Innovation the African way!
Sergio Correa de Jesus saying ?To innovate you have to walk as a leopard, be brave as a lion and be agile as a gazelle? can inspire many in our industry?
Walk as a leopard
A vital part of becoming innovative is to start observing things differently. You have to separate yourself from your own existing thought patterns and habits. So, you need to gain new and refreshing insights. An important question is: what are the needs of potential customers? Meeting customers in person and establishing their needs, challenges and frictions are essential to come up with new concepts, which are relevant. To find out behaviour of customers you need to walk as a leopard very prudent and camouflaged in their environment. As people don’t do what they say and don’t say what they do, the best way to get great insights is to behave like a leopard sneaking up on its prey.
Be brave as a lion
Great new ideas sounds foolish the first time they pop up or are told to you, because they don’t fit the normal pattern. A lot of people will reject them at first. They will raise a lot of idea killers, like ?Who would want this?? ?This does not fits us?. ?You won’t get support for this?. Innovation does not end at the first no. That’s when it really starts. You have to be brave as a lion who defends her little kitten. And don’t let others stop you, even if they outrank you. Inspire them. Surprise them. Convince them. Be brave.
Be agile as a gazelle
Getting a great idea is just ?flash? from your subconscious. Innovation is transforming ideas into invoices. The development of new products and services will take you on average between 18 and 36 months. During this period you will probably be busy specifying, developing, prototyping, testing, altering, implementing and changing your new concept. In this process you have to be agile as a gazelle.
In our experience from practice, innovation really is a balancing act. It’s all about:
- Finding the right balance between the business of today and the business of tomorrow;
- Finding the right balance between creativity and business reality;
- Finding the right balance between ‘outside the box’ and ‘inside the box’;
- Finding the right balance between breakthrough thinking and feasibility;
- Finding the right balance between: customer interests and company’s interests;
- Finding the right balance between: breaking rules and fitting existing patterns;
- Finding the right balance between: risks and rewards;
When you manage to walk as a leopard, be brave as a lion and be agile as a gazelle, you will deal with all those challenges in a better way.