The concept is undoubtedly broad and multi-contextual, and when we talk about innovation we think of different things. In business activity, some of us aim at the advancement of technology, others draw attention to the aid that the Administration offers to research initiatives (R + D + I), there are also those who imagine professionals generating new ideas to impact on the market with a competitive advantage…, and of course there are also those who visualize the very novelties experienced in our time. Those who are already mature and apart from the professional career, we have witnessed the arrival of household appliances, shopping with a cart, payment by card, nuclear, solar and wind energy, personal computers, mobile phones…
This columnist remembers his childhood without television or heating, his summery daily task of going to buy the ice bar that had to be put in the fridge, the beds with box springs and a wool mattress, the trucks that were cranked up, the impact of penicillin and vaccines, the arrival of butane gas, that of large computers… In truth, the concepts of valuable novelty and progress merge, and in this regard things seem to go faster every day, a consequence of globalization, of the “ information society ”, the growing flow and value of knowledge, and the ease of communication.
In the company, innovation must be aimed, yes, at the operational processes, but also and of course at the products and services offered after the inexcusable objective of incorporating valuable and attractive novelties into the market.
These novelties are sometimes the result of orchestrated research and development (R&D) efforts, but they can also originate in the penetrating, critical, connective and creative thinking of some insightful individual; in the quantum leap that can be an accurate idea, driven or not by some subsidy or extrinsic motivation.
In 1997, we read in Fortune magazine: “Innovation is the singular characteristic that makes the best companies great. Companies that know how to innovate do not necessarily invest large sums in research and development; instead, they cultivate a new corporate style of conduct that admits new ideas, changes, risks and even mistakes ”. Ten years later, the message still seems to hold true: The results can be spectacular when we engage in thoughtful and thoughtful thinking, and deploy valuable connections and abstractions.
Even when we talk about innovations that appeared as the fruit of chance - velcro, Teflon, X-rays, penicillin, aspirin, the Walkman, vulcanized rubber, the stethoscope, the microwave oven and some sweeteners, among many other examples. - it is clear that it took a shrewd and intuitive mind to see the implications, the possibilities, the applications.
There are, yes, especially significant stories; interesting experiences pointing to the key element of the knowledge economy: innovation. Often the economic means highlight our failure in this subject, but, counting on the will to do so, can we learn to innovate? The reader will think that we should first learn to learn; that, before adding newness, we would have to know well what already exists… But yes: in search of the approved in this subject, we can also learn to innovate, and even do it in a pleasant and effective way, for example by studying real cases and sobering.
Have you analyzed the profiles of the most creative people? What do you think, for example, of Genrich Altshuller's capacity for abstraction in the well-known TRIZ method of creative problem solving? Do you remember how Loewi discovered the first neurotransmitter, acetylcholine, or how, for example, vaccines came about? Are you aware of the role of intuition, sometimes also in the form of revealing dreams, in numerous technical and scientific advances? Who and how established the elliptical trajectory of the planets around the Sun? What force leads scientists to choose the correct hypothesis?
In business management and as a reference, hit cases (such as Sony's Walkman) and wrong cases (such as New Coke, Coca Cola) are used from which we can all learn. Indeed, in the emerging economy of knowledge and innovation, we should perhaps direct the search for references, examples and instructive cases more specifically towards what is related - "Lessons in innovation", we have titled these pages - with the advancement of knowledge in each technical and scientific field, that is to say, towards the most united to the inexcusable innovation in processes, products and services, for the benefit of competitiveness.
Storytelling
We would have to carefully select the references to analyze, and get the most out of them. We liked to be told stories as children, and listening was an autotelic activity: we did not feel obliged to learn consciously, but we had fun. I still remember the stories that, in summer, the Salesian religious Antonio Sánchez Romo told us (almost 50 years ago) at the María Auxiliadora school in Madrid. Now, as adults and professionals forced to continually learn, we can focus our attention on an ideal story, but we need to draw valuable conclusions that nurture our development and enlighten us in professional performance.
Without ruling out "oral entertainment for select audiences", which is how one of the agencies of speakers and lecturers identifies your business, I would also speak of the need for "oral training for all audiences (interested)", and of course for "learners permanent, ”which is what all of us are in today's economy. Acroamatic teaching is powerful as a method, but learning is extracted from the content and, for this, the method does not seem much more than an enriching support.
