The vital processes needed in innovation

We are truly living in the age of innovation, where technology has created new ways of living and communicating that we could not have envisaged. Thirty years ago, when the TV series Star Trek began, we saw Captain Kirk flip his communicator and speak to the Starship Enterprise. Traveling in the Moluccas in the Spice Islands this Christmas, I was amazed how in the most remote islands of Indonesia, young people were communicating with their friends using the latest Blackberrys.

Yet, at Saumlaki airport, two bikers had to go out to the runway first to chase away the cows before our plane could take off.

How do we create something new? The management guru Peter Drucker said that he had to learn a new craft every three years in order to obtain new insights into old problems. For example, he studied Japanese literature to gain understanding of how Japanese thought about problems. According to him, every innovation comes from the cross-fertilization of ideas from different fields.

INSEAD Professors Kim and Mauborgne put it very elegantly by saying that you need to move out of traditional, heavily competitive areas like the Red Sea to explore Blue Oceans where there are few competitors. This is easier said than done, because breaking out of old mindsets is very painful. We would all like to play tennis like Roger Federer, but I don't have the patience or the willpower to diet, exercise rigorously, practice incessantly, and compete strenuously day in, day out.

Innovation is a process, a cycle of steps that must be rigorously followed in order to achieve what you set out to achieve. First you must have a strategy or goal what you want to achieve. This is the search and browse function. It is like shopping in a supermarket. Some people begin with very clear ideas of what they want. Others browse by looking to see what attracts them.

The second step is to prioritize, because we must narrow down our choices. Many people have difficulty making up their minds, because they want everything and end up doing nothing. Success comes from having focus.

The third is to incentivize. If you set a goal, you must create the incentives to achieve that, either to reward yourself or your colleagues. Incentives mean both the rewards and the punishments. People tend to forget that we fail mostly because the incentives are wrong. If you reward failure, you will get failure.

The fourth is to set the standards. Success or failure must have benchmarks. Are you aiming for the Olympics or just the Asian Games, the local market or the global market? A small country like the Danes can create badminton champions because they start their children young and train them through competitive leagues, using world champion trainers.

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