INNOVATION
Not Everything New Is Good for You
A story about the pain of innovation
At least it may not feel good for you. On the other hand, if it is good for you, it's unlikely to be the same for everyone.
“Innovation is not only about products, but the reinvention of social processes such as social innovation. Social innovation is a novel solution to a social problem that is more effective, efficient, sustainable, or just than current solutions. The value created accrues primarily to society rather than to private individuals.” — Maria Fonseca
People fear change. As such, resistance is a natural response. Future generations may welcome change more openly, accepting that the new is better than the old. Unless of course the new doesn’t work as intended.
Anything that replaces the old often makes the old redundant. In fact, it may make you redundant, or make what was previously considered important, irrelevant — useless.
Innovation can make a once profitable venture, useless.
This article is about the inevitable pains of innovation.
The Pain of Change
Popular innovations that brought clear improvements were painful for some. Change impacts people and companies in different ways, depending on your position, but pain is part of the process, regardless.
For inventors, those who bring innovation to the world, the reward can be the experience of success after years of pain to share their idea with the world.
For others, innovation can cause a huge shift in their life.
Industry
The digital revolution made it easier for people to communicate, search, send, share, store, and entertain.
For traditional publishers and content producers digitization shifted revenue from the physical copy to a virtual copy. In response, they attacked the innovators, like Amazon, Napster and Netflix. They didn’t stop there. They targeted consumers who enjoyed the fruits of emerging innovations, by suing a parent whose child downloaded a free book, movie or music track.
Did their offensive approach work?
No. In the case of movies and music sales, physical copies shrunk year on year since 2000. Books experienced a similar trend initially but regained competitiveness in the last few years.
“U.S. revenues of recorded music grew by 13% to $11.1 billion last year. The driver of that growth? Streaming music services.” — Michael Grothaus
Consumers opted for convenience on demand. Today they want omnichannel choice. The way consumers consume content today has shifted, influenced by innovators rather than combative industry-players motivated to defend their bottom line rather than adopting the new.
Apple played a huge role in this transformation, selling devices to store content like images, music and movies. The iPod. A lucrative venture, underpinned by the App Store that offered a new consumer-demand channel for content creators.
In some industries, selling advert space to companies in exchange for free-content to consumers has created billions of dollars in revenue. Certainly for the host, like YouTube.
- Why only read or watch what your local store is selling?
- Why pay higher prices for content that you can watch or listen to for free after a 30-second ad?
It’s easy to blame consumers. Some companies deployed a blame approach to combat against disruption. A fruitless tactic in the long term.
Others didn’t complain about perceived revenue loss, instead, they found new ways to generate income from other sources in exchange for content. From there they acquired consumers, creating upsell opportunities.
Today, Netflix has the financial muscle to create its own content, releasing films directly to consumers online. More recently they have influenced Box-office releases with independent Movie Theatres willing to accept their new terms — 3 weeks as opposed to 6 months exclusivity.
Reinventing revenue streams is quite possible for any brand that understands the consumer-curve, the tide of revolution. They figure out what a disruptive technology offers to their customers, and rather than spending time beating up their audience, they grab a surfboard to catch the wave of change.
Penalising consumers who try something new, simply because it doesn’t suit your brand or business model, is a one-way ticket to extinction-ville.
People
Not everyone embraces innovation with open arms. They don’t get it. They don’t know why change is necessary. Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. Either way, sceptics are unconvinced of new approaches. They don’t believe it will work. Maybe it won’t. In some instances this holds true. But their belief in the old is strong, convinced that the old way is better, period.
Not everyone buys in. Fact. They distrust innovators selling change in a shiny new box. They fear change. They fear failure. They lack the desire to adopt too. Above all, they know that change tends to bring pain to the party, even if it is better in the long term.
In fairness, their fear is not unfounded. The fact is that many new ideas are no better than the old way of doing things, worse even. History has proven that attempts to innovate can have disastrous results.
- DeLorean Motor Company
- Facebook phone
- Lisa by Apple
- Blackberry storm
- Crystal Pepsi
- Nintendo Wii-U
- Google+
- Zima by Coors
The list is endless. Anyway, the point is that being new does not equate to being better, or validate replacing the old.
“Whoa, Shrek, did you do that? Man, you gotta warn somebody before you crack one like that, my mouth was open and everything!” — Donkey from Shrek
Innovative flatulence is commonplace. The scent of failure is unsavoury. It stinks. This lingering odour of failure inspires inventors to seek out the sweet smell of success.
The inevitable
Great ideas can be painful to deliver. After all, innovation is a gamble. A punt fraught with risk and setbacks, but a worthwhile flutter.
No one can predict if a new idea will work before it’s tried and tested. For example, the dot.com bubble seemed to be a waste of money. But experimentation proved it to be an innovative move with far-reaching implications. Progress funded by dot.com inventors led to the internet technology that we all enjoy today.
Pain is simply hard work. Pain coupled with resilience to stay the course, fueled by a visionary belief. Lots of people have ideas, they learn quickly, start a venture before losing interest and stopping short. Innovators are long term visionaries. They are committed to achieving greatness. They are willing to go above and beyond the possible, despite the huge risk, knowing that failure and humiliation are just around the corner … but so is the impossible.
“I want to put a ding in the universe.” –Steve Jobs
Inventors spend years of relentless practice before unveiling their world-class product or service. As teenagers, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates refined their skills and knowledge before they made sufficient progress to unveil Microsoft and Apple to the world.
Final Thoughts
Failure is the cause of innovation pain. Setbacks, mistakes experienced by those who endure painful decisions for the benefit of others.
- What is your pain threshold?
- How much are will you willing to sacrifice to realise your dream?
True innovators are comfortable with ambiguity. They have a high threshold for pain, change-advocates who learn to understand change.
- Why and if a change is needed
- Why change must happen
- How change begins
- How change gathers momentum
- How it continues
Understanding the pain associated with change is vital for innovation. The cost of change is high for innovators who plan to shape tomorrows world, obsessed with a vision of the future.
Great innovation comes at a high price. The only question is:
Are you willing to pay for it?