Of course, by displaying a sobering experience, the storyteller can, consciously or unconsciously, reformulate or synthesize the facts so that they better fit the intended purpose; but, if it is straight and not spurious, the teaching is strengthened. More so if, in an ideal setting (a seminar or workshop), the teacher uses maieutic techniques that facilitate learning.
From the learning perspective, that of the lifelong learner -lifelong learner-, I believe that, when analyzing curious and valuable stories, we all have to do so by penetrating into the most significant and instructive details. Among other purposes, on the one hand we can identify the faculties and strengths that characterize the innovator in each professional scenario, and perhaps better focus our development efforts; and on the other hand, we can become aware of how the fields of knowledge are related or connected, of how experimentation ends up generating results, of how resistance must often be overcome and suitable support is required, and so on.
Some stories
I bring you some stories. It is not a neutral sample but one endowed with purpose, but with good intentions: to recover an intrinsic meaning for the concept of innovation, to highlight the most characteristic features of the innovator, and to point out other appropriate considerations. Yes, I bring you some very synthesized stories, to which I have attached my own conclusions that I submit to your acquiescence or reformulation: do your own reading. In the former cases, we will observe innovative entrepreneurs, and the greatness of entrepreneurial individuals must certainly be recognized; but later we will also see that the initiative or finding can arise from a professional expert in the performance of their tasks, and even in leisure time. And we will also remember some mistake or failure in the innovative initiative,including a Spanish case.
McDonald's hamburgers
It all started in 1954, when Raymond Kroc sold 8 mixers to a singular restaurant that was highly successful for its efficiency and speed: that of the Dick and Mac McDonald brothers in San Bernardino (California). If there were many restaurants like this, he thought, it would sell a lot of mixers. And he soon stopped thinking about mixers to the idea of franchises: he reached an agreement with the brothers, and in 1955 he opened a similar restaurant in Des Plaines, Illinois, his home state. The business was working and in 1960 there were more than a hundred McDonald's restaurants, however Ray's disagreements with Dick and Mac -they seemed to slow down the chain's expansion- ended up being constant.
Thus, in 1961, the business was transferred, for which Ray Kroc paid - he went into debt to be able to do so - almost 3 million dollars. Dick and Mac had certainly been innovative, but they seemed to lack the healthy entrepreneurial ambition that Ray did possess. It was a risky decision for this legendary businessman, who confessed to having taken it after consulting his inner voice and rejecting the contrary criteria of his lawyers and advisers; but he was of course irrepressible convinced, and ready to carry out his vision. The McDonald's “one billion” hamburger (the American billion) arrived very early: in 1963.
Teachings:
- It is one thing to innovate, and another to undertake large projects. Sometimes and without looking for it, an entrepreneur finds the novelty and is the first to bet intimately and strongly on it. There are very difficult decisions that demand the help of genuine intuition. The market always seems ready to celebrate the valuable novelty.
There are really strong expectations hidden in customers or consumers, and we do not always see their size, nor are we willing to take too many risks. In the following example I will insist on this, but in this case I would add that Ray Kroc's solid conviction reminds us of the equally tenacious and intuitive of scientists determined to follow a certain direction in their research.
The Sony Walkman
The Walkman was born almost 30 years ago, as a result of the creative desire and intuition of Masaru Ibuka, with the support of Akio Morita, both founders of Sony. After the company commercialized a small monaural recorder for journalists (the "Pressman"), they tried to make it stereophonic; By incorporating the new circuitry, there was no room left in the device for the recording function, so the result was a portable audio tape player, requiring external headphones. The engineers considered the project a failure, although they used the prototype in the laboratory to listen to music.
Ibuka, now as honorary president but attentive to the progress of things, listened to it casually and immediately imagined young people walking or cycling, listening to music with the new player and without disturbing anyone; This is how he exposed it to Morita, who then ran the company, and Morita decided to manufacture it despite the unfavorable reports and skepticism of his collaborators. In July 1979, 30,000 units were put on the market, which were sold in just two months. Ten years later, 50 million units had been sold; in 1992 the figure of 100 million was reached; in 1995, the 150 million… Ibuka was very sure that it would sell: what he surely could not imagine was the size of the success.
Teachings:
- Intuition follows intention and attention and does not help all individuals equally. Certainly, chance seems to be behind many innovations. The innovator must have power or support to materialize his conviction. The market is indeed receptive to useful novelty; he is grateful and even enthusiastic.
