Article

The illogic of innovation

Why great ideas look obvious only in hindsight.

November 5, 2013 by Suzanne Cluckey — Owner, Suzanne Cluckey Communications

Termites and architecture. Bikinis and Burqas. Ice and hotel beds. Somewhere at the intersection of each of these pairs of things is a game-changing innovation. And it did not result from planning and strategy, says author, entrepreneur and challenger of conventional wisdom, Frans Johansson.

Johansson wrote "The Medici Effect," a bestselling book that laid bare assumptions about how great ideas happen, and its follow-up, "The Click Moment," which debunks the idea that a business can plan, strategize and analyze its way to success.

He also gave an eye-opening keynote speech on day one of BAI Retail Delivery this week in Denver, Colo. Johansson told the hundreds of bankers present that logic would not bring them the competitive edge that they and every other financial services provider on the planet are chasing.

"Every company calls logic their 'unique competitive advantage,'" Johansson said. And this very fact is what makes logic a dead end for innovation.

Johansson underscored this point with the example of Audi and Volvo. In many ways — quality, reliability, cost of ownership — the auto-makers were very much the same. But in two categories they were markedly different: Audi offered superior design and Volvo offered superior safety.

To strengthen their market position, each of the companies took the logical approach of addressing areas of perceived weakness. The result? Johansson didn't have to say a word; he just advanced to a slide of the brands' current models side by side. Except for the logo on the grill, the cars were practically indistinguishable.

Applying logic, the automakers had actually diminished their respective competitive advantages.

Johansson went on to deflate another commonly held assumption: "We tend to associate success with expertise," he said.

We look at athletes of the caliber of Tiger Woods or Serena Williams and the endless hours, days, years they put into perfecting their game — evoking the theory of "10,000 hours to mastery" advanced by Malcolm Gladwell (a day two keynote speaker, as it happens).

"There's a reason why it's ten thousand hours," Johansson said. "And that's because ten thousand hours is a lot."

But, he said, there's a fallacy to applying the theory to innovation: "For Serena Williams, the rules of the game never change," he said. But with innovation, the rules change constantly. Which is why it's impossible to anticipate and formulate.

How many trips did Netflix founder Reed Hastings have to make to the video store before deciding to create a less exasperating process for DVD rental? Not 10,000. How much airline-operating experience did Virgin Records impresario Richard Branson accumulate before launching Virgin Airlines? None.

Johansson also dismissed the notion that an idea had to be huge to be innovative. "How many people know that YouTube started out as a dating site?" he asked.

The initial idea had nothing to do with average people uploading their amateur videos of other average people attempting extremely stupid stunts, or watching a guy named Steve on a riding mower get arrested for DUI, or thousands upon thousands of videos of simply adorable kittens.

The multi-billion-dollar enterprise wasn't the result of strategy. It was the result of serendipity, Johansson said. "If you could have planned [that kind of success], why would you have started out with a dating site?" he asked. 

Though the purpose of strategy is not innovation, Johansson said, strategy does have its place in the process, "We need to know what we're trying to do while allowing serendipity to work," he said.

He gave examples of ways in which random connections had been invited into the workplace in simple (illogical) ways: mixing up the "cube farm" by breaking down departmentalization, maybe putting a computer programmer next to an accountant.

Of course, they hate it at first, Johansson said, but eventually they find themselves swapping knowledge and generating "click moments" when ideas fall into place.

This was a theory that video game company DICE put to the test in developing the very successful Mirror's Edge game (2.5 million copies sold), and the fantastically popular (and industry award-winning) Battlefield III.

Johansson said that businesses need to "staff for innovation," or simply "leverage existing diversity" within the organization in order to "find inspiration from fields and cultures other than your own."

"Surround yourself with the 'logical' people and you'll be doing exactly the same thing as your competitor."

Johansson said that a diversified team might get off to a slower start than a homogenous one, as they sort out roles and work styles. But they'll end up achieving much more over time:

"Open yourself up to inspiration from other areas and you set yourself up for success."

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photo: quacktaculous

About Suzanne Cluckey

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Suzanne’s editorial career has spanned three decades and encompassed all B2B and B2C communications formats. Her award-winning work has appeared in trade and consumer media in the United States and internationally.