DISRUPTIVE BUSINESS: Desire, Innovation and the Re-Design of Business 2009 Alexander Manu EDIT2 - Gower Publishing - October

r 10 2009

Chapter 7. The Ecology of Innovativeness

Where can we find the competence and ability to satisfy the goals and new behaviours of the Mobile Society? In the corporate ecosystem most likely to encourage the free flow of ideas capable to generate new revenue models. The challenge is that of creating a culture in which platforms for the exploration of possibility are encouraged, funded and free of the day to day metrics of the organization, balancing risk, ambiguity, courage and imagination with a pragmatic business ambition in a timely manner. "Move fast and break things" 1 is Mark Zuckerbergs (founder of Facebook) directive to his developers and team. "Unless you are breaking stuff," he says, "you are not moving fast enough."

Available at [Link] [accessed: October 3, 2009]

DISRUPTIVE BUSINESS: Desire, Innovation and the Re-Design of Business 2009 Alexander Manu EDIT2 - Gower Publishing - October 10 2009

A new mindset

FIGURE 35

In creating an innovation culture, you are armed with the new understanding that innovation is a noun; innovation is an outcome. To achieve this outcome, you need a new mindset. You also need a new spirit. In the context of an organization, spirit means the will to transform, the will to become, a renewed sense of self which brings about the enthusiasm and optimism of new possibilities. Spirit gives us the meaning; why are you doing what you are doing. Spirit provides the ideas, and the mindset provides and manages the tools. The mindset creates the means. To innovate is the verb, and it works as illustrated in Figure 33. From peoples desires to innovation outcomes, we need a good measure of ideas that are matched by the tools of implementation. But the tools are not ends in themselves; the tools are just used to enable the technologies needed to satisfy our desires, in the form of innovation outcomes. The innovation ecology needs a few more things: Strategic Focus Why are we doing this in the first place? Where does it fit? What needs to change? Where will it lead in our future? Tactical incentives Why and how would my internal and external resources engage themselves in this process?

DISRUPTIVE BUSINESS: Desire, Innovation and the Re-Design of Business 2009 Alexander Manu EDIT2 - Gower Publishing - October 10 2009

We also need rules of engagement, rules of defining and measuring value, rules of defining when we start and when we stop the process. Once in place, this leads to a working diagram in which the innovation is generated from the incentives outwards, reaching desire at one end, and the outcome at the other end. The ecology also includes the new values, the language we use to communicate our ideas, as well as the networks we will use to diffuse these ideas to the mass market. What we are constructing in effect, is a bridge between our organization and society, culture and current technology. Framing the Innovation Challenge The challenge of any large organization when it comes to imagination, creativity and innovation outcomes, is that of creating a culture built around platforms for the exploration of possibility, platforms which are free of the day to day metrics of the organization. The exercise of freedom is different from freedom as a concept, and I see this as a major challenge in the next 3-5 years. The challenge is expressed both in terms of infrastructure (the very design of work spaces) as well as in terms of human resources. The possible solution: companies need to create a completely new entity a Place of Possibility, an entity that is lean and nimble, can take risks, can partner with spectacularly different competencies than the obvious, and can prototype fast, fail fast, and fail cheap. A place where everyone feels empowered to explore and to share ideas, and there is no fear of consequences. A liberating ecology for the mind. Does this remind you of your kindergarten days? It should, as you need to be able to say and do silly things. You need an ecology in which you allow yourself, from time to time, to believe that anything is possible. Innovativeness is a way of approaching decision-making. By inspiring and engaging the imagination and creativity of the people within the organization, a company can focus the talents of many toward common growth creating a culture of courage, passion and perseverance. Unleashing an innovative mindset is not about adding new tools, it is about creating this culture that empowers inquisitive minds to imagine the future, and think beyond the legacy of the past. The process aims to : 1. Introduce new strategic visions / possibilities; 2. Deliver compelling experiences that target the imagination and thus the creative potential; 3. Transform a strategic goal into a shared story. There are two immediate advantages to the place of possibility model: the first is the agility advantage, the second is the asymmetric advantage. Agility is manifest not just in giving time and space to be imaginative and creative, but in accepting the ideas generated with an open mind. Accepting they are in a play-space, in an unlearning frame of mind, a place where nothing is judged from the perspective of the past.

