So many of my clients want to set themselves apart from the competition, yet I've had several say "We're just not that different."
Google could have been the same as the others, an extremely useful search engine... but they chose to be something different. Google is THE leader in innovation. The self driving car and the Loon for example - both stemming from Google X.
And Google has 8 (and a bonus #9) Principles of Innovation. I covered the first four in last month's post. They do NOT need to be read in order, they need to be ADOPTED as a way of life and EXECUTED. Go back and read the first 4 later ;)
5) Do not wait for perfection.
Peter Diamandis, Seth Godin, and other amazing gurus also call this - Ship and Iterate. The idea that if you wait for perfection, you will NEVER get to launch. This doesn't mean you should create and launch crap. But, know when your product or service is ready for the public, and trust your users to help you make your offering even better in phase 2.
6) FAIL. FAIL. FAIL.
Failure means you're making progress. But - fail FAST. Don't draw out your failure. That's what will kill you, and your business. The art is recognizing that something isn't quite working - stop, pivot and try again.
7) 10x not 10%
When you shoot for the moon, you may not get there, but you'll get a hell of a lot farther than shooting for Edmonton. (Spoiler - I live in Calgary, AB).
When you're brainstorming, don't set ceilings. Encourage your team to think as B-I-G as possible, and when all the ideas are out on the table, that's when you start to carve out what's feasible now. You never know - many times, a 'BIG' or silly idea becomes the foundation for your latest success.
Peter Diamandis asks questions like:
- "Where are you thinking local and linear, when you SHOULD be thinking global and exponential?"
- "Which of your products or services will become de-materialized or de-monitized with today's advancing technology?" (Think Taxi Company VS Uber)
- "Where INSIDE your company are you taking moonshots?"
8) Have a Mission that matters.
A Massively Transformative Purpose (MTP) - you, and your company, have the power to change your industry, and the world. "Organize the world's information" - Google's MTP. "Ideas worth spreading" - TED's MTP. "To increase shareholder value" - NOT an MTP.
Your MTP gets YOU going in the morning, and gets YOUR employees excited to be part of your brand.
BONUS 9) Measure EVERYTHING. Data drives us.
When data is the driver behind your business decisions, you are less likely to fail. What are you measuring in your business? And more importantly, what are you NOT measuring?
Obviously there are the operational analytics, but on the marketing front - here are just a few examples:
- Website visitors (See my Blog Post about Heatmaps)
- Client touch points - are you using a CRM?
- Facebook analytics
- Open rates on your e-mail marketing campaigns
I'm excited about the world we live in - it's an exciting time (and a bit unnerving) to be running a business. The most passionate and agile will survive!