Q & A with Andrew Jones, author of the Innovation Acid Test
Because cheap capital is no longer freely available, companies’ ability to grow through acquisition has been significantly limited. Thus, for firms to grow in the current environment they need to grow internally, i.e. organically. Innovation (and new business creation) is the most reliable form of organic growth.
2. What is design thinking and why does it help companies become innovative?
Design thinking is the belief that there are usually multiple ways to solve a problem or generate useful solutions, and that to explore the largest range of possibilities, one should use a ‘design methodology’: Observational research, brainstorming, rapid prototyping, implementation, seek user feedback, iterate again. Design thinking helps inculcate design methodologies, which are the actual practices that lead to innovation.
3. Even when companies know that becoming people focused helps innovation and pushes up profits they still seem very resistant to doing it. Why do you think this is?
Because the first step in building an innovative culture is to radically decentralize most decision making opportunities. This immediately removes most power, and control, from those most used to possessing it. I think some firms would rather be slower, less responsive and less profitable than experience a re-shuffling of a sense of order, place, and control.
4. What do you say to managers who say ‘innovation is for the big boys with big budgets, we’re only small, we’re not Google and we can’t afford it’?
The world is full of excuse makers, and you can’t make anyone do anything without holding a gun in your hand. The question is rather simple: Do you trust your employees to generate new things, or do you simply want them to do what you tell them? If it is the latter…then look at your recruiting. It probably stinks.
5. Does every company really need to be innovative - what about the old adage ‘if it ain’t broke…’?
To my earlier point, no company has to do anything. It should not be lost that innovation, for those companies that engage it, is also a great HR strategy in terms of providing a place that people want to be and that challenges them. Larry Page says of Google that their most innovative act yet is the culture they have built, and the HR policies that come from that.
6. Do you think the need for innovation is a global business imperative, or is it more relevant to companies in developed nations?
Because of the enormity of constraints that firms in developing nations face, the need for innovative solutions to existing problems and for strategic differentiation in developing markets is probably greater.
7. Can not-for profits and charities benefit from an innovative culture too?
Absolutely. At the end of the day, innovation is not about business and for-profit organizations, per se, it is just experimented more there. Innovative cultures are simply groups of people that are natural and adept at generating, prototyping, testing, and iterative with new things and new ways of doing things.
8. What three things can SMEs do to try and build an innovation culture?
9. What about the UK - do you think British business lags behind its American and European counterparts?
Not London, but probably the rest of the UK does lag a bit. The South of the UK is as dynamic an economic region as any in the world. The cultures of firms built up around design in London are awesome. Just look at Live/work, a service design firm. They are growing lights out, and part of this is due to the dynamism of London. Anything is possible in London, perhaps not so in Wigan. In the US, you also have great variability. Not much is happening in Iowa, for example, but San Francisco and Austin are on fire. The UK is limited in that there is only one London.
10. As an anthropologist do you think there are specific national cultures that naturally support innovative companies and others which impede it?
Yes. However, without some specific case to comment on I’d rather not trail off on wild generalizations.
11. What is the Innovation Acid Test?
It is an online, 20 question assessment that tests companies for the 5 axes of innovative effectiveness: 1. External Focus; 2. Up/Down Communication; 3. Constraint Management; 4. Collaboration; 5. Ideas-to-Action Mechanisms.
12. Of the FTSE 100 how many companies do you think would pass?
Maybe 5 or 6 if they were lucky.
13. How is the adoption of design thinking in traditionally ‘non-creative’ business affecting how design is taught?
This is a great question, and there is quite a discussion around it. There is now a growing emphasis on Design Thinking in design schools, to fuel the general corporate interest and appetite for design stuff, and less focus on the physical process of designing. Purist designers rather lament this, and complain loudly that D Schools are not cranking out the star designers they once did, but rather design generalists.
14. How does this affect the kind of services that design consultancies are offering?
This serves to broaden the range of services that design firms can offer. For example, IDEO now has practice areas in Healthcare (redesigning not only usability scenarios for hospitals, but also patient experience design and architecture, in Education, in culture transformation, as well as the traditional focus of the company to build new products for clients.
15. What is ethnography and how should companies put it into practice?
Ethnography is an anthropological field research method grounded in close observation and participation in the events of the field over a long period of time. As it relates to design and innovation, it is useful for companies to watch closely, and participate in, the actual usage of things in their naturally occurring contexts, rather than simply asking people what they think. What people say and what they do are often rather different, and ethnography can help ground companies’ knowledge of user needs by making this distinction clearly.
The Butcher
Leave a Reply