"Innovation is the ability to see change as an opportunity, not a threat."

— Steve Jobs

 

Innovation as a business concept is an enigma. It's somehow obvious and easy to understand, while also being incredibly complex and difficult to implement. At its core, it's about nothing more than seeing change positively, and working hard to implement that change. Getting there, though, is far easier said than done.

 

We now know Steve Jobs as one of the greatest innovators in the world of technology and consumer products. Back in the 1970s, though, he was just a college dropout traveling through India to study Zen Buddhism. He got to the iconic status he still holds after his death today through one quality above all: a relentless drive towards innovation. Through his journey, we can better understand how every business can accomplish innovation in its own environment.

 

Lesson 1: Think Outside the Box

Think different. The marketing slogan that came to represent Apple in the 1990s might as well be Jobs' life philosophy, and embodies our first lesson. If staying on top of your industry could be accomplished through incremental change, Kodak would still lead the camera market and Nokia would still dominate global smartphone sales.

 

Instead, the road to both industries now leads through Apple's iPhone. That's because Jobs established a culture of never being satisfied with the status quo, looking to constantly re-imagine and reinvent its own industry. An ability to think beyond established norms remains crucial to any innovation effort.

 

Lesson 2: Move Away From Your Competition

In the 1970s and 1980s, the computing industry consisted largely of text-based displays and calculations, leading to incremental changes. Then came Apple Lisa, essentially a prototype that led to the first Macintosh in 1984—the first personal computer with a graphic user interface and mouse-based navigation. Just like that, the PC industry changed forever.

 

Compare that to Microsoft, whose response to the now-iconic iPod was just a tweaked version of it, the Zune. Once hailed as an iPod killer, the Zune ranks as one of the biggest technology failures of the 21st century. 

 

The lesson: move beyond your competition. Rather than simply improving on their innovations, start something entirely new. Your chances of failure might be higher, but the chances of success will be well worth that risk.

 

Lesson 3: Look Outside Your Industry

It's not just about going beyond the competition, either. When Apple developed its iPod, it famously didn't set out create a technology gadget. It created a lifestyle product, with everything from development to marketing focusing more on the intangible user benefits than physical product features.

 

To accomplish that feat, Jobs and his team looked beyond the MP3 player industry. Instead, they gained inspiration from the simplicity of Japanese culture. It's no coincidence that the first generation of iPods and their headphones were all white, symbolizing purity in Western culture. 

 

The lesson, once again, is simple: ideas can come from anywhere. The best innovators look beyond their industry, finding relevant ideas from unexpected sources and applying them to their own market and audience.

 

Innovation as a Strategic, Intentional Process

"Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn't matter to me. Going to bed at night thinking we've done something wonderful, that's what matters to me."

 — Steve Jobs

 

In short, innovation needs to encourage unconventional thinking, including the ability to look beyond your competition and outside your industry.

Above all, though, the lesson learned from one of the most iconic innovators of the past century is simple: to be successful, innovation has to be a deliberate strategic process that’s followed. Not something accidental.

At our agency, our innovation formula is The Client Stampede Marketing Formula. It doesn’t matter whether you do one step, or all seven of the formula - your business will innovate faster than ever before when you apply this formula to your business (discussed in Julie Guest’s new book, The Client Stampede.)

Does your business have it’s own innovation formula? Do you hire in fresh innovative thinking from outside consultants? Do you reward employees for bringing big ideas? There are hundreds of ways to make innovation a core competency in your business. Start with these ideas and you’ll be well on your way!