(Ruta Writes...) Innovation - to tread a new path ... revisited

I was a part of the Global Innovation Forum this week and it inspired me to go back to the "... to tread a new path" article - Here it is:

They say that “Once the game is over, the king and the pawn go back in the same box.” It’s something that many of us believe! I feel that this is a saying for those fatalist people who believe that they are led by their destinies. Few are those gems who stride the path that no one has, seek the light in darkness that no one has ever dared to. I feel... it is not about the destination but more about the journey and the way you live it. Sometimes, it is as simple as - decide to walk and the paths start following. Imagine… one lost in an expanse of grassland of thousands of acres where no one has ever been. There is nothing but the vast spread grassland and somewhere at the horizon, the grassland meets the sky. One decides to walk to seek a human settlement. After walking for a substantial amount of time, if one turns back and sees, for once will he realize that he has marked a way of his own that people might follow. The challenge to seek new roads will be more fun than reaching the destination. One may be known only by what one has achieved and people will look just at the outcomes. But, only one as a person will know the best parts of his journey. As a designer, I have seen that people and clients get awed by the final and finished products… but at times, I feel that the final product is not as beautiful as the inchoate idea. When innovating, the part of the ideation process where a innovator can really reward himself is the creation of an incredible idea… the creation of a path, creation of the set of solutions to an issue, to a problem that no one has thought of. The evolving of such an idea sets adrenaline running in an innovator’s bloodstream and gives him the spirit to create more… But when such people are constrained and made to abide by some parameters, it is then that the level of the invention starts degrading.

It is very hard to find such a person who doesn’t succumb to any such impediment and prospers. As a designer, I have listened to many people talk about hows, whats, whens and wheres of innovation. Most of them talk about innovation as a subject and a add-on to which, I believe, no listeners pay any heed. It is always inspiring to hear from people who not only "create" as a part of their profession, but imbibe it in themselves and make new innovation, a habit.

As innovators, we have to face practical constraints and come out of them. A classic and a convenient approach to address an issue would be to give out an optimum solution that fits well into the requirements and follows the constraints. But, how will it be to gaze at the solution which would be a mere factitious beauty that we have created? Thinking from a different point of view, and the changing perception of innovation from a mere add-on to a strategic step, where a innovator becomes a path director, a manager, a strategist, a economist and other endless positions, could we say that we could just not give out solutions to people but, guide them what to do and then surprise ourselves with the varied outcomes? Could this kind of a vision be translated into reality? Can we just raise people’s aspirations and leave them on their own to make them realize what they really want? Can we as innovators believe in ourselves so much that we boost people’s understanding about what they really want and be sure that people accomplish their solutions? Can we just go one step ahead of optimists and be leaders who direct the masses? Can we be content just to point the way and not actually walk the path but still be able look back only to find that we have actually come a long way over the lonely grassland?

(book review ) Buy-o-logy

Buy-o-logy: Truth and Lies about why we buy by Martin Lindstorm
DoubleDay, NY-USA, 2008

I have already written a review on one of Lindsotrm's latest books - The Brand Sense. Buy-o-logy is a pre-sequel to that. "Neuro-marketing" is one word that describes the book.

Using reasearch techniques like MRI instead of the traditional focus groups, questionnaires, interviews, observation, etc. to study the behavior of consumers (to study why we buy) is the basic idea in this book. The author considers his subjects (consumers) as unpredictable and irrational and he atttempts to understand them through  his research techniques. He tries to make a link between thoughts and actions while we buy.

I was fascinated after reading the book and it sure made me think why I buy and I started analyzing every product on shelf and every advertisement I saw after that - interesting.

Just one complaint - This is a research focused book and the author hasn't given much on applying these findings in real world settings or hasn't focused much on giving targeted examples (marketing).

(Ruta Writes...) A Field With No Borders - Way to Innovation

Nature is just like that - no boundaries whatsoever. An atom can today be part of the oceans and tomorrow that of land.

I like to apply similar thinking to our lives - why is it that they say - a designer is a designer, that a doctor is a doctor that a business person is a business person.

We are educated from our toddler years. At first, we are taught a wide array of subjects in school - as we grow older and go to college, we choose a few subjects to study and then as we study more, we choose our focus and as we go ahead, our focus keeps on getting smaller and smaller - Nothing wrong with that - It is a good way to learn what you really like. Concentrating only on one subject deepens one's knowledge about the subject but in the course it cuts one's association with other subjects. Our thinking gets locked into a pattern and we start thinking in a predicted manner as we learn from our concentration study. Such pattern hardly evokes innovation.

But, as observed, innovation happens when there is a radicle change in the thinking pattern. When it comes to Mac and its success, Steve Jobs does not forget to mention his course on Calligraphy that gave him the design sense. It helps when you can take different points of view to look at a problem - that sparks innovation. If you have just one tiny view to look at a Elephant, you might see just the trunk or the tail or the leg - and assume that a Elephant is just that. It is only when you broaden you views, look around and have various perspectives, will you understand the animal.

Being a Master of one and a Jack of all is the way to innovation. Being multi-disciplinary in one's outlook, education and jobs should be encouraged. This is one key element to innovation.

Schools like Stanford are now encouraging and have courses where design thinking is applied to Business and Engineering. I feel this is just the start of a new era where a field will have no boundaries.

(book review) The Designful Company

The Designful Company: How to build a culture of nonstop innovation by Marty Neumeier
New Riders, Berkeley-USA, 2009

The Designful Company takes off from Neumeier's previous books - The Brand Gap and Zag. Like his previous books, this one too, is a little, not so wordy, comprehensive book that you can finish reading on a short train ride.