The reader can draw some other conclusion, more easily if he is interested in the whole story; But the fact is that the legendary Ibuka is remembered, among other powerful reasons, for his peculiar business insight. He did not seek to earn money as an end, but as a consequence; as a result of having put attractive products on the market for its customers.
SuperGlue glue
Harry Coover worked for Eastman Kodak during World War II, trying to create highly transparent synthetic sights for rifles; It thus reached cyanoacrylate, which it dismissed as sticky. Years later, in 1951 and working with his colleague Fred Joyner, he came across this substance again while looking for an alternative to the glass used in aircraft cabins. Then, when placing a cyanoacrylate film between two prisms of a refractometer, they observed with some compunction that they were stuck together, and that they had rendered useless an expensive laboratory apparatus…
But it was not long before they realized that they had also come across a highly effective adhesive: that's how cyanoacrylate glues, such as SuperGlue, were born. It seems that this substance was used in Vietnam, with great efficiency, to close wounds of the combatants (although it caused skin irritations). There was no technical explanation for the adhesive phenomenon at the time, but the effectiveness of this polymer was well visible.
Teachings:
- Something new, even if it does not serve the intended purpose, could be useful for other purposes. If we meet again with a phenomenon, perhaps it is because it has something to tell us. It may be worth experimenting, even if you don't have a specific purpose. The fields of knowledge of the different sectors of activity touch or overlap.
All these conclusions come to us better if we visualize them in a specific case, and this of the cyanoacrylate is revealing. We have to broaden our horizons and notice connections - in this case that of optics, the glue industry and healthcare practice - sometimes hidden. In the following example we will see that the phenomena are tenacious, and someone, with enough sagacity, ends up detecting some valuable connection.
The microwave Owen
In 1946, a self-taught Raytheon company technician, Percy Spencer, was participating in tests with a high-frequency wave generator (magnetron), when he observed that a chocolate bar in the pocket of his coat melted; To confirm that it was a wave effect, he placed some corn kernels in the radiated area and the popcorn actually emerged. It is said that he also experimented with an egg, which burst as a result of the heat generated inside it. Apparently other engineers had detected the heat generation without thinking of possible applications, but Spencer had the curiosity, the perspective, the intuition to link the event to the food stew.
Although initially the ovens were large and expensive, in the 70s units were already being sold for domestic use. Not that they were very successful at first, but the concept of quick cooking was born, and it would prove irreversible despite suspicions about harmful (carcinogenic) effects of radiation. Certainly it can be spoken by chance thinking of Spencer's chocolate bar, but at the same time of the solid and sudden conviction of this: that could and should be applied in the kitchen.
Teachings:
- Self-teaching seems to work miracles: surely because it implies tenacity, a willingness to learn. Technological advancement may hide many other surprises and that they are eluding us. It is worth emphasizing the connection between the fields (in this case, microwaves and food stew). There are indeed sagacious individuals who immediately visualize the applications of their discoveries.
We have to value these teachings in all their meaning and I fear, for example, that being self-taught seems an exception; also that companies are not catalyzing the serendipity (sagacity in the face of significant casual events) of their workers, sometimes reduced to submissive employees and stifled their initiative.
Velcro
It seems that, in the early 1940s, the Swiss electrical engineer George de Mestral (1907-1990) used to walk with his dog in the mountains near Lausanne, returning with the Alpine thistle flowers strongly adhering to his pants and the hair of your dog: an experience to which we are probably not strangers. The little flowers were laborious to unhook, and Mestral ended up taking some under the microscope: he wanted to know more about it. In this way he observed small hooks that acted as hooks, and he thought that this could have multiple applications.
He spent some time of study and testing until, already in the 50s, he patented the Velcro closure system (the name was formed from velor + crochet), which consisted of the two strips that we know: one with loops and the other with hooks. And it would take still more years to achieve a solid commercialization of the product, which soon found applications in different fields: the textile industry, footwear, upholstery, decoration… Astronauts have also benefited from the invention.
Teachings:
- Piercing, connective, and creative thinking is not limited to the discipline one tackled in college. Sometimes a good dose of perseverance or tenacity has to be displayed, for which full confidence in the corresponding project is required. Nature offers us as a source of inspiration to find valuable solutions. Sometimes, to think better, to be more receptive and sharp, you have to go for a walk.
Fifty years later, Velcro products are manufactured in the United States, China, Canada, Australia, Mexico and different European countries, including Spain (in Argentina, Barcelona) and they are familiar to all of us; but in truth it was necessary to have a suitable mind, like that of George de Mestral.
