“You can analyse the past but you must design the future”
Edward deBono
Innovation is one of those blurry words: we intuitively have a feeling of what it is but we’re not able to tell what it exactly includes. Innovation therefore, is a lot of things to a lot of different people. It is confusing and organizations have a hard time to make the most out of innovation.
Traditionally, innovation is ‘something R&D or product development takes care of’, surrounding innovative people and companies with ‘glitz’.
This is an absolute misconception. We miss out on a lot of opportunities while putting full responsibility in the hands of a dedicated group of so called creative people.
Another misconception typical for this technology savvy time is to equal innovation with technology. A new mobile telephone taking pictures you can send instantly to friends and family, is perceived innovative. But how about a pair of socks?
Innovation can often seem well beyond the reach of ordinary businesses. Whole sectors of the economy that are built around research and development and that feed both corporations and the government with a never-ending stream of new products and services. You could get to thinking that there's another business planet out there, dynamic and innovative, inhabited by people who are constantly dreaming up (and patenting) new stuff. And you could get to feeling that it's too bad you don't live on that planet, that you're condemned to labor here on Earth, in the vineyards of the ordinary.
Meet Jim Throneburg. He makes socks. In the late 1970s, Throneburg noticed that Americans weren't buying just one pair of sneakers anymore; when their sport changed, so did their shoes. "If the shoe changed for function, I figured I needed to design a sock that complemented the shoe," he says. As it happened, Throneburg was able to draw upon his own experience at a weight-loss clinic. There his feet were expected to carry his six-foot-four-inch, 300-pound body over miles of walking trails. "My feet were killing me," he recalls. "So I called my R&D guys and said, 'Make me the thickest-soled sock you can possibly make.'"
"Everything that's not labor and material is R&D"
Jim Throneburg
Since then Throneburg has transformed his family's North Carolina hosiery company, Thorlo Inc., from a commodity business into what is arguably the most innovative sock manufacturer in the world. Throneburg harnessed Thorlo's existing capabilities, using technology he had perfected making padded socks for the military, and pumped millions of dollars into developing new yarns and designs. So far the company has created more than 25 varieties of sport-specific socks. "Everything that's not labor and material is R&D as far as I'm concerned," he says.
The "R" in Thorlo's R&D happens not so much within its Statesville, N.C., mill but wherever foot meets sock meets shoe, which is to say in the realm of ordinary people with ordinary problems. A woman golfer once complained to Throneburg that her socks slipped down into her shoes; he developed a ladies' rolltop sock for golf and tennis. Recently, Throneburg received a heartfelt letter from a man with a rare condition that caused his feet to blister. Thorlo's socks helped him run a marathon, the man wrote - could Throneburg make socks for his young daughters, who had inherited the condition? "I forwarded the letter to product development," says Throneburg. "I might need to charge him $100 a dozen, and they'll cost me $1,000 to make. But hell, I might learn something." Throneburg's experience illustrates a couple of fundamental truths about innovation. It can happen anywhere, in any industry, and at any time. Throneburg is an innovator in the sock business.
Innovation happens everywhere where people interact, work, play, shop – live. It happens while observing people, while getting frustrated because something doesn’t work the way you would expect it to work. This is the bedrock of all innovation. Your best ideas you get when in crises situations because your creativity is being challenged.
Frustration must have been the motivating factor for Johan Vaaler to get his idea of the paperclip in 1899 (inventors.about.com).
In a world of decreasing to market times and product lifecycles it becomes important to ‘get it right the first time’
But having a brilliant idea alone doesn’t equal innovation. It is the process – from idea to solution – that comes closer to what we consider innovation. And in this process there’s a lot of ballast that is limiting our organizations’ ability to be innovative.
In a world of decreasing to market times and product lifecycles it becomes important to ‘get it right the first time’ and preferably not copy what competitors are doing already. Innovation, when used correctly, is a powerful tool to achieve this objective.