Faster horses

Henry Ford supposedly made the statement, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” This quote conceals the challenge we all face seeking to discover how others see things beyond our own perspective. My interest in exploring the quote is further stimulated by my desire to understand what makes innovators tick and how do innovative companies succeed. 

Are innovators born with the intuitive sense of what to do and how to explore ideas?  Do we nurture innovation and the innovative process in schools through art, science, history and math? Are innovators more creative creatures than normal human beings?  What stimulates people and companies to be innovative?  Do we teach innovation in business or mentor people to be innovative? Why do some step out and become very innovative while others do not?  Do you meet a lot of innovators in your circle of friends?  Do you work with innovators or people you believe are innovative? What are the characteristics of someone who is innovative?  For that matter, what are the characteristics of a company or organization that is innovative? 

I believe everyone has the built-in ingredients to be an innovator. Many would argue with me on that point. My goal in writing this paper is to uncover and reinvigorate the innovator in all of us – to stimulate the discussion. We assume innovators are special people like Steve Jobs of Apple, Henry Ford of Ford Motor Company and Shigeru Miyamoto of Nintendo. They are special. They are people who have mastered the process of innovation and have learned how to stimulate companies and their employees to be innovative. I believe innovation is a process we all intuitively are born with, but often lose or regress as we are put through the socialized process of rearing, education, work and life in general.  The fun of exploring the unknown, the woods behind the yard or the other side of the tracks is often lost to the anxieties of 'what could happen?' or rules put in place to minimize risk of exposure to elements outside our control.

There are no real boundaries of markets hidden beyond the horizon. They are virtual and constantly evolving. Yet, that is not the main point of my focus for this article. It is not usually a single discovery or conclusion we patent, but an evolution of thinking. This is why it is so hard for patents to be processed and approved here in the United States or anywhere in the world. Where is original thought come from? How can we separate thoughts from the work of others?  Is not everything we do, based upon some work of someone who came before us?  It is hard to say. That is also why it can take years to originate and defend a set of patent claims.

Do we really understand the market (or what ever) feedback we solicit? Market research is spent to uncover implications following a more scientific and probing methodology. Engineering builds on the knowledge gained. We seek to understand the symptoms and root causes that create the circumstance of market opportunity. We often begin with assumptions. Then, we test our assumptions. And, we test the symptoms to determine the root causes or underlying explanation. Part of what separates innovations and innovators success I believe is how they address the root causes or symptoms of the problem by design.

Does the market or prospective consumers really understand the questions we ask? The Ford quote highlights how innovators seek to uncover perspectives on a problem or challenge. In Ford’s viewpoint, it was about the mode of transportation and going from A to B. Is there a better way than walking or riding a horse or carriage? Can we create something faster? Can we create something easier, less smelly and affordable? Can we create something that won’t die in the sunlight without water?

On first blush, Ford’s quote makes me think about how smart Ford must have been to see over the horizon to build the Model T. Ingenious is an understatement. The quote highlights how innovators everyday see things others do not see. And, how they build that vision, articulate it and get others to believe in it. Yet, I believe this is part myth or story. There is more to it.

Generally, we can say everyone is an innovator at some level. Whether we are trying to figure out how to build the next game box like the Wii by Nintendo, launching portable media players like the ipod by Apple, evolving book selling, distribution and reading though the Kindle by Amazon or we are coming up with a way to get our children to try new foods or eat their spinach, innovators seek to understand the underlying obstacles of a problem and experiment with possible approaches to solve them.

Some innovators are more persistent than others and will keep refining ideas until they reveal the potential or are consumed by it because it did not serve the consumer or the market. And, some dig deeper and wider. We question the status quo not just from a single point of view. We explore and characterize a perceived market, potential customer, unmet need or pain by developing a model from insights gained thru interactions over time.

I can also say it in another way. Innovators have honed a skill to walk in the shoes of their target consumer.  Empathy. We seek to discover or engineer a prospective product or service that could be developed, acquired or assembled. How do we teach this? How does this skill evolve from childhood and taught when we socialize thinking into do’s and don’ts? Why do some develop the orientation better than others, capitalizing on their ability to question without anxiety while others accept the status quo?

The utility of the product or service has to be great enough to justify its development, marketing and utilization. An innovative product could be a feature in a broader platform – like the car radio or electric windshield washers. The market also has to be large enough to offer the ROI. And, it is often weighed as part of a broader market basket, not just stand apart from what other products and services offered.