Neurotransmitters
Near dawn on a spring night in 1921, the German physiologist Otto Loewi (1873-1961) woke up disturbed from a dream, with an intuitive revelation that he wrote down on paper; then he fell asleep again, but in the morning he was unable to decipher what he had written and spent the whole day restless, trying. The next night he woke up at about 3 o'clock with the answer, and Loewi immediately got out of bed to rush to his laboratory and perform a curious experiment.
He set out to apply current to the vagus nerve in the heart of one frog, connected by saline fluid to the heart of another; In doing so, he verified that the effect produced in the first heart (slowing down of the heartbeat) was reproduced shortly after in the other, that is, that the nerve impulse was transmitted through the fluid by means of a chemical substance, which he then called "vagusstoff ”(Identified in 1926 as acetylcholine, the first known neurotransmitter).
Teachings:
- Focused on a problem, sooner or later the intuition launches a revealing message to the conscience. Intuitive messages are sometimes encrypted, incomplete, fleeting, and conscious reason must be attentive and do its job. The initiatives that reason would reject find a channel in the unconscious, however, during intuitive incubation. Sometimes dreams are meaningful.
Surely all of us are far from the scientific endeavor of this Nobel Prize (1936), but we can focus on problems, challenges and challenges, and receive help from intuition, which can appear at any time of the night or day.
Jenner's vaccine
The English doctor Edward Jenner heard (18th century) say to a milkmaid that she would not get smallpox because she had already had that of cows (indeed, here the coincidence had already been detected by the people). He dedicated himself to researching it, until he realized that people contaminated by cow pox when milking cows did not later contract smallpox: a disease that at that time killed millions of people every year. Without a doubt, the path of this doctor could have been very different, had he not listened to that milkmaid.
On May 14, 1796, a child was inoculated by Jenner with a discharge collected from the wound that a contaminated woman had on one hand; the corresponding infection disappeared in a short time and the boy, James Phipps - already "vaccinated" - was inoculated again in July, now with a sample from a person with smallpox: James was not infected. Despite criticism from the establishment, the smallpox vaccine soon spread throughout Europe and America. This experience later served as a reference to Pasteur and other researchers.
Teachings:
- There are significant facts waiting for someone to give them their meaning. Some people take on big challenges, focus their attention, and achieve their goals. The novelties often face great obstacles and resistance, even from the establishment itself. Some innovations trigger others.
Indeed, some people identify with their professional activity and dedicate their lives to it, so to speak; We are indebted to many of these people, whose contribution to society has been truly momentous. But it is also worth emphasizing the resistance that innovators often face, and here we also recall, for example, the determination of the Catholic hierarchy to defend, in the seventeenth century, the geocentric model against the advancement of astronomy.
La New Coke, by Coca Cola
In the early 1980s and after successful advertising campaigns, Pepsi was threateningly approaching the sales of Coca Cola, whose executive president, Roberto Goizueta, seemed to think that "to great evils, great remedies." New Coke, a new formula for the famous soft drink, hit the market in April 1985 accompanied by a great deal of corporate pride: the new drink had beaten Pepsi in blind tests. One of Goizueta's statements is particularly striking: "It is the safest decision ever made by the company." As is well known, the initiative was, however, a complete failure, although the strength of the company allowed it to fit in and quickly overcome it.
In the appearance of this new soft drink, rational arguments were left over, but intuition was lacking; All the tests showed that the new formula for Coca Cola would end the competition from Pepsi, but apparently no one with a sufficient voice could warn that the drink was an untouchable icon for American consumers. The rejection was, in effect, unanimous, and a few months later the classic formula had to be put on the market again, which allowed the brand to regain its position of solid leadership. It is certainly possible to think that, faced with the anxiety to solve the problem and the forcefulness of the tests carried out, that plus of the deepest intelligence was lacking: the intuitive contribution.
Teachings:
- We often make wrong inferences (in this case, it was assumed that consumers were guided only by taste). Reactive decisions are probably more careful than proactive ones (the obsession with defeating Pepsi could outweigh anything else). Premature euphoria, overconfidence, complacency, and other weaknesses don't usually spell success. It is convenient to leave room for intuition, give it a chance to manifest itself, not close its ears.
Indeed, you learn from successes and failures. This story seems especially instructive in terms of perception of realities and generation of inferences, but it should also be highlighted the fact that, by reacting against something that worries us, we could narrow the panorama of our attention. The government of attention is one of the greatest challenges in displaying mastery of ourselves. It must be added, of course, that Coca Cola is a great innovative company, which can afford some mistakes.
