The Innovation Imperative: Ask 'Why Not' Rather Than 'Why'

‘Why’ is a dangerous question to ask yourself as a tech entrepreneur/intrapreneur

The only thing certain about the technology market is that it is uncertain. Its development is so fast and disruptive that if you try to adopt yesterday's key success factors you might be obsolete tomorrow.

The key is therefore to look for patterns of tomorrow through the understanding of market dynamics by asking 'why not' instead of patterns of yesterday. In other words, trying to understand what made Apple or Uber or any other existing company great by asking 'why', will tell you very little about where the (technology) market is going.

The three-letter word ‘why’ is powerful, because it digs deeper and explores the rationale behind decisions of people and companies.

It is certainly an important tool for a Management Consultant in the analysis of the market, financial situation of a company, etc., but I have come to realize its limitations as an entrepreneur in the fast-paced technology/Internet-of-Things (IoT) space.

Why Invest

An entrepreneur is always looking ahead - anticipating and, if successful, maybe even shaping the future.

'Why' in the sense of looking backwards has little relevance to the tech entrepreneur, as he or she has no real history to ‘understand’ and few things to re-use (the market is going to change unpredictably, and the solution has to be different and better than that of competitors anyway).

Asking 'why’ may even lead to false answers and assumptions if you adopt the patterns of yesterday.

So, why do tech investors always ask this question as the key to assess the potential of a tech startup? Why do they try to understand the past, when they should try to envision a 'why not' future and bet on it?

I would argue that the tech startups with a relatively direct answer to the ‘why’ question are those representing merely incremental innovation.

They will not be the ‘next big thing’. They may develop a cooler headphone, loudspeaker, Bluetooth button, smart switch or similar, but nothing radically new to the market.

So, asking or thinking 'Why Not Invest' is much more powerful than 'Why Invest'. It is also riskier, but without risk, there can be no gains, and the greater the risk, the greater the potential outcome.

Why Not?

The innovations and startups that might potentially be the ‘next big thing’ are those with a point of departure in ‘why not’. It’s a minor semantic difference with huge implications.

Asking ‘why not’ opens a direct and unfiltered line of communication to your inner source of innovation.

Steve Jobs is a great inspiration when it comes to challenging conventional wisdom and the limitations of ‘why’. I doubt we would have ‘apps’ if we only asked ‘why’. No-one could have made a viable business case for enabling software communities to develop apps and the whole world to use them every day on their smartphones and tablets.

Today, though, apps have enabled disruption of practically every industry as a fundamental building block of our digital revolution.

That’s how powerful ‘why not’ is!

If you want to change the game,  you must define the rules for winning!

‘Why’ understands the rules – ‘why not’ changes the rules!

Unleash Your Innovation Capabilities

Try it out in your own organisation. I bet you would start to see new opportunities straight away. Of course some of them will be crazy, but that’s the whole point, because the world is NOT developing in a linear, predictable way!

It will at least spur your innovative capabilities, and who knows what that might lead to?

My own experience with ‘why not’ has led to the startup, Anyware Solutions, and the development of the unprecedented, patent-pending and award-winning Anyware Smart Adaptor.

'Why' would have killed this initiative, as connected light bulbs and smart home devices seem to cover the ‘linear need’ of the home owner (but if that was true, why is smart home still not picking up in the majority market?).

'Why not', however, questions the conventional wisdom that the lamp socket can only hold a lighting product! But 'why not' embed your intelligence and connectivity in a smart adaptor for normal commodity LED light bulbs?

And that in turn opens for the innovative power of designing a new product category – it’s not a connected light bulb, it’s not a smart switch, it’s not a multi-sensor, it's not a WiFi/Bluetooth gateway; it’s all that in one connected device – a Smart Adaptor.

Why not?

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Thanks.