The GPS is an option on cars many have used, but eventually will be an expected built-in feature as the car platform continues to deliver more value. The GPS could also be acquired through Pep Boys or offered by cell phone carriers as a means for us to find where we are and where we want to go. The GPS, like all products evolves. It initially was the technology of connecting satellites, towers and standard protocols to convey global positioning to a moving device. It has evolved much more than that to include searching for gas stations, restaurants and movie theaters. These innovations all play out in the broader context of addressing segments and needs.

Another example is how a product requires or eliminates routine maintenance or gives us reminders. BMW builds-in annual check-up sensors and a user interface to remind drivers to change the oil, rotate tires and fill washer fluid. Microsoft Windows and other software systems monitor for updates and automatically install them with settings reflecting the permission of the computer user. Monetizing features, products and services is an example of the challenges facing innovators across all sectors today as evolution continues to march onward. Are the things we innovate part of a market basket or do they stand on their own? Are they not all part of the larger eco-system interlinked?

Products are often sold as part of something else - ingredients mixed like flour, yeast and water. The quality of all ingredients, when you come right down to it, is engineered to serve the consumer in a broader eco-system. Is the water filtered? Is the flour milled? Is the yeast active and dry? Rooted in thinking thru the interdependencies, drivers and value proposition are the expectation to justify consumption and use by someone directly of indirectly.

Obviously, everyone does not have the same insights, passions or dreams to develop an idea. I tend to have thousands of ideas a week. It is pretty hard to live and work with me - because people tell me that or I infer it because my attention moves around a lot. Whether the idea could be disruptive, ahead of its time or just an incremental step toward a larger movement is another aspect to consider when we look backward on history and ponder snapshots of time. I consider this a form of pattern recognition. And, I often struggle to explain it so that others can see what I see.

Sure is easy to repeat a quote that often projects the myth that innovators are smarter or wiser or luckier. I doubt Ford just asked one question - which is an oversimplification of the innovators approach. The innovator is inside us all and often has to be stimulated to come out. That is what Steve Jobs and others have learned how to do in their companies, creating new products which, on the surface seem risky for a company like Apple making easy to use computers. Just look at your own circumstances and think about what is around you, who is around you and ponder how you interact across time and space. Living is innovation every day. We seek to answer what we desire like what food or drink would satisfy hunger or thirst? We seek sleep and shelter. We seek comfort and safety.

Many are frightened to think they are innovators, for fear of failure or realization they don’t have the ability to think thru the circumstances. They are defeated before they even address their first challenge because they have been socialized by society, parents, schools and others to not challenge the status quo or to explore the conversation hidden by our natural tendencies. Some of us have trained ourselves to think differently, and thus we strive to innovate, driven by recognition and rewards for matching an unmet need at the right time, right place and with the an approach that can survive the economics driven by the natural utility we seek.

It is easy to take things out of context. We can dissect Ford’s quote into several questions and observations. One is that not everyone sees opportunities, circumstances, and obstacles the same. One that realizes innovation is a process over a long period of time and thought. One that innovation is just an element of human existence, or in a wider context, Darwin’s theory of evolution. It is not usually one question or one answer.

We live in a feature rich, product centric world that often tries to redefine the way we connect to the world. Tweeting, digg'ing, texting and social networking is changing the way we communicate from thoughtful plotting to instantaneous indulgence of too much information. But, let's not be fooled that the whole world is doing it. There are billions and billions of people still fighting to find a way of life. They spend 80% of their day seeking fresh drinking water and daily food. They don't live near a Seven Eleven or Wawa. And, it is daunting to think that my sheltered life, the luck of being born in the free world, in the United States, only further calls me to use my talents, brain and time on earth to be creative, expressive and of course innovate.

Thus, the push to find an opening, new ways to improve things, reflects the human side of reflection, inspiration and perseverance, like many others, never satisfied by the status quo. Whether for profit or for mutual improvement, we are physcially and metaphysically in motion all the time. It is not static. Thus, when others often tell me I keep changing, I have to draw on and reflect why it is so important to work with others to overcome sensitivity and discomfort as we work with moving targets all the time.

My passion is to innovate and to motivate others to innovate. And, I hope during my life I help those around me step beyond influences and experiences that inhibit their ability to contribute to the innovative process we all share.  Not all see it that way though.  Ideas are not good or bad, but have to be explored with discovery and probing.  Finally, I believe we are all innovators by design, and that questioning the status quo is the essence of the innovative process, to uncover assumptions and conclusions others leave us with when we consider past, current and future circumstances.