new business ideas

I am writing here about the need for new business ideas as part of a corporate culture rather than the personal level. There is the story of a man who jumped off the top of a skyscraper to commit suicide. As he passed the third floor window he was heard to shout: ‘So far, so good’.

Most organisations do not feel they need new ideas because things are going very well. They may be right. At the same time, complacency is the biggest enemy of progress or growth - even if the complacency is justified. At the other end of the spectrum there are many organisations who claim: ‘We do not need new ideas because we already have all the new ideas we can handle.’ Sometimes this claim is justified, but more often it is a powerful protection against new ideas. You can never have too many ideas when the best ones prevail over the weak. You can indeed have too many ideas - if none of them are very powerful.

LIP SERVICE

A lot of lip service is paid to creativity because it is seen as needed and fashionable. At the same time it is very hard for an organisation to admit that it has need for new ideas. Once you admit that, then you have to search for the new idea. You admit that there is a ‘treasure’ out there, but you have no idea where to find that treasure. This position is too uncomfortable for most executives to hold. You need to have everything under control - the possibility of an important new idea is not under control.

There is a feeling in many industries, such as retail and motors, that new ideas come from years of experience in the field. They arise from combination of all that experience with the new technology. Unfortunately, by definition this excludes ideas that challenge traditional thinking. Two thousand years ago China was far ahead of the West in science and technology: it had rockets and gunpowder. Had China continued on the same course, China today would easily be the dominant power in the world. So what happened?

The scholars in China started to believe that you could move from certainty to certainty. There was no need to be bothered with the vagueness of ‘possibility’. So they never developed the possibility system and they never developed the hugely important ‘hypothesis’ used in science. Without possibility you cannot move ahead of the data. You cannot lead the data.

A similar thing is happening in the West today, where the excellence of computers and telecommunications means that many organisations are starting to believe that you only need to collect information, and that the business analysis will then do your thinking for you. The information will determine your decisions.

The creative director of one of the world’s leading advertising agencies told me recently that clients no longer wanted new ideas - they only wanted the research data. Ideas are never a substitute for information. At the same time ideas are essential in order to look at data in different ways. Ideas are also essential in order to put different pieces of data together. Ideas are essential for designing ways in which to deliver value.

The notion that information is enough stops progress as surely as it was halted in China through neglect of the possibility system. Ideas are possibilities. It is clear that new ideas are needed all the time, just as financial control and production efficiency are needed all the time. It is also possible to look at specific situations
where new ideas are even more necessary. Some examples are…

SERIOUS CRISIS: By the time there is a serious crisis it is usually too late to look for new ideas. Ideas are possibilities. It does not make sense to hope for a wonderful new idea that will rescue the corporation from the current crisis. It is worth looking for new ideas - but only in addition to the other analytical thinking that is going on. The time to look for new ideas is before the crisis.

THREATS: A threat is not yet a crisis. A threat would be serious competition from a competitor or from some other country. The emergence of China is a serious threat to many corporations. A production worker’s wages in China are about $100 a month, which is less than one-tenth of the wages in many developed nations. Quality in China is improving rapidly and will soon equal quality anywhere else. If you are making a speciality product, and China can produce the same product with the same quality, but at a much lower cost - then there is a real threat. It is not enough to hope for political protection from competition. There is a serious need for some new thinking and new ideas. It is too late to wait for a crisis.

STAGNATION: The company is doing reasonably well. There is no growth and there is no perceived need for growth. The motivation for change is low. Is there a need for new ideas here? Probably not. Would the corporation benefit from new ideas? Certainly. New ideas are not just about new products. There may be a need for creativity to simplify existing procedures and so get more profit from a stable market.

GROWTH: There are business strategies for growth that do not need new ideas. There are classic moves, mergers, acquisitions, take-overs, etc. There may be a need for some new ideas to look into the future and to foresee further possibilities, because this may influence the choice of growth direction.

OPPORTUNITIES: There is high need for creativity both to perceive the opportunity and to fashion it into profitable shape. If seen in the right way, any change is a potential opportunity. Analysis is very important, but it is not enough. Analysis is a commodity available to everyone. If you can have an idea which others do not have, that can define your opportunity. Even beyond ‘spotting’ the opportunity there is a need for new thinking in turning that opportunity into a profitable venture.

START-UP: Most start-ups arise from an idea. It is possible to do the traditional thing in a cheaper or better way. It is possible to offer better customer service than anyone else. It is possible to find a gap in the market and still do the traditional thing. But there is also the possibility of a new idea as the basis for the start-up. New ideas are needed both for the very basis of the business and for the running of the business and the delivery of value (marketing, production, etc.)

The above list is by no means complete. You are invited to add your own situations. The nature of the human brain and the nature of information systems demand new ideas. New ideas are needed to put old things together in new and better ways. New ideas are needed to take advantage of changes in the market.

New ideas are needed to face threats and challenges. New ideas are needed to take advantage of changes in technology. One of the biggest mistakes in thinking is to believe that thinking and creativity are only needed for problem solving. Otherwise ‘continuity’ is enough.

ADDITIONAL IDEAS

Many organisations and executives are threatened by the idea of ‘creativity’. They do not like the suggestion that they are not sufficiently creative. They even regard creativity as a ‘blue sky’ exercise and believe that data analysis is enough. At the same time, the history, culture and idiom of any organisation determine its ideas. It is almost impossible to step outside this framework - no matter how valid it might be - to have different ideas. These different ideas may not be much use. Or they may be better than existing ideas in some areas. Or they may influence existing ideas.

POSTSCRIPT

‘Thank goodness the sun has gone in and I do not have to go out to enjoy it!’… ’Thank goodness there are no new ideas around that I have to consider and act upon’.