Ep 13. How To Innovate Using Existing Technology

The Honest CEO Show, Episode 13: How to Innovate Using Existing Technology and Cross Industry Ideas

Caroline Kennedy:
Hi and welcome to the show. It's the Business Blockbuster Series where we'll spend about 10 to 15 minutes chatting about tips and advice on how to improve your business.

And today we're going to focus on innovation, cross technology innovation and cross industry innovation. It's so important. Innovation can seem like the word of only a genius can perform. That's not true. It's a talent that innovators were born with, not something that everybody can do. Again, that's not true. Anyone can innovate given the correct framework and environment.

To keep up with rapidly changing market conditions, every business should be thinking more creatively. Leverage what exists already and combining them to innovate and stay ahead of the curve. I've done this throughout my career and it's so integral to the success of business.

Cross-industry innovation is about asking questions, observing patterns and combining what already exists to create something unique. As I said before, innovators, they're not people who are rocket scientists. They just combine things that already exist. For example, think about the old suitcase design that we used to carry around with the handle. They were heavy and they were really hard to carry around. People complained that they were cumbersome and hard to move.

One day, someone decided to add wheels to the suitcase, solving a common problem. Again, this is not rocket science. They identified a pattern and combined existing elements to address the problem. That's what innovation is. Innovation is a combination of ideas, insights, you know. Another example here is a smart TV.

A smart TV is a combination of a standard television and it's combined with the world wide web, the internet as we know it. The internet elements provides access to the online platforms such as Netflix, Skype, TEDx on your TV. That's prime example of an existing product that just utilises technology to continue to improve and evolve.

A smartphone is another prime example. It's a combination of a standard phone, then they've added a camera and a touch screen and obviously the internet being the World Wide Web. So we don't need to access a computer anymore to be connected. So think about the simplicity of that. Think about looking for how you can just improve your product, your service or even a process within your business.

There are several ways you can use cross industry innovation or cross technology innovation within your business. Step one is understanding the problem or the challenge that exists. So think about and gain clarity around your challenges. An example here is like for instance, in the travel industry, many companies provide brochures for consumers. Now these companies are wholesalers.

So when you walk into a travel agent and you want to go to Europe, for example, or even Fiji, wherever it may be, the US, they'll generally hand you a brochure and the brochure has been put together by a wholesale agent. Now you would never see that wholesale agent, but they have put all the products and all the hotels together for you to choose from.

Now the travel agent will decide which brochures are handed out to the customer. They decide this on a variety of reasons. They might like working with a particular supplier. They might like the product that's in a particular supplier's brochure. It all comes down to the individual travel agent and also to your needs as well as a customer. So for the actual supplier and the person that collates the brochure, there is a restriction or they're restricted or there's no control on the distribution of the brochure.

It's up to the travel agent who hands out the brochure to you. So, so at the end of the day, the supplier doesn't have control over that. So that's a problem in the industry. So because you want your product being offered out there in the market.

Step two then in that situation is the solution. How can more control be gained by the supplier? How can they differentiate from the market? How can they stand out? Is there a technology that can be leveraged in this instant? can the brochure in the paper format combine with technology? We live in a hyper-connected world where instant gratification is becoming an expectation. That's what people want, but they don't want it to be oversupplied with information because that can be overwhelming and confusing.

So then let's think about what technology can we use to satisfy the instant gratification need and enhance the customer experience. So you think about

A, step one being the problem or challenge, the solution, what does that look like, is there existing technology in the market? And step three is about combining that. So selecting specific technologies to create your solution. So in this instant, the solution was, for instance, augmented reality. Augmented reality is something that was emerging in the market and it was identified as perhaps a solution that could work with the brochure. Now, at first in the Australian travel industry, the technology developed allowed travelers to view an inspirational 90-minute video of their destination.

So using a phone or an iPad, the app connected to the anchor point on the cover of the brochure, allowing customers to emerge themselves in the destination and experience.

Future advances were around the 360 degree of experience of a hotel or a tour. So customers, you sitting there using your iPad, for instance, and just being immersed in the experience, seeing, listening, being able to get a feel for what the destination could offer you or in future, as I said about what the hotel could offer you. So you get a real sense of the experience and the quality of the hotel or the tour.

Now, so they combined the brochure with the technology and there's a point of difference now in the marketplace. So think about which brochure do you think the travel agent now wants to hand out? Most likely and certainly definitely they want to hand out the brochure that sets them apart that has a point of difference that they can actually start to talk to the customer about. Look at this. Look, download the app. Let's have that experience.

Let's show you how the marketplace is evolving and how we as travel agents advancing the experience that you can get from what already exists. So we go back to the problem.

The problem was that the supplier didn't necessarily have control over the brochure getting handed out to the customer because their brochure might have been similar to everybody else's. The product might have been different, but the brochure was similar. So the solution is how do we gain more control? How do we leverage technology? How do we look to evolve our brochure format and combine it with technology? Then they combined it for a better user experience.