The case of Fycsa, in Spain
In 2000, a Spanish consulting firm, Fycsa, made a special commitment to a learning modality, the so-called e-learning, which seemed like a revolutionary advance in continuous training. Its executives, associated with the businessman Javier Vega de Seoane and the consulting firm Gestlink, staged a “management buy out” to leave the Alcatel group and take advantage of the opportunity that e-learning represented in the training consulting sector. The CEO, José Ignacio Díez, declared in 2001 that in a couple of years they would go from billing around 7 million euros to quadrupling sales as a result of the growth of e-learning (which seemed to come to replace the traditional face-to-face training). The press releases announced a turnover of 30 million euros in 2003,most of it in e-learning activities.
At that time, large companies deployed their course platforms "online", but users did not seem satisfied with the quality of the courses offered - soon there was talk of "little significant learning" - and the spectacular growth expected did not materialize. The Fycsa group had to reduce its workforce and in 2002, although it exhibited prosperity, it reached 1,600,000 euros in losses (the consultancy was already chaired by Miguel Canalejo, the same one who had sold it two years earlier, being president of Alcatel Spain). In 2003, a total turnover of 6 million euros was achieved, only one fifth of what had been foreseen and announced by José Ignacio Díez; what was left of the company was absorbed a couple of years later by another business initiative (Élogos).
Teachings:
- Beyond incorporating the new features that appear, each company should actively contribute to innovation and try to be “unique.” Novelty does not predict success by itself, but by counting on customer satisfaction. There are businesses in which the users of the products and services do not pay for them, but their satisfaction also counts. The boasting of future achievements, consequence or not of the innovations offered, does not seem to attract success but perhaps to scare them away.
The subject, by the way, of the display of future achievements, sustained in changes and innovations introduced in the company, is interesting and instructive, and I also remember (2004) the case of the group of Bodegas Vinartis, also chaired by Miguel Canalejo; but I will avoid digression. It would be necessary to distinguish between, on the one hand, incorporating the innovations that have already appeared and, on the other, generating them and trying to create a kind of temporary monopoly, as Jonas Ridderstrale pointed out.
Final comments
After these examples of stories and conclusions, I would like to emphasize that we can learn a lot from everything: from both successes and failures; and also insist that the field of scientific research is significant as a reference, if we consider that the economy of knowledge and innovation often turns each professional into a kind of micro R&D center.
I have wanted to draw the reader's attention to some of the most intrinsic aspects of innovation, because I fear that certain meanings may be distorting in business language, and even in the everyday language of citizens. For example, sometimes we merge or confuse the Information Society with the Information Society, knowledge with information, originality with creativity, innovation with the incorporation of technical progress and even with “changes”, the continents with the contents, the appearances with the realities, the ends with the means…
I would really like to remind you that innovation is more than just the incorporation of information and communication technologies (ICT), and other specific technologies, and that, while continuing to be done by bold entrepreneurs and managers, it often passes through the creativity of expert workers especially identified with their profession. Indeed, in addition to having the initiatives and ideas of innovative entrepreneurs, as well as those of managers of different functions, it must be emphasized that new knowledge workers, permanent learners in their technical areas, insightful and creative, can make important contributions in ad hoc functional environments that, far from stifling or hindering, are catalysts.
But as we know there is, within the collective of expert knowledge workers (knowledge workers), a fundamental variant that deserves a specific label: thinking workers. These are those more specifically dedicated to innovation; of those who get the most out of their connective, analogical, reflective, conceptual, analytical, inferential, synthetic, systemic, abstractive, divergent, critical thinking (other than criticality), etc. Almost all of us think little and badly, and we also make little use of genuine intuition that, forming a synergistic tandem with reason, nurtures individual and collective competitiveness. Indeed, within the so-called knowledge workers, some dedicate themselves, partially or totally, to eagerly pursuing the valuable novelty.
How to get expert workers to put their best skills and strengths at the service of innovation? Undoubtedly, they must be directed in a special way, and in this regard it may not be a good idea to insist on leadership models that seem more like following. Fortunately, the most intelligent companies know how to manage professionals in the economy of knowledge and innovation, and avoid considering them mere followers, subordinates, collaborators or resources; instead, they are perceived as professionals who are a valuable asset to the organization.