DISRUPTIVE BUSINESS: Desire, Innovation and the Re-Design of Business 2009 Alexander Manu EDIT2 - Gower Publishing - October 10 2009

Asymmetric advantage means the freedom of not being measured against a competitive landscape either in features, materials, expectations, price points, distribution and all other sets of data already in the market place, data that usually forces the development of symmetric offerings. IBM understood this in the early 1980s, when it undertook the development of the IBM PC2. Rather than going through the usual IBM design process, a special team was assembled with authorization to bypass normal company restrictions and get something to market rapidly. This project was given the code name Project Chess at the IBM Entry Systems Division in Boca Raton, Florida. The team consisted of twelve people directed by Don Estridge with Chief Scientist Larry Potter and Chief Systems Architect Lewis Eggebrecht. They developed the PC in about a year. To achieve this they first decided to build the machine with "off-the-shelf" parts from a variety of different original equipment manufacturers and countries. Previously IBM had always developed their own components. Secondly for scheduling and cost reasons, rather than developing unique IBM PC monitor and printer designs, project management decided to utilize an existing "off-the-shelf" IBM monitor developed earlier in IBM Japan as well as an existing Epson printer model.

Available at: [Link] [September 22, 2009)

DISRUPTIVE BUSINESS: Desire, Innovation and the Re-Design of Business 2009 Alexander Manu EDIT2 - Gower Publishing - October 10 2009

Massive Innovativeness: Play at Work

In the first year of operation (since the release on July 9, 2008) the Apples App Store released over 70,000 applications and reported that two billion applications have been downloaded. This is massive crowd sourced innovation in action. What makes this model compelling? How can it be applied in other lines of business? What are the immediate challenges? Analogue vs Digital in the workplace Large organizations have a significant Human Resources challenge at both ends of the generation spectrum: for the baby boomers in management, the question is how do we retain the trained work force the millennials3 represent, and how do we empower them to make significant contributors in the new competitive spaces of the mobile society? Both of these conditions need to be addressed by present day organizations, before embarking in creating innovation ecologies, and defining new innovation outcomes. Job satisfaction is the primary factor in retaining talent, and the number one contributor to a creative and productive performance while in the workplace. Why are millennials leaving the workplace in search of better challenges for their life experience? To answer this question we need an understanding of the typology of this social and cultural group, their experiences and expectations. A few more questions need to be explored in search of a defining typology: What do millennials want? What do they expect from the workplace? What is the shape of the experience the millennials expect from work? A Millennial Profile According to empirical data, the millennials face disappointment when they reach the organization: raised to believe that everything is possible and the sky is the limit, these are people of ambition, purpose and experimentation. They have grown up in an environment in which technology allowed them early participation in culture, as well as hands on experience in the creation of a new network society in which they feel they are in control. At least this is what they believe. Schooled and ready to contribute in a work environment, they join the ranks of the employed in organizations that have recruited them aggressively and with best intentions.

anyone born after 1980. Also known as the digital generation.

DISRUPTIVE BUSINESS: Desire, Innovation and the Re-Design of Business 2009 Alexander Manu EDIT2 - Gower Publishing - October 10 2009

