How Innovation can Solve the (Right) Problems
What is Innovation?
Definition of Innovation (noun) from the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary:
- The introduction of new things, ideas or ways of doing something.
- A new idea, way of doing something, etc. that has been introduced or discovered.
If you heard Innovation, what product do you have in mind that was the best result of it? When I asked my friends and colleagues, most of them answer Apple iPhone. I think everyone agreed that iPhone was one of the best product from Apple. It’s a total breakthrough Product when it was introduced in January 2007 by Steve Jobs.
While innovation brings tremendous benefits, it is not without its costs. Innovators often face financial, time, and resource constraints. The cost of innovation encompasses research and development, prototyping, experimentation, and implementation.
Innovation not necessarily need huge cost, a simple Innovation can also give a huge impact and benefit.
In the picture above is a urinal target, sometimes known by the specific types urinal fly or urinal bee, is an image or mark placed inside a urinal. Some people will probably asked “Why is a fly painted in the urinal?”. The answer is to encourage users to aim in a particular place so as to avoid messes and reduce cleaning costs.
In the early 1990s, Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport introduced pictures of flies to its men’s room urinals in an effort to reduce “spillage”, or the amount of urine which spills onto the floor and must then be cleaned. Their employees conducted trials to test how effective their etched images of flies were. The result was an 80% reduction in spillage, cutting cleaning costs by about 8%. From this example, we learn that Innovation doesn’t have to be a big. With a simple and low cost Innovation, it can also have a huge impact.
Types of Innovation to Solve the (Right) Problems
Innovation is about solving problems — and there are as many ways to innovate as there are different types of problems to solve. Leaders identify the right type of strategy to solve the right type of problem, just by asking two questions:
- How well we can define the problem?
- How well we can define the skill domain(s) needed to solve it?
Basic Research — Low Domain & Low Problem defined
The 1st type of Innovation is Basic Research, this is where both problem and domain are still low defined. In this type, below are the characteristics:
- Highly focus on Research & Development
- Deep knowledge in specialized area
- Usually it will create new problem solving technique or method
Example of Basic Research Innovation:
- Vaccine
- Drugs and Medicine
- Artificial Intelligence
Breakthrough Innovation — Low Domain & High Problem defined
The 2nd type of Innovation is Breakthrough Innovation. When we run into a well-defined problem that’s just really hard to solve, we need to explore unconventional skill domains. Open innovation strategies can be highly effective in this regard, because they help to expose the problem to diverse skill domains. In this type, below are the characteristics:
- Radical
- Often, it create totally new product
- Create new demands that did not exist before
Example of Breakthrough Innovation:
- iPod — Problem solved: Large song capacity, fit in pocket, long battery life, intuitive UI and navigation
- iPhone — Problem solved: Eliminating most physical hardware buttons and eschewing a stylus for its finger-friendly touch interface
- Instagram — Problem solved: Sharing and story telling through photo
Disruptive Innovation — High Domain & Low Problem defined
The 3rd type of Innovation is Disruptive Innovation. Disruptive Innovation can be drive because of technology shifts or other changes in industry. In this situation, what is normally considered best practices (listening to customers, investing in continuous improvement) can be lethal in some situations. When that happens, innovating your products won’t help, you have to innovate your business model. In this type, below are the characteristics:
- Solve unexplored customer problem
- Transform the market
- Create new segments
Example of Disruptive Innovation:
- Online Marketplace (Amazon, Shopee, Lazada, Tokopedia)
- Digital Camera
- On-demand Transportation Service (Uber, Grab, Gojek)
- On-demand Streaming (Netflix)
Sustaining Innovation — High Domain & High Problem defined
The 4th and the last type of Innovation is Sustaining Innovation. Most innovation happens here, because most of the time we are seeking to get better at what we’re already doing. We want to improve existing capabilities in existing markets, and we have a pretty clear idea of what problems need to be solved and what skill domains are required to solve them. In this type, below are the characteristics:
- Incremental and Iterative
- Continuous Improvement
- Sustain for competitive advantage
Example of Sustaining Innovation:197
- Regular release of new iPhone series
- Android versions (Donut, Eclair, Froyo, Gingerbread until the last version Vanilla Ice Cream)
- New features on Instagram (Filters, Boomerang, Stories, Live, Reels)
- Honda Civic generations (1st generation was launched in 1970s, while the latest generation is 11th generation that was launched in 2022)
Closing
Based on 4 types of Innovation that was described, you can choose which Innovation strategy that will solve the right problem by considering how well the problem and domain are defined.
If your innovation strategy is struggling or failing, consider whether it’s because you’ve locked yourself into a single approach. There are always new problems to solve. Learn to apply the strategy and solution that best fits your current problem.
Reference: https://hbr.org/2017/06/the-4-types-of-innovation-and-the-problems-they-solve
