In industry after industry, organisations and executives that were once dismissed as upstarts, as outliers, as wildcards, have achieved positions of financial prosperity and market leadership.
There’s a reason the young billionaires behind the most celebrated entrepreneurial success in recent memory began their initial public offering (IPO) of shares with a declaration of independence from business as usual. (‘A Manifesto for Mavericks’, William C. Taylor and Polly Labarre, Market Leader, Issue 38, Autumn, 2007).
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| Rupin Jayal |
At the start of a business venture and then right through its lifetime, there is a danger of contracting “business sclerosis”. The symptoms of this disease are rules that most cannot fathom the reason for, or those that were formulated for a specific reason, have outlived their utility, but are still being slavishly followed. These are not just rules that are “company policy,” but even informal rules governing everyday work. Typically, they are identified by such statements as: “Oh, but we don’t do it like this over here” or “But that wouldn’t work” or “But doing this/saying this/changing this would imply...” These are arbitrary rules either backed up by “conventional wisdom” that has degenerated from the conventional to the obsolete or by institutionalized prejudices and resistance to change.
But before we take up this issue — why “why not” and not just “why”? "Why not" implies a desire to question something and that implies that something already exists. It also implies an alternative path, a different solution, and a desire to innovate. “Why not?” implies innovation; “why?” often implies seeking information. The danger of just “why” is that it is open-ended and could mutate into questioning everything without a specific purpose.
A powerful antidote to business sclerosis is creating a “why not?” culture. Many entrepreneurial ventures start as either an answer to an unmet or poorly addressed need, a dramatic innovation or an answer to products or services that are suboptimal in some way. This implies the need to introduce something different and there is often a missionary or even revolutionary zeal. But running the business is much more than just the startup and the inauguration. It is about fuelling the zeal everyday and across a huge variety of interactions. Very critically, it is about identifying the right people to carry the torch as the business expands and more people join it. When you look back and remember the aspirations and values with which you started and see a bunch of busy executives working hard at running the business, do you wonder whether they feel the same way, do they share your vision and most importantly if they share your initial evolutionary/revolutionary zeal?
Creating a “why not?” culture does not only seek to prevent business sclerosis, but also, like a power business health supplement, to help develop the company’s “innovation muscle.” Innovation in today’s fast-evolving world, with its fast-evolving mindsets, cannot any longer be an event. It has to become a culture. It has to be sustained in an environment that continually seeks change. “Google is not a conventional company,” says its Letter from the Founders. “We do not intend to become one.” Building a “why not?” culture focuses on the second part of that promise.
So there are two clear facets to creating such a culture. The first is to question and create the environment where questioning is received as a stimulus rather than a threat. A climate where, when a question is asked, both the “asker” and the “askee” figure out whether things can be done differently for the better. If they do, they should be recognized and their collaborative improvement celebrated. At Hero Honda, when an idea is given for improvement, the reward is shared by both the originator as well as the implementer of the idea. Indeed, no reward is given until the idea is actually implemented. Thus, a “why not?” culture must be purposive and not adversarial. The question must be based on an alternate way of doing things and not just a pointless semantical argument.
The second facet of a strong “why not?” culture is innovation. This should lie at the heart of any corporation. Innovation does find a fertile ground in India. Apart from a robust culture of argument, a faith that is possibly one of the most adaptable, assimilative and, therefore, democratic in the world and a capitalist entrepreneurial spirit that can be traced back to thousands of years, we also have a demographic dividend with a productive population that is one of the youngest in the world. It is a population that has embraced technology enthusiastically (for example, mobile phones), created tectonic shifts in entrenched categories (for example, from a predominantly scooter market to a market dominated by motorcycles) and supports a mini-revolution every four years through a well-run electoral system. India has all the right ingredients to be the world’s leading “why not?” country!
To meet burgeoning aspirations and desires restricted by shallow wallets, Indian companies have created innovations that have received world attention. However, innovation must be part of the company’s DNA rather than merely event-based, where a major part of the company’s attention gets captured by a relatively few big-ticket and radical inventions. 3M did not just celebrate its major inventions. Its culture of innovation was even able to discover new ways to use products that were thought to have failed. A weak adhesive created the ubiquitous Post It. People too find novel ways to use existing products — Milkmaid condensed milk, a dairy whitener product, became a great base ingredient for desserts and gathered greater success in that role. In Punjab, single-tub semiautomatic washing machines are used to make lassi. The Maruta is run by an agricultural diesel-run motor that was meant to pump water. The mobile phone is more an entrepreneurial implement than just a communicating device as more and more micro-scale entrepreneurs run their businesses through it.
A very critical part of creating and nurturing an enduring “why not?” culture is the way senior management deals with failure of innovation.
To understand why fiascos matter, I need to explain my theory of the borderline, which divides the areas of “possible” and “not possible.” The area of the possible is represented by those new projects that final customers will be ready to understand, to wish for, to love, maybe to buy. The area of the not possible is represented by new projects people are not able to understand. I admire some marketers and designers whom consumers find extremely difficult to understand. Sometimes they create things that could be used 10 or 20 years later.
Well-organized, mass production companies try to work as far as possible from the borderline. They cannot afford to take too many risks. But by all producing the same car, the same television set and the same fridge year after year, those companies are making products more and more boring and anonymous.
The destiny of a company like Alessi is to live as close as possible to the borderline, where you are able to really explore a completely unknown area of products. (Alberto Alessi on design innovation in the Mckinsey Quarterly, February 2009).
While many pay lip-service to encouraging failure as a “learning process,” few actually follow that in action. Few companies keep record of their failures in terms of understanding what led to the failure and innovations that could create more robust conditions for success in the future. However, rather than treat it as another sclerosis-inducing rule book, it could be used as a stimulus for employees to figure out the “why nots” and thus stimulate innovation rather than avoid failure.
A major “why not?” is the way mass-produced products and economy products look mass produced. The role of innovative design in adding value is a powerful one. Thus, when people looked at the Tata Nano they were pleasantly surprised by the fact that its interiors didn’t scream “cheap.” When you fly by Indigo its smart and clean interiors, comfortable seat pitch and efficient staff ensure that you’re not constantly reminded that you are traveling by a low-fare carrier. In fact, anecdotally, many senior management dethroned from the front of the cabin by the recent economic crisis prefer to travel by Indigo as it reduces the impact of the compromise. Quite a difference from the first budget carrier in the Indian skies that ensured you felt that you traveling “low cost.” Whether product or service, a critical “why not?” is the use that can be made with existing resources to provide people with a better experience. A simple example is music. While the “product,”that is, CDs are produced in thousands and even millions, the musical content is special for the person who buys it. Mass produced does not have to mean “mass” designed, and is one place where a robust “why not?” culture would help in a major way.
Innovation in a “why not?” culture can be at differing levels. A simple matrix to define varying levels of innovativeness is as follows:
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Business sclerosis destroys many formerly flourishing businesses, so creating a robust “why not?” culture is the best antidote and power supplement for yours. Take one everyday for a healthy long-term business.
The author is Director-Strategic Planning at M&C Saatchi.
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written by Gucci outlet, July 03, 2010
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