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0:00
My name is John Bessant.
I'm Emeritus Professor of
Innovation and Entrepreneurship
at the University of
Exeter in the UK.
This talk is all about
the challenge of
searching for innovation
opportunities.
0:15
We know that there are many
different sources of innovation,
and the real
challenge we have in
managing innovation
is where do we start?
A random search is
probably not a good idea.
It would be immensely
wasteful, especially when,
as we always are
with innovation,
we have scarce resources.
What we need is some kind
of a search strategy,
some kind of framework
to help us to look
for those opportunities
for innovation.
0:42
If we were going
to make a journey,
we wouldn't simply open the door
and step out into the sunshine.
with no idea of
where we're going,
how long will be gone for,
what clothes we will need,
what other supplies would
be a good idea to carry.
No, we'd make some kind of plan.
Do some kind of preparation.
For all but the shortest
and most familiar journey,
we'd probably find some tools
essential to help us
make that journey.
For example, a compass to help
us with direction finding,
a clock to keep track of time,
binoculars to help us look ahead
and see what's coming,
pick out unexpected obstacles,
and a torch to help us
find our way in the dark
or in poor visibility.
It's the same with
innovation search.
We can make use of
some powerful tools to
help us with different
aspects of the challenge.
1:31
Innovation can take place
in many directions.
Just as we could turn
north, south, east or west
as we leave our front door.
Having a compass can help us map
where innovation
could be possible.
In particular, we can
think about four Ps.
We can think about products,
our products, our services.
Changes in the way we offer
something to the world.
We can think about processes.
Changes in the way we create
and deliver our offerings.
We can think about positioning.
Changes in our offering
in different markets.
Different stories we might
tell about our products
and services and
we can think about
changing the
underlying paradigm,
the underlying business model,
the way we think
about what we do.
We also have the
idea of a spectrum.
Innovation can be
both incremental,
doing what we do better,
and it can be radical,
doing something
completely different.
In our developing
search framework,
we need to make sure we're
covering all of that spectrum.
Looking at opportunities
to exploit what we already
know and also explore
new possibilities.