Now, the brochure has been handed out a lot more because it has a point of difference and that is integral. That is what innovation is. As I said before, innovation isn't rocket science. It's about identifying a problem, looking how you can leverage another industry. What are other industries doing? What does that look like for you? What technology is there out there that can help you evolve?

Another example of this is for instance, a home building company, one that I used to work for had national, nationally they had lots of display homes. Okay. Now display homes, people get a feel for what the house could be like, how many bedrooms, what does that look like? And that's a real user experience. So when people could geographically walk into a display home and get a feel for a home, then they could really connect with that home and how that met their lifestyle and what they wanted for their lifestyle. there were 40 or 50 display homes nationally with varied home plans, et cetera.

So how do you leverage that then? What technology is out there to perhaps give the user an experience if they're not geographically located in Orange, for instance? Orange on the New South Wales coast or up in Newcastle where there are display homes. What about somebody in Melbourne who wants to look at the Newcastle?

So in this instance, we've identified the problem and the challenge. Not necessarily a problem, but very much around as a challenge. We could have users experiencing and the customer experience really enhanced if they were able to get a feel for each of those display homes and really experience them.

So the solution in this instance is looking at technology out there. How do we use technology to get that engagement and that experience for the customer without them having to be geographically located. So, look at the technology out there, 3D cameras for instance, and a 3D camera was imported from America and all of the display homes were shot in 3D.

Okay, so the 3D experience, you can decide whether you walk into the bathroom whether you walk out onto the patio, whether you walk around the kitchen, you navigate the entire experience. And so by recording all of this experience through the 3D camera and then being able to upload that to the web, all of the customers nationally, no matter where they were, were able to get that same experience without being in the geographic location, which opened up the user experience, opened up people's minds to what kind of plans they could have for their home, what suited their lifestyle, and then gave them access to experiencing those 40 plus display homes and getting a feel for what best suits them.

So that's another example of how there's a challenge or a better experience for the consumer combining that with the solution. Now, how do you do that? The million dollar question, but again, just very simple. When using the framework, mapping it out is really important through anything with innovation. So when using this framework, write down the patterns that you have seen, the problems that exist within a business. Consider within your organization or a customer pattern or problem. Another example here is people dropping their phones in the toilet.

Now you've heard for years that people have made this mistake. So Samsung saw a pattern and a problem. The solution they recently released a waterproof phone so that it overcame that problem. Now again that isn't rocket science they just looked at the patterns. People were returning their phones they couldn't use them anymore they had to buy new phones and because it was a regular pattern they saw okay so that is a challenge. How do we overcome that challenge and what is the solution to that challenge?

So next, when you're mapping it out, get your team together. Use Post-it notes and brain dump the patterns and problems you see every day. Now brain dump potential solutions as well. What technologies can you leverage? The important point here is that first off, use the Post-it notes to brain, dump the patterns and problems. Do that all at once. Okay? Once you've got them all done, stick them on the wall. Stick them on the wall under the problem or challenge. Then start to brain dump ideas around what technologies are out there. Now put everything down on that paper.

Nothing is taboo. Nothing is an idea that anyone wants to not consider. Just put everything down on those pizza papers.

And when you get a group together as well, it can be quite a creative process to go through because you're to get lots of ideas. Think about what already exists in another industry that you can take advantage of. Again, brain dump all of those ideas. Nothing is taboo. Just put it all down. How can you apply these to your situation is the next step. So you look at them all and then you start to combine them.

So you combine your problem, challenge, and then potential solutions to that problem. So it might be one problem or challenge, but you might have 10 or 15 solutions to that. Put them all together, map that all out. Use a table to combine the potential solutions when you're mapping these out. That's really important because you'll actually be able to then distill the information so you can consider the impact that that we'll have.

How do you apply these to your situation again? You know, what are those technologies out there? And my third point here is once you've done all that and you can see some patterns that potentially you can use within the business for improvement, test it.

The important thing is don't just develop something and based on what internally you have decided you think is relevant to your customers test it with your customers before you go spending a lot of money on an idea. Testing its viability with a targeted group of customers before going all out, it is so important because you need to know that it's relevant to your market and your customers and that they have a need for it. This stage of the process allows you the opportunity to gain and gather insights in regards to these ideas.

Insights are integral for everything that you do. It's important to look at things broadly rather than just having your opinion or your assumption being the basis for an idea. Any potential improvements you can consider as well based on real client feedback. You're testing the concept, whether it's a service, a process or a product or distribution, it doesn't matter.

It will save you valuable time, money and resources by testing it. Once you've tested, you will have clarity on the next step and the future direction of the innovative idea. these steps, you can become an innovator. This approach combining things that already exist is a simple innovation process. It's not rocket science guys. Anyone can do it. Use the process and seeds the results.

Now I'd love to hear from you about if you've used this process and the results that came from it and your ideas. So post some comments under www.carolinekennedy.com.au. Go to the podcast for innovation for cross industry and cross technology innovation and post your comments. I'd love to hear from you.

Good luck with it all. Innovation is the key to remaining relevant in market and to ongoing improvements. And it's not just for the big guys. You guys can do it too. Good luck.