Immigration and Business Growth

Research has shown a strong linkage between business innovation, startups and immigration. This should be a key convergence of topics in our current political conversation.

A very thoughtful piece of research conducted by Jennifer Hunt for the National Bureau of Economic research in Cambridge, MA, suggests immigrants "who first entered on a student/trainee visa or a temporary work visa have a large advantage over natives in wages, patenting, commercializing or licensing patents, and publishing". http://www.nber.org/papers/w14920.pdf?new_window=1

As job growth in the US continues to stagnate, perhaps we should look to the dynamic of immigrant business growth influences, particularly related to new business startups, as we continue this critical political conversation.

Thinking Big

Recently I taught a course as part of the University of Georgia's Terry College of Business Executive Education program. The program "Creating the Strategic Mindset" was attended by 33 senior managers. Half of the participants were from NORINCO, the China North Industries Corporation (Chinese national companies) as part of a US Chamber of Commerce exchange initiative. 

My session was focused on Innovation Management for Business Growth, and during the session we conducted several small group activities. One such activity really opened my eyes!

I presented the small groups a photo of a very crowded (Rio I think) beach and asked them to study the photo and identify the human needs and desires represented in the photo (10 minutes). After Identifying the needs I asked the groups to brainstorm ideas for serving the needs and desires they had identified. Once they had brainstormed a list of ideas (10 minutes), I asked each team to derive a single idea and develop a concept, including illustrations, that represented their concept (20 minutes).

The groups had formed with native Chinese speakers (NORINCO) on two teams and native English speakers on the other three teams. The English speakers were all but one from the US (the other was from Canada).

The results were stunning! The native English speakers ideated on individual needs (food, drink, toilets, tracking individuals, etc.), while the NORINCO folks ideated on collective needs (total space, group dynamics, big picture foci, etc.). The ideas presented by the native English speakers served individual needs (finding toilets, accessing food and drink, sun screen and shade), while the NORINCO ideas were massive.

One of the NORINCO ideas was to build a new beach (including stadium like dome to cover a big section of the beach on unpleasant days). This new beach would be exclusive (fee) and would start with parking away from the crowded beach and transport to the man-made beach by speed boat. Think Dubai.

The other NORINCO team came up with a similar idea in that they would provide a large ship (recycled Navy boat) that would leave a port and have sides/bays that would open when the ship was offshore and these bays would be small beaches; the idea went further to say an aircraft carrier would be ideal because the flat-top could be used for sun bathing and a music venue. The drawings were fantastic!

I report this only as a curiosity and ask if anyone has seen similar results? Is there research that explores this phenomenon? If so, let me know.   

The Need for "Future Perspective"

It seems every time I start a new engagement I find companies struggling with the same issues. One of the primary issues I find is the company’s lack of what I call “Future Perspective”, or how in tune the company is to the dynamics of the future, and how those dynamics can affect the company.

So many companies are heads down focused on the day to day operations, and how those will impact the next quarter’s bottom line. What companies need to do is to make exploring the future part of everyone’s job, ensuring new insights.

There are a few ways I have seen this successfully done.

BMW has created an “On Sight” facility at their R&D center where they invite futurists and trend spotters to report. These sessions include live presentations, science fair like demonstrations, podcasts, social networking opportunities and online discussion forums. Everyone is invited to participate in some form or another, and displays continue in the employee common areas and cafeterias. It doesn’t take a lot of time out of people’s day and creates a sense of community focus on important areas.

Whirlpool has developed a set of design challenges that enable teams to think about key challenges presented by the innovation organization. Employees are encouraged to form solution teams to develop ideas to address the challenges, reporting their ideas for review, evaluation and reward. Included in these challenges are specific demographic trends and future scenarios the teams must understand. It keeps folks tuned into the future in a fun and applied way.

Regardless of approach, you should ensure a future perspective in your organization to ensure your ability to achieve your growth challenges.

To learn more about approaches and tools, visit our website, www.launchinstitute.com.

