In the game of life, where neither do we know the complete picture nor the number of pieces that make the picture complete, the necessity is to continuously be on the quest to find the pieces of the puzzle and keep the picture progressively enhanced. But the key is to ensure that at every stage, we have a meaningful short picture. This gives confidence and reinforces faith in the direction of the quest.
It may sound a bit odd in generic sense. Let’s take an example to see if we can derive any sense of out this monologue.
You are given to lead a new initiative for the company – finding and nurturing new ideas that essentially should lead to a disruptive positioning in the market place. Searching and providing meaning to unknown – unknown is the way of life for researchers and scientists in their life. But, in a commercial establishment, this is generally treated as a risky territory to live. Primarily, since you can not attach a timeline for your new idea turning to be truly big via so called business results – a measure commonly used as the baseline for performance – $$!
While innovating to find blue oceans and more so with a drive towards sustainability, establishing clear understanding of feasibility and the associated value/impact on business front becomes the most important aspect.
The big ideas generally fall under one of the category of a combination of Known-Known : The comfort zone : mostly associated with process/business model innovation – even a copy cat approach from another industry.
Known – Unknown: You have seen it work in a different situation but current relevance is unknown. Exploring further on relevance is the best possible alternative to bring this down to the comfort zone.
Unknown-Known : You know what innovation will add value but unsure of how it is feasible in the current context of business. Experimentation is the best possible way forward to bring this to a comfort zone.
Unknown-Unknown: The real hard nut is where lies the biggest discomfort zone in business innovation. The trick is what to establish first – value or feasibility? Mostly, value scores above feasibility – premise being if it’s of value, it’s worth pursuing! End of the day, one has to crack this hard nut and move it to the comfort zone – slowly/progressively! Either you take the exploration route or the Experimentation path, earlier the idea reaches the comfort zone, the better!
So, when on a quest of new business strategy/ new product/strategy, it is good to have a map created based on this typical 2X2 Value X Feasibility matrix and play accordingly to bring thoughts/ideas into comfort zone to show value! – A good progressive elaboration approach coupled with timely involvement of key stakeholders will help in enjoying the cruise!