Neumeier throws some light on the competition that business face in today's world while attacking the obsolete strategies of the industrial age that companies tend to use even today. He convinces that a firms needs to make innovation a  permanent strategy to stay in the game and that companies today need to integrate design practices in businesses to better position themselves against competition and to stand out of the crowd. This would mean empowering designers in the company and giving them a platform in the company where they can canvas their ideas.

The Designful company sure talks about designers and design thinking, but the most important part is that design drives change or rather, design is change. Creativity leads to innovation.

I liked the reading list at back of the book - gives some relevant good read titles, listed subject-wise.

I liked this book, but not so much as The Brand Gap.

(book review) A Fine Line

A Fine Line: How Design Strategies are shaping the future of businesses by Hartmut Essligner

Jossey-Bass, SFO-USA, 2009

'A Fine Line' is written by Hartmut Essligner, the man behind the ace design company - Frog. Overall, the book talks about how the company developed, how design is now an important and respected field in the business field, the life-cycles of various products and projects that Frog did and did not. I like Essligner's work - he is the founder of Frog and has worked on some of the world's biggest brands like Apple, Sony, Disney, etc.  But as far as the book is concerned, I wish he went into more detail on the projects he describes. 

I like the way he describes his journey - defending and making successful design solutions. He spends a lot of pages writing about Frog's work with Apple, which is interesting. The book also gives some glimpses into blends of design and businesses. 

This book is a fine read, but I wish there was more written on how the projects were developed and delivered. Rather, the book mainly boasts about Frog's success and they way they got their clients and the way some companies lost on their businesses as a result of rejecting Frog's advise. I hope Essligner writes another book with more emphasis on the actual processes in design, strategy and business. 

(Ruta Writes...) Unique Experience - The brand mantra

With our basic needs served (food, shelter, clothing) and with multiple choices at hand (work, health-care, relationships), we still think we need “something” more. “Something” that is not perfectly defined but something that has to do with the very fact that we are humans. To satisfy the higher order of things that has to do with emotions, recognition and education. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Need


Recall the last couple of hundred years or the industrial age - we progressed rapidly and built factories, safe homes and invented faster means of transport. All the basic needs were served. It was as some call it - the blue collar economy, the 'one size fits all' approach. But, then, the computer generation or rather the information economy sprang up and made the blue collar economy obsolete. Serving basic needs is taken for granted in this age and what this economy looks to serve is the “higher needs”. The blue-collar workers of the industrial age are the white-collared men of today (the information age). The kind of work people do has changed. A person no more has to spend his entire life in a factory setting doing the same repetitive thing over and over again to earn a living. Today's jobs require education, specialized skills that one learns in school or at work and at the least, an ability to take some decisions. One needs to be able to think independently to succeed today.

Therefore, the way companies grow has changed too. Brands are no more symbols or 2D marks that just tell the name of the company – they are identities that personify the company, talk about its values and what it represents and much more. No one has seen what Intel core looks like (except may be the computer guys) – but when we see the Intel sticker on a computer, we know that there's “Intel inside... ♫ ting ding ting ding”.  The brand race has changed. Industrial age was when companies decided what the consumers should have. Companies commanded and the consumers followed. But, with all the basic needs served and options available today, consumers demand and the companies need to serve. The one-size-fits-all approach does not hold foot anymore. (Of course, most of the thoughts I have discussed so far, apply to the Western developed countries)

With globalization and people moving all across continents, the markets are more diverse than ever. Companies need to define, focus and then serve target audience out of these markets. One-size cannot fit all - the more the targeted the audience the easier for the company to set objectives and give more personalized and targeted products. Its no more about just serving needs - needs are served anyway - its no more just about price - people pay a lot of money for the brands/ services they like/ want - Its about giving the experience. Its about making the consumer feel “special”. I like the way Marc Gobe puts it in Emotional Branding - “Cultural Relevance + Meaning + Emotional Connection = Loyalty.”

As we know, life in the information age is complex - of a higher order. We live in cities full of people and in big apartments with 100s of neighbors around, and don't even know who our neighbor is. We look to satisfy our need for recognition and our emotional needs. Relating to a brand that satisfies these needs is a manifestation of the same trait. This is natural for us. A brand that gives a unique identity and relates to our needs and gives unique experiences will succeed in today's information economy.

(book review) Brand Sense

Brand Sense: Sensory Secrets behind the Stuff we buy by Martin Lindstorm
Free Press, NY-USA, 2005 (Paperback edition, 2010)

I have always been fascinated by Martin Lindsotrm's ideas – especially after I read his 'Buyology'.

'Brand Sense' is a informative and enjoyable and yet a quick read – one that you could complete reading in 2-3 hours. While most content of the book is thought-provoking and is full of fresh ideas, some small parts of the book are basic (may be interesting to a reader new to the idea of branding).

Typically, marketers rely on vision and sound to create a marketing mix for a brand. Lindstorm unleashes new ideas on using other 3 senses as well – touch, smell and taste. He rightly points out that more the consumer is engaged in the brand experience, more likely he is to buy the brand's product/ service. In this cluttered world of advertisements, brands should create a unique story by engaging as many senses as possible to create a lasting impression.

The book contains some interesting real-life examples on brands like Microsoft, Toblerone, Coke and Apple. He highlights the use of each sense with an example. One of the examples I enjoyed was that of Toblerone. He goes ahead to explain the shape of Toblerone – the shape is what makes the product – you would not associate the same taste and experience with the same ingredients presented in a flat bar.

All in all, definitely worth a read. Would recommend this book to anyone interested in branding, marketing or in general growing his business.