     

"The Creative Monopoly"

In David Brooks most recent NY Times Editorial, "The Creative Monopoly", he defines the constraints of "competitive" innovation and makes a case for Creative Monopolies. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/24/opinion/brooks-the-creative-monopoly.html

His assertion is that if we are only competing then our ideas will be incremental at best and if we look to create that that has not to date been created (monopolies in this sense) we can define new areas of value and achieve higher margins and more profitability.

I could not agree with Brooks more. In my work I make a distinction between Incremental Innovation (staying ahead of the competition), Differentiating Innovation (distinguishing yourself from the competition) and Game Changing Innovation (creating new platforms for competition).

But what we have come to know is that each form of innovation requires a different set of circumstances and conditions (level of corporate ambition/fear, leadership, tools/techniques, skills/capabilities and culture). A company that is focused on efficiency and is very inwardly oriented will have little chance to develop Creative Monopolies. Also, a company that is satisfied with marginal growth will kill Game Changing ideas.

This is why I feel it is very important for an organization to have defined its level of Innovation Ambition and made it clear to those involved in this work. A way to do this is to: 1. Define for your company the levels of innovation, 2. Set targets for each category (i.e., what percentage of your innovation budget will be spent in each level), 3. Give individuals the skills and tools they need to accomplish the goals in each level (i.e., the skills and tools needed for Incremental Innovation are not sufficient for Game Changing Innovation or Creative Monopoly development which will require much more customer centric and empathic research techniques.

I like the distinction Brooks makes; I just don't think most mature companies have the where with all to explore "Creative Monopolies".   

A Failure to Innovate

In the coming months I will be developing my thoughts on a topic that has been rattling around in my brain for some time now; our failure to innovate. Economic stagnation has made apparent the many forces that influence abilities for companies to innovate and from those innovations to grow. These forces, unless addressed, will continue to influence our ability to grow economically.
To start, I am researching historical periods of business growth, and correlating that growth to forces that supported innovation during those times. At the same time, I am looking at periods of economic stagnation, and identifying forces that hindered growth, using this perspective to understand our current economic state.
Among the influencing forces I have currently identified I include the elements of what I call “Growth Ecosystems”, including the concept of “Econo-Diversity”, the power of leveraged capital, the influence of corporate ambition, and the counter-innovative forces of the efficiency programs corporations have embraced.
Finally, I will identify necessary changes that can be made to set things right by addressing our Growth Ecosystem, including the need to balance public/private partnerships, get serious about education, and the need to reorient corporate ambition.
As I take this journey I ask for your thoughts and input. Understand, although I am digging deep into these issues, I am using this blog to post doughy ideas, play devil’s advocate, and occasionally state un-truths that will help to challenge my operating assumptions.
Thanks for your time.

Steve's passing...

Wow. It has been an intense week. The great one is gone but leaves a legacy of incredible achievements.

I attended an impromtu memorial service in Palo Alto the other day and I must say in addition to the achievements specific to Apple, Jobs influenced an entire generation of innovators; from technology to consumer products to healthcare. There really was no industry his ideas did not touch. If we look at the total economic influence of Jobs it must multiply the capitalization of Apple geometrically.

A sign of a great innovator is the number of others he or she influences. Jobs to date is the greatest. He will be missed but his legacy will live on forever.

User Experience: Sourcing Insights

I have written a number of times about the importance of understanding user or customer needs and desires. We have become very adept at applying a variety of tools to source new insights that might lead us to identify new product, service and business model opportunities, utilizing a toolset that includes quantitative and qualitative techniques.

It is exciting to see how different industries are applying this toolset, and this now includes the Healthcare Industry. Witness the conference being sponsored by the Cleveland Clinic this month, Patient Experience Empathy/Innovation Summit:
http://www.clevelandclinic.org/collective/default.htm

This Summit (in partnership with GE Healthcare) will focus on how organizations are better understanding the needs and desires of patients. It is being spearheaded by Cleveland Clinic's Office of Patient Experience's Director, Dr. Jim Merlino. Jim is not only head of the Office of Patient Experience, he is a surgeon.

It will be interesting to understand what tools and techniques the participants at the Summit are applying. Look for a live blog from the Summit and a future post from me that will highlight the Summit and my key Summit insights!