How breakthroughs happen
The unexpected reality behind corporate creativity
Description
Creating future breakthrough products hinges on creatively leveraging past successes, both within and outside one's industry. Rarely do business breakthroughs occur in a "eureka moment"; instead, most valuable innovations result from "technology brokering", where successful ideas from one industry are adapted to another.
To excel in the future, we must effectively utilize the past. The outdated image of a lone genius inventing the future in isolation should be discarded. Innovative companies thrive not by disregarding the past, but by repurposing it in novel ways, leading to an innovation process that makes smaller, safer bets by building on what already exists. - Andrew Hargadon.
Table of contents
01Technology brokering tactics
Technology brokering is a concept that hinges on the recombination of existing ideas to spur innovation, rather than the creation of entirely new concepts. It involves a systematic approach where a proficient technology broker traverses various industries, transferring ideas from their known applications to unfamiliar territories. This process of recombinant innovation is central to product breakthroughs, as every technology, no matter how complex, is essentially a fusion of different elements that work together to achieve a specific goal.
The history of technology brokering can be traced back to notable figures like Thomas Edison, whose Menlo Park laboratory was a hub of innovation, producing over 400 patents in six years. Similarly, Henry Ford's Highland Park Factory and Design Continuum are examples of how the recombination of existing ideas and technologies from various fields can lead to significant breakthroughs and commercial success. These idea factories were organized along the lines of technology brokerages, illustrating the power of connecting and recombining existing technologies in innovative ways.
Innovative breakthroughs often occur when the networks surrounding different technologies form new relationships with each other. These abrupt shifts, akin to "phase transitions" in physics, can unveil numerous commercial opportunities. Inventors are not necessarily more creative than others; they are simply better connected, spanning more networks than the average person, which gives them an edge in forming new associations between technologies.
02Networks' role in tech brokering
To enhance your chances of generating novel concepts via a technology brokering approach, there are three actions you can undertake. Firstly, explore multiple markets, industries, and geographical regions for established technologies, products, and business models. Secondly, experiment with these ideas, both mentally and physically. Understand their workings, their strengths, and their weaknesses. Imagine potential applications for them. Thirdly, observe individuals utilizing similar products. For instance, design continuum's engineers observed doctors using surgical tools during procedures. They noticed the doctors' complex routines to compensate for their "missing third arm," which led to innovative ideas. This process of technology brokering—utilizing old ideas as raw materials for a multitude of new ideas in entirely different contexts—allows companies to innovate continuously, a crucial capability for any firm. The key to successful technology brokering is to systematize the constant generation and testing of fresh ideas. This approach takes the mystery out of innovation and provides a steady flow of ideas, which is the most valuable currency in the new economy. Without a constant flow of ideas, a business is at risk of stagnation.
Expand variety
Innovation thrives on the interplay between diverse fields, fostering serendipitous discoveries through a network of weak connections across various communities. This approach counters the isolation often found within specialized industries, where awareness of external advancements is limited. By engaging in multiple fields, individuals increase their exposure to new people, ideas, and objects, facilitating the cross-pollination of concepts. Preparedness to seize opportunities as they arise is crucial, as history's great innovators, like thomas edison and louis pasteur, have demonstrated. Pasteur's dictum, "in the field of observation, chance favors only the prepared mind," underscores the importance of being ready to act on innovative insights. Technology brokering firms exemplify this by navigating different worlds to identify how elements from one can benefit another, thereby increasing the likelihood of innovation. This mindset requires not only knowledge but also the wisdom to recognize and act upon the potential for innovation, avoiding the pitfalls of being narrowly focused.
03Executing tech brokering strategies
To innovate using technology brokering, bridge tech gaps between industries, create new networks around tech combinations, and shift r&d to real-world observation. This strategy, not for all firms, involves leveraging existing technologies and empathic design to understand customer perspectives, but may be challenging for large organizations with established supplier and customer relationships.
Imitate best practices
Technology brokering requires a company to adopt a flexible organizational structure that encourages innovation and creativity. Successful technology brokers, such as ideo, use project-based teams that bring together diverse experiences and disband after project completion, allowing for a dynamic approach to technical challenges. To foster innovation, technology brokers must excel in capturing good ideas from various sources, maintaining them through tangible means or knowledge management systems, finding new uses for old ideas, and rigorously testing promising concepts in real-world applications. The corporate culture within these companies prioritizes the best ideas, irrespective of their source, and promotes a shared mission where credit is secondary to contribution. This culture of wisdom values the application of knowledge over knowledge itself. Assembling a team with varied industry experience to think like independent brokers and encouraging a fresh perspective is crucial. This approach creates an internal marketplace for ideas, where the "nothing-is-invented-here" mindset is highly valued. The strategy of technology brokering thrives on bridging different worlds, combining existing elements in innovative ways, and fostering an environment where ideas and contributions can adapt and grow in value with each new challenge. Without the right structures, practices, and culture, technology brokering cannot succeed, just as these elements are ineffective without the ability to navigate multiple worlds.
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