They were promised all the freedom of thought and action worthy of their generations aspiration, just to discover once they join the organization, that the old structures of the workplace are not as permeable to change as they claim to be. Once in the workplace, millennials are now part of a system that does not necessarily recognize merit, imagination, play and the cultural and economic participation that characterized the millennials behaviour up to joining the workforce. The old structure of the organization does not see the empowerment and participation of the millennial, as necessary attributes for the prosperity of the corporation. In such an environment, they become stifled in their work and slowly disempowered. This undesirable consequence of the inability of the system to change around new behaviour, is made worst by the inability of their superiors to even identify that a problem exists. Their superiors are the baby boomers. The analogue culture group represented by the baby boomer, is part of a generation that in turn, felt everything was possible, a generation that achieved a certain degree of transformation in society but one that did not challenge the very structure of work, and thus the structure of the system itself. They made the status quo work for them rather than changing it around them. My friend David Edgar who has worked at the executive levels in a number of large and small enterprises made the observation that organizations are spending millions on new employee orientation programs and presentations and almost all of the time, these present a theoretical picture of the organization, whereas the reality is in fact totally the opposite (no procedures, no control, no manuals, no process etc.). The millennial sees immediate disappointment on leaving the orientation presentation as he/she looks around for all the stuff he was just told existed. In the old days we didnt do orientation presentations, so there was never a disappointment. So perhaps one of the solutions is a major overhaul of orientation thinking. The baby boomer (Analogue) and the millennial (Digital) are not generations separated by age; they are separated by experience and expectations. For the Millennial empowerment is a condition sine qua non, and as such, it is also an expectation. With empowerment, the Millennial has learned about participation in the shaping of culture and society and with that, they have learned that one can in a satisfying way operate from a condition of freedom. For the Millennial freedom is not a concept as it is for the baby boomer but an experienced percept. Freedom Manifested The Millennial grew up in a time in which the conceptual mythology and its characters became quickly part of every day play life. Star Wars characters, locations and situations, became quickly perceptual objects that further released their imagination while engaged in play. The same can be said about Ninja Turtles, Voltron and in the 1990s, the world of Toy Story. The immediacy of this availability allowed a rapid transfer of the imagination from thought to action, so these are action orientated people who concern themselves little with the analysis of situations in terms of metrics is it needed, does it bring significant revenue believing instead, that what they like, others like them will like as well. Google, Facebook, MySpace, Wikipedia, are manifestations of this belief system. They are also manifestations of the return of play, and the freedom associated with it, to the latter life of the adult. There is no room for work in this behaviour.

DISRUPTIVE BUSINESS: Desire, Innovation and the Re-Design of Business 2009 Alexander Manu EDIT2 - Gower Publishing - October 10 2009

There is only room for life as it is worth living, with pleasure and immediacy of action. Facebook as a need will make no sense to a baby boomer, and less so as a revenue platform for business. But this is not what Facebook is all about; it is more than that, it is culture. And millennials KNOW about the creation of culture because they grew up being a part of it at every step. For in as much as the Millennial is an empowered individual who acts on this empowerment by participating actively in the shaping of his/her own world, the baby boomer was empowered in thought but not in action. They never lived up to the promise of their generation and worst still, succumbing in a majority to the rules of the status quo. The majority of the baby boom generation did not change the world, but witnessed it being done by rebels from their own midst, in the garages of Silicon Valley. And this is the key in understanding the gap between the two generations: the millennial wants to have fun as a life attribute, while the baby boomer has fun as entertainment. Programmed fun, within its time limits and specific formats and places. This is why YouTube makes no sense to a baby boomer, and less so blogging or texting. There is little cultural connection between the two groups. Eminem or 50 Cent are seen as annoyances by the baby boomer, while being essential ingredients of daily life for the millennial. This gives rise to a number of new questions: How can these two behaviour groups achieve a productive collaboration within the structure of an organization? What is the shape of the strategic vision that will mean the same thing to these two different cultures, and enlist their enthusiasm towards tactical implementation?

The most significant differentiator between the two groups, is the dimension given to freedom and its understanding. For the baby boomer freedom was a political concept at best, and it was generally associated with freedom of thought. These are people that wanted to be free in principle, but not in detail. The late 60s and early 70s were times of political struggle for this generation, but not times of significant political change. In other words, the struggle did not result in tangibles. Many went to join the very system they were criticizing, with no challenges being offered. By contrast, for the Millennial freedom is a percept: the freedom to engage, to participate, to contribute, and to have not only their voice heard, but their actions seen. Some with consequence and some without, but by the sheer number of evens, we can claim that Millennial freedom is being used to change and challenge. The cultural and social significance of YouTube and Facebook cannot yet be predicted, but they will certainly change the way we look at both content creation and social groupings. While the millennial sees value in such networks of apparently disconnected entities, the baby boomer can only raise an eyebrow in wonder. Why would anyone use Facebook? This is just a small measure of the disconnect between these two culturally estranged groupings. While this cultural disconnect is just a minor nuisance in a household were these two generation cohabit, or in society, where they occasionally share space, in an organization this nuisance affects everyday actionable strategies, and the bottom line. One generation calls for caution and restraint, while the other calls for experimentation and courage.

