What