Learn to Innovate

(Published in Banking Services Chronicle November 1999)


Only change is permanent. This is a concept validated since ages. But human memory is too short. We forget our grievances with a party by the time next election comes. We forget the havoc created by wars and get restless after a few years. We forget the periods of failure and bask in our current success oblivious of the hurrying of time’s chariot.

For those who have blissfully forgotten that there was a past and that there will be a future, here is some advice from Gary Hamel in Rethinking Competition: “… you have to create a deep sense of restlessness with the status quo. You have to get people to understand that current success is very impermanent. That whatever economic regime – whatever profit engine – the firm is relying on is, by definition, running out of fuel. You can look at it like a rocket. It blasts off and its energy carries it up and up, but ultimately, at some point, gravity re-asserts itself.”

And what is more, change today occurs as fast as your cursor can blink. There was a time when you finished your education, took a job, and rested secure for more than three decades before you retired. No more so. Today you can’t finish your education. What is knowledge today fades into obsolescence tomorrow. The younger generation is hounding out the elders. In the hi-tech industry, professionals as young as 36 are being told they’re no longer needed. They’re being replaced by those in their early twenties who are willing to do the same work for half the salary.

That is why innovation is something one has to be ever on the lookout for. If only the fittest can survive, our aim should be to discover what can render us fitter. So that we become a challenge for the rest of the world. So that we become the leader and not lag as a follower.

For ages, we have believed that leather is something we use only in cold and/or dry climate. Once rains set in or wet weather arrives, we must switch over to Duckbacks. Because only rubber apparel or shoes can withstand water. But here is sensational news for leather-lovers. P-Tanning company of the US has developed a water-resistant leather. This is what I mean by innovation.

Let us come closer home. We have recently seen how cheap televisions and music systems are if the brand we buy is an Akai or an Aiwa. The man behind the making of the prices affordable is Kabir Mulchandani, CEO of the Baron group. Says he: “Our concept of pricing is consumer-driven, unlike other companies whose pricing strategy is competitor-driven. This comes from Baron’s philosophy of putting a CTV or a hi-fi in every Indian home.”

The big question then is HOW TO INNOVATE? The great relief: information today has become more accessible than ever. We are thus in a situation in which we can convert the challenge into an opportunity. There is no dearth of getting breaks into the world of success now. But the real test lies in converting these breaks into wins.

YOU CAN WIN. No, I’m not referring to Shiv Khera’s book. This is a basic concept on which the world operates. But in order to translate this into I HAVE WON one has miles to go. And, mind you, the tortoise doesn’t win the race today. That does not mean the hare in the story would win either. The maxim today has undergone a minor, but nevertheless vital, shift. “Fast and steady wins the race.”

So press the accelerator and identify the area where you can make a difference. Next, identify who your competitors are. Since it is they whom you have to outshine, try to make yourself additionally attractive in their comparison. If your target segment receives what it perceives to be a benefit much superior to others, you will be established as a brand.