DISRUPTIVE BUSINESS: Desire, Innovation and the Re-Design of Business 2009 Alexander Manu EDIT2 - Gower Publishing - October 10 2009

What is lost if these two groups do not communicate, and what is gained if we build a bridge? Imagine a work place where these two generations collide. They meet every day, they talk every day, and they plan action every day, but they never truly communicate, transferring knowledge and wisdom to one another. For sure, some tactics get implemented, but what will be the result if true communication would have taken place in advance? What would be the benefit for the organization? On one hand you have the wisdom, knowledge and experience of life of the boomers, and on the other hand you have the urgency, the imagination and the free spirit of the millennial. What are the possibilities for the organization if these two capabilities were combined? One imparting method while the other imparting experimentation and courage? And more than anything, an unabashed desire to succeed. Freedom to simply be What the boomer sees as a minor technological achievement the MP3 player as an example the millennial sees as a new form of culture, a new mode of expression, a new tool for empowerment. Herein lies the most profound difference between the generations: one looks at tools as means while the other sees them as ways to transform and give meaning, and believes deeply in the right and freedom to do so. Freedom is critical in this context as it underlines the power of technology when used by the millennial. We are not looking here at the freedom to think, but at the freedoms to both think and act. Action is where the two generations draw the line. The distinction between the theory of freedom, and the phenomenon of freedom. It is true that with this freedom we may encounter triviality, but the quest of the millennial is not for triviality, but for consequence, for making a difference, for participation in the stream of change. For the millennial words are not actions. They need to transform feelings into reality, and they have the means, the desire, and the will to do it. This difference in expectations manifests itself in behaviour, and further increases the gap between the two groups. What is a dream for the baby boomer is seen as a right for the millennial. And at times, due to these vastly different attitudes, the two groups cannot hear each other, let alone understand each other. And what is more, the makeup of the two is vastly different in the experience leading to expectations: the analogue baby boomer grew up in an atmosphere of respect for elders, in the household, and later in the workplace, both places in which his/her own voice was not seriously considered. Respect VS Rights sums up the difference between these groups, as the digital millennial grew up with a sense of entitlement of rights. On one hand we have respect and responsibility while on the other rights and no implied sense or fear of responsibility. At one end we have judgment, and the benchmarking of everything (what is the purpose of this, what is the market, who will use this etc) while at the other end we have the immediate understanding of purpose and acceptance based on wow. What I feel for this NOW. What experience it allows for. How am I transformed after the experience has ended. Life. One the digital generation instinctively gets it when it comes to technology, taking purpose for granted. The millennial will never ask who will use this or what is the purpose of this as they do not concern themselves with such questions. For them the purpose is a continuum of life. It is as obvious as breathing. At the other end of the cultural and expectation spectrum, for the analogue, every object, service or new technology must have a purpose rooted in need.

DISRUPTIVE BUSINESS: Desire, Innovation and the Re-Design of Business 2009 Alexander Manu EDIT2 - Gower Publishing - October 10 2009

Who needs this? is a question frequently asked by this group in an effort to measure change by their own ability to comprehend where new devices and services might fit, in the prescribed framework of what life should be about. With the analogue in control of the organization and the digital performing the daily work, clashes are imminent and inevitable. Even when they face each other, the dialogue is between the deaf and the mute, as there is no common experience that unifies these two groups allowing for a comprehensive dialogue. And this is where I see the URGENT need for a new platform for communication, collaboration and dialogue, leading to a productive working relationship. A bridge between pleasure and purpose One will be hard pressed to describe as work the daily activities of Michael Faraday, the inventor of the electric motor; none will fall under the definition, behavior or processes that work represents. However, all will fit within the characteristics of play and play behaviour. Faraday spend his days building a device that was impossible to use for any practical application, but enough of a signal to others to define the opportunities that it held. Faradays contraption was the classic inventors nightmare: good enough to supply proof, but inconvenient enough in size, architecture, and complexity of parts assembly, to discourage any possible contemplation of practical use. Its success could not be measured; the contraption could not be benchmarked. Most innovations are the result of play behaviour and the mindset of possibility it creates. As a result, a play ecology in the process of innovativeness is also a requisite, as the mindset of innovativeness needs a suspension of reality another characteristic of play in the process of evaluation. Two directions emerge from this understanding of innovativeness as play: the first is the need for companies to create an ecology of play innovation. The second is related to the mastery of play being a crucial capability for innovativeness: the millennial generation has engaged in play patterns of a complexity and diversity that far exceed that of any other generation. They are play wise and play ready, and they will bring this expectation and capability to the workplaces they enter. The future of work will be determined by their facility with play, as it outpaces all previous generations. This presents organizations with the unique opportunity of using this expertise toward strategies that will lead to massive innovation, and permanently redraw the value chain. How do we build a bridge between these two groups? By constructing a temporary play space a place of possibility - where the generations can meet, work, and collaborate. And by giving both groups the same tools of the mind: a Play/Full/Mind.

DISRUPTIVE BUSINESS: Desire, Innovation and the Re-Design of Business 2009 Alexander Manu EDIT2 - Gower Publishing - October 10 2009

10

Schematic for a Place of Possibility

Imagine an organization where everyone works as if at play for leisure. Call it a Place of Possibility, and empower a group of your most talented resources to form a Futures Group as an experiential activity. The rules are simple: each member of the group expands on the potential of their imagination, supports their colleagues to do the same, enhancing the competitiveness, innovativeness and business potential of the organization. A participatory play organization is the culmination of an enabled and empowered people; it is the prototype of a society that has cultivated the psychological tools to manifest their presence and express it, both individually and collectively. The Futures Group is a new platform for communication, collaboration and dialogue leading to a productive working [Link] Futures Group program activities attempt to anticipate. You will ask: What has already happened that has yet to make its full impact felt? What can we do with the events? This place of possibility does not concern itself too much with the all the things we cannot do. It always asks: What CAN WE DO what shall de do what do we want to do? To ensure continued growth and relevance your organization must understand and interpret the world from the position of the people who are trying to change the field today. The most effective way for you to identify the high-potential opportunities, is to create a series of knowledge forums for the high potential leadership of your organization, in order to gain insights into: The themes and motivations of people; How to identify significant strategic shifts at their early stages; Describing the potential of these strategic shifts in as potential markets before they can be measured.

The primary objective of the program is to ensure that your organization recognizes, understands and benefits from the next strategic shift, no mater what its origin technology or user behaviour. This requires communication and collaboration between the between the digital and the analogue demographics toward common objectives. A five point purpose statement for this activity might look like this: To unify the experience and aspirations of all groups in the organization, by providing for a common platform of experience and competence; To guide participants into a renewed way of looking at the business, and the world it works in; To experience how to manage the design process toward innovative breakthrough ideas into products, services and experiences; To change the participants outlook from reacting to technological or behavioural disruptions, to the proactive exploration of the beneficial innovation possibilities for branded goods and services; To discover/unveil existing, but still invisible, potential market areas and means of operations; To integrate, unleash and accelerate the sensitivity, imagination and capability of innovativeness into the core business functions of the organization.

DISRUPTIVE BUSINESS: Desire, Innovation and the Re-Design of Business 2009 Alexander Manu EDIT2 - Gower Publishing - October 10 2009

11

Sidebar. A Place of Possibility: Structure and Outcomes

FIGURE 36

Play is serious business. And so are the activities that you will undertake in the newly constructed place of possibility. These activities could be grouped under the following outcomes: Strategic Planning and Strategic Foresight In the face of accelerating technology pressures and complex consumer behaviour, organizations must be prepared to recognize, manage and generate sound strategy in order to provide relevant product or service offerings, while maintaining shareholder confidence. Focus is on enhancing the perspective required to distinguish, evaluate and improve the benefit of strategic foresight in informing free spirited innovation. This insight informs strategic decision-making and creates wiser policy options. Focuses on how to identify new opportunity in peoples behaviour, how to validate ideas and create new project management tools outside the context of traditional management frameworks. Provides new tools that nourish and trigger the imagination of individuals in teams, and transforms the result into innovation outcomes. Participants will work in teams to evaluate global behaviour shifts in the context of the economy, and define opportunities for new business models. They will develop the ability to unlearn in order to see from new perspectives, and recognize and assign meaning to local and global patterns of emergence in behaviour. The aim is to translate these behaviour signals into future opportunities, explore the experiential value of these opportunities, and describe the support structures required to support these experiences. Finally, to design and propose business models that translate these experiences into corporate wealth.

Project Management

Team Integration

DISRUPTIVE BUSINESS: Desire, Innovation and the Re-Design of Business 2009 Alexander Manu EDIT2 - Gower Publishing - October 10 2009

12

Innovation Understanding of the role, value and limits of play and freedom in precompetitive innovation, team members will create methodologies to discover and assign meaning to macro behaviour trends. The methods discovered will deliver an imaginative and practical mindset that can inspire discovery and learning within teams, identify and validate ideas, and then transform these results into beneficial products, services and systems. Through experiential exploration participants will transform shifts in behaviour and technology into feasible, useful and desirable concepts, systems, communications, products and services that fit or expand the competitive space of your organization. This module might be designed around generative questions such as: How will new technology help your organization reach their current users, define new market segments, and create new revenue opportunities? What are the characteristics of these new markets? What, therefore, are the characteristics of the organization that will best respond to these markets? What are the key business model issues that will determine your ability to develop a ubiquitous business model? What are the market issues, that when addressed, will create frictionless growth and superior margins?

Product Development

Brand Strategy

DISRUPTIVE BUSINESS: Desire, Innovation and the Re-Design of Business 2009 Alexander Manu EDIT2 - Gower Publishing - October 10 2009

13

The Futures Group: Methods

In Chapter 3: The New Context, we outlined a few of the challenges of the Mobile Society, and also asserted earlier in the book that specific moments in time have specific innovation objects and further, that Mobile Digital Data is such object. It will be natural then to use this object as the focus of the Futures Group methods and activities towards innovation. How do we do this? Two steps: 1. Define a vision of the future. 2. Work to make it a reality. Vision: The Mobile Society A place in which every person, object and space is both a link and a holder of information. The Mobile Society is the emerging system of intangible environments created by the proliferation of smart phones, smart tags and other context-aware technologies. In a Mobile Society, people are the carriers of place and meaning into the spaces they enter. Upon entering a space, a person transforms it through the chain of links they provide. This transformation is not unidirectional; the space will in turn leave its mark on the person, thus touching all subsequent spaces that person will enter. The Mobile Society topologies are generated by the very flow of the people who travel through them. They will shape, and be shaped, by human experience. Once enabled to do so, people will reveal their needs and wants through their very interactions and behaviours. When places and objects are data enabled, they take meaning from people. When meaning is enabled, it becomes benefit. In the Mobile Society every different combination of people, devices and places will create a wealth of unique social and information possibilities. Presence is proximity, and data is potential for an unlimited number of opportunities beneficial to users. The Mobile Society expands the scope of transferable data to an unprecedented magnitude. Due to the scale of this data, the obvious question is how and when does this data become information how do we make sense of it? Every time that data is collected it must be organized for expression and transmission. The transfer conditions should not simply measure access to data; they must also reflect purpose, context and method. The context described above is an ever-expanding market of opportunity for device builders, application software and operating systems protocols, all presently under development or already deployed. The inevitability of an interconnected digital and physical network of spaces and objects, where devices communicate using location sensors and other networked devices, is also related to new user behaviors and the ever growing dependence on social networks. Business success in the next decade will require understanding the impact and nature of this transformation, and taking advantage of it, by providing new services that exploit the new environment, understanding the resulting new needs, and opening new channels of communication.

DISRUPTIVE BUSINESS: Desire, Innovation and the Re-Design of Business 2009 Alexander Manu EDIT2 - Gower Publishing - October 10 2009

14

FIGURE 37

So the first questions facing your organization when dealing with strategies for the Mobile Society might be: What is the value proposition of my existing business in a networked Mobile Society ? What is my brand vision for this new context? Brand Vision and the Mobile Society We operate from visions of what could be possible. But before we can engage in the pursuit of new innovation outcomes, we need the courage to spell out this vision. This is the destination. The mobile society is fast changing consumer behaviour in an irretrievable way, while placing a new demands on companies. We will respond to this challenge by understanding it and by transforming it into the opportunity it represents. We understand that our consumers are expecting new forms of engagement with our brand. We recognize that we need to become experts in understanding value, and also in understanding where value resides. We recognize that digital media in all its emergent forms represents a new form of engagement with life, and we are committed to deliver vitality to this new space. We recognize the need to engage in new ways, building better and more expansive relationship with the user, on multiple platforms of experience and on the users terms.

DISRUPTIVE BUSINESS: Desire, Innovation and the Re-Design of Business 2009 Alexander Manu EDIT2 - Gower Publishing - October 10 2009

15

We are determined to develop the ability to move swiftly from one platform to the next, and from one compelling experience to another. We understand that brands are not about lifestyle, but about life choices. The choice to live healthy, the choice to look good, the choice to feel good. The choice to eat well. These choices transcend lifestyle. These choices are the voice of expectations. And expectations now include peoples participation in the shaping of their daily life, and access to new tools of empowerment and new media for expressions of this participation. To add value to this new life, the Futures Group will provide the tools and inspirations for engagement and participation; we will construct new platforms of experience and engage our users as participatory individuals. Our vision is to be part of the users multidimensional expectations of themselves and their life.

DISRUPTIVE BUSINESS: Desire, Innovation and the Re-Design of Business 2009 Alexander Manu EDIT2 - Gower Publishing - October 10 2009

16

The Futures Group: Strategic Innovation Planogram

FIGURE 38

The Mindset: Expand the implementation, scope and monetization potential of any innovation goal. The following methods maintain an open perspective throughout a project: Impact Intensification focuses attention on new user behaviours and the impact of their intensification on what people will expect. Disruption Amplification focuses attention on emerging behaviours and technologies and amplifies them to map what will become normal. Market Maximization focuses attention on other peripheral markets to broaden the scope of threat and opportunity analysis. Opportunity Discovery. "The Why" of change: The incentives to innovate and the opportunities that they represent. Opportunity Expansion. "The Focus" of change: Innovative ideas that expand the scope and potential of the innovation goal. Opportunity Application. "The What" of change: Define the outcome that will best meet the innovation goal.

The Process

DISRUPTIVE BUSINESS: Desire, Innovation and the Re-Design of Business 2009 Alexander Manu EDIT2 - Gower Publishing - October 10 2009

17

FIGURE 39

DISRUPTIVE BUSINESS: Desire, Innovation and the Re-Design of Business 2009 Alexander Manu EDIT2 - Gower Publishing - October 10 2009

18

Opportunity Discovery : Understanding external disruptions, by connecting changes in consumer behaviour with new technologies and associated business responses. Consumer Behaviour Mapping How are consumers changing the way that they relate to companies and how you might leverage these changes? Technology Possibility Mapping Which new technologies are transforming the rules of engagement and what this could mean for your company? Pre-competitive Market Mapping Which other services are now positioned to change your market space and what can be learned from them?

Opportunity Expansion The objective is to broaden the scope and potential of your business ambition by exploring and presenting compelling visions of what could be possible. Ideal Experience Proposals. Explore how the ideal experience might feel without current constraints to identify the essential qualities of the innovation goal. Technology Platform Proposals. Describe the technology and infrastructure that would best deliver the desired experience today and in the future. Strategic Partnership Proposals. Explore models that leverage the experience, assets and business ambitions of others toward your innovation goal.

Opportunity Application Identify the essential qualities of the innovation model and develop metrics to manage its successful implementation. Acceptability Evaluation What are the qualities that must be included and promoted to ensure that the outcome meets the innovation goal? Nowability Evaluation What aspects of the plan are adequately achievable today and what should be reserved for tomorrow? Viability Evaluation How sustainable is the new model and how do we make best use of its collateral benefits?

DISRUPTIVE BUSINESS: Desire, Innovation and the Re-Design of Business 2009 Alexander Manu EDIT2 - Gower Publishing - October 10 2009

19

Takeaways
In creating an innovation culture you need a new mindset and a new spirit. Spirit gives us the meaning; and the mindset provides and manages the tools. The innovation ecology needs Strategic Focus and Tactical incentives The first task is Framing the Innovation Challenge Companies need to create a Place of Possibility, a place where everyone feels empowered to explore and to share ideas, and there is no fear of consequences. A place that empowers inquisitive minds to imagine the future, and think beyond the legacy of the past. A Place of Possibility will introduce new strategic visions , deliver compelling experiences that target the imagination and thus the creative potential; transform a strategic goal into a shared story. A Place of possibility is a bridge between pleasure and purpose, and a necessary dialogue and collaboration platform for the baby boom and the millennial generations. The primary objective of the place of possibility and the Futures Group operating within it, is to ensure that your organization recognizes and benefits from the next strategic shift, no mater what its origin. The strategic objective is to integrate, unleash and accelerate the sensitivity, imagination and capability of innovativeness into the core business functions of the organization.

DISRUPTIVE BUSINESS: Desire, Innovation and the Re-Design of Business 2009 Alexander Manu EDIT2 - Gower Publishing - October 10 2009

20