of bright shiny objects, they will likely fade into obscurity. On the other hand, if they step forward and deliver the orchestration of the total experience with a brand, product, or service in the context of our changing environment, their future, too, looks bright. via businessweek.com

Speaking 

As the CEO and founder of InnoThink Group, Jim can help your organization enhance the strategic innovation and competitiveness of your business policy and strategy, with an emphasis on increasing top line growth.  

If you’re interested in having Jim speak at your next event, simply use this form to send us your details and speaking requirements, and we’ll be in touch shortly. Or you may call us at 719-649-4118. Thank you!

 

Seven Secrets to Heavy Hitter Sales

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As the economy improves in fits and starts, selling your products and services remains unusually tough. Never has resilience been more critical for small-business owners. The ability to steadfastly push through challenges is a valuable trait that seems to come naturally to some entrepreneurs. Others can adapt over time to become wiser and more confident after each trying situation.

So how can you quickly recover from setbacks in the selling process? For starters, experts suggest viewing sales in your business as a long process with many wins and losses, much like a professional athlete's season. "Try not to look at your sales record as just one good or bad deal or one good or bad week," advises Steve W. Martin, who teaches sales strategy at the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business and is the author of Heavy Hitter Sales Psychology (TILIS Publishers, 2009). "You're going to be at this for many years to come so you want to develop skills to be mentally ready to face the sales hurdles you have ahead of you."

Here are seven secrets to developing the resilience you need to staying positive, no matter how tough it may be to strike up new sales.

No. 1: Learn from your failures. Rather than feeling depressed that you made 100 calls without hearing back from a single prospect, take a long hard look at your approach. "Maybe you called the wrong people or called them at the wrong time," says Jill Konrath, author of Snap Selling (Portfolio, 2010) and Selling to Big Companies (Kaplan Publishing, 2005). Then, rethink your message. "Perhaps you should stress something different about your business," she says.

No. 2: Touch base with your 'friendlies.' If you've made 10 sales calls and all have gone poorly, it's easy to feel that you'll never get your company off the ground. If you have a day like that, consider reaching out to your 'friendlies,' customers that like you and appreciate your product, to fuel you for the hard work ahead. "By talking to these positive contacts," Martin says, "you'll reanchor yourself to why you're doing the work you're doing and it will help you become more ready for the next deal."

No. 3:  Face your fears. Every single entrepreneur has faced fear, especially when a sales call goes awry. "When I first started selling, a prospect reamed me out in front of some of my colleagues and I fainted," Konrath recalls. "After I came to, I could have walked out saying, ' I'm not cut out for sales.' Instead, I worked hard to figure out what it would take to be successful and I moved forward, despite my fears. I truly believe that the ability to bounce back rests in your ability to look fear in the face and go forward anyway."

No. 4: Check in with colleagues for a reality check. While we're taught to keep our feelings to ourselves when times are tough, it's actually better to share our struggles with a trusted colleague. "If you have a cathartic talk with a colleague who has empathy for your situation, it will help you let go of negative feelings," Martin says. "The process of speaking about your concerns and, even your sales struggles, will help you get ready to go out there again."

No. 5: Reach out beyond your network. Instead of relying on your usual go-to people, seek out a broader network. Talk to others about their business and your business, find out who they know and share your contacts, says Joanne S. Black, founder of No More Cold Calling, a San Francisco-based sales strategy consulting firm. "Entrepreneurs tend to retreat and that's mostly because you're wearing so many hats, from doing business development, working with clients, paying taxes and so much more. But, despite how busy you are, it's key to leverage your connections. You never know where you might find new customers."

No. 6: Borrow someone else's brain. Seek out sales strategies from another entrepreneur whose business is a bit further along in its sales growth. "Try to intuit how this other business might approach their sales challenges," Konrath says. "You can't look at Virgin Airlines or Donald Trump and ask how each would approach sales, but you can look at someone who is just a little ahead of you. By walking a mile in his or her shoes, you'll open up a whole new way of looking at things."

No. 7:  Take a break. If you've tried all these tips and still feel defeated, consider taking a time-out. "Most people think they should keep their nose to the grindstone, but that's not the best way to win your next customer," Martin says. "Prospective clients may be turned off if they sense that you're desperate." Martin's advice when your numbers are down: Take a mental health break that lasts a couple of hours or even a day. "That will help you to start fresh and project a successful image," he says. via entrepreneur.com

New Solutions to Attract and Retain More Customers

Jim Woods is president and founder of InnoThink Group. A leading Strategic Management and Innovation Consulting Firm located in Denver, Colorado. He is an author, speaker, and a strategic innovation and hypercompetition expert to profit, non-profit organizations and municipalities. He advises clients with an objective view of their competitive capabilities and defines a clear course of action to maximize their innovation return on investment to achieve profitable growth. Build a capability for ongoing competitive innovation across your company. Call 719-649-4118 or complete our form: contact us for more information on hiring Jim to advise or speak for your next event.