What large companies can learn about innovation from startups

Let’s be honest, nobody wakes up in the morning saying, “I’m going to innovate today!” Most innovations happen with an “aha” moment that often is accidental and unplanned. However, it does seem to happen more frequently to people with a certain mindset — people who are passionate about doing things better than whatever is being currently done.

As an entrepreneur and now an early-stage investor in technology startups, I constantly meet with founders and innovators who strongly believe that they will disrupt and change how things are being done. All of them want to make the world a better place and this is what drives a true innovator. Behind every successful innovation, monetary highs are purely an outcome of achieving the primary goal of an innovation that improves the quality of life for many.

Innovation is driving the present day economy and is a key catalyst for growth. Innovation is not just about new ideas, but also about figuring out new ways of applying these ideas. Innovation allows organizations to leverage their existing processes, people, technology, and information to stay ahead of the competition.

An innovative solution amidst Thailand’s flash floods.

Having not worked at a larger company, it’s difficult for me to empathize with the issues one faces as the CIO or CFO of such organizations. However, given that organizations such as  Nokia with 76%, market-share in 2008 now cease to exist, innovation no longer is a choice but a necessity.

In recent times, we have seen innovation transforming companies, helping them create disruptive technologies that pave the way for a new era of products and services.

One of the best examples is Amazon, which has been continuously innovating for the last 20 odd years and effectively creating the online retailing industry. Then there is Apple, which rewrote history by changing the way we access music through its iPod. Indeed the CIO is no longer the Chief Information Officer but has a newly defined role as that of a Chief Innovation Officer!

How should a large company create a culture of innovation?

Where there’s a problem, there’s an opportunity

The simplest thing to do is to adopt a formula of solving problems that you are facing, both as an individual or as an entity. One needs to train the brain to react so that every problem is an opportunity.

Some may be addressed by you as an individual, some may be addressed by your company, but most might not. Of those addressable, some may improve your situation, some may help others, a few might be commercially helpful to your company, and even fewer might be commercially viable as standalone entities.

Companies such as ZipDial, which transformed premium SMS to missed calls and was recently acquired by Twitter, only happened because the founders came up with a solution to a problem by thinking out of the box.

Encourage and reward disruptive thinking

This is perhaps the biggest challenge we have in a country like India where we are historically trained to comply and do as we are told. However one needs to, at all levels of management, demand and reward disruptive thinking from those lower down in the organisational chart. Some of the ways this can be done are:

• Offsite discussions in relaxed environments and making it very clear to people that all are equals in the day’s discussion.
• Organise hackathons where new solutions are thought-up, mocked-up and prototyped over a weekend! While hackathons have traditionally been held for technological solutions, there also are opportunities to “hack” solutions in non-tech products.

Ending thoughts