Home 禄 Opinion 禄 Foreign Views
Innovation can mean 鈥榩ermission to experiment鈥
Print Edition
In the popular imagination, the phrase 鈥渄isruptive innovation鈥 is so closely linked with Silicon Valley that it鈥檚 tempting to think non-IT companies have stood still since the 1990s. Some people tell me the last time a consumer products company generated worldwide buzz with a 鈥渄isruptive鈥 new offering was when Coca-Cola introduced 鈥淣ew Coke鈥 in 1985 鈥 a failure of epic proportions.
Yet, far from eschewing innovation today, Coca-Cola is today a hotbed of experimentation and using the power of design-thinking techniques to drive growth for the business.
Since 1992, one of the creative forces driving this innovation was Guy Wollaert, an architect by training, who was Coca-Cola鈥檚 chief technical and innovation officer until he left the company earlier in March last year.
For Wollaert, an innovation doesn鈥檛 have to be disruptive or headline-grabbing. It must simply create new value. 鈥淚t can be an invention or a piece of technology,鈥 he says.
Coca-Cola鈥檚 Freestyle mobile app is a more recent innovation 鈥 and one with more sex appeal. There are already more than 20,000 machines in U.S. quick-service restaurants. Typically, you get four choices at a self-service drink dispenser: Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite and Fanta ... Freestyle is a new interactive platform where consumers, on an iPad-like screen, choose combinations and can have 120 different combinations 鈥 totally personalized, all coming out of the same spout. It鈥檚 revolutionizing the whole quick-service-restaurant beverage experience. In Wollaert鈥檚 view, if necessity is the mother of invention, experimentation is the father.
First, it鈥檚 giving people, associates at all levels, the permission to explore, the permission to experiment, the permission to challenge the status quo, and the permission even to fail. That鈥檚 how you, inside-in, can change the mindset and the culture over time 鈥 if leadership clearly creates the space for people to experiment and, yes, to fail. Fail cheap and fast if you have to fail, but fail.
Second, innovation is about connecting dots externally, not just internally.
And then there鈥檚 a third dimension of how you activate innovation, which is outside-in. You don鈥檛 really know what you want because it may be so far from your core business, but you know there鈥檚 so much happening out there that you want to plug in and explore and connect (expand your ecosystem) and find things you can bring back to create new value for the organization.
A key source of external talent is Coca-Cola鈥檚 customers. One lesson of the New Coke fiasco is that consumers have very proprietary feelings about the brand. Wollaert is a big fan of social media because it allows the company to work with consumers as virtual lab partners. Today, companies that provide services and products in the marketplace are incredibly privileged versus previous generations, because there are all these social media platforms you can tap into directly and get instant feedback. You can co-create new services and products. That is an incredible privilege that companies have today 鈥 to speed up the times and test things together with customers and consumers, like never before.
In other words, consumer input tends to generate incremental innovation, not disruptive innovation. So while customer engagement is important, companies must rely on their own personnel, as well as outside experts, to generate big breakthroughs.
Cyril Bouquet is Professor of Strategy at IMD. Shanghai Daily condensed the article.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 娌狪CP璇侊細娌狪CP澶05050403鍙-1
- |
- 浜掕仈缃戞柊闂讳俊鎭湇鍔¤鍙瘉锛31120180004
- |
- 缃戠粶瑙嗗惉璁稿彲璇侊細0909346
- |
- 骞挎挱鐢佃鑺傜洰鍒朵綔璁稿彲璇侊細娌瓧绗354鍙
- |
- 澧炲肩數淇′笟鍔＄粡钀ヨ鍙瘉锛氭勃B2-20120012
Copyright 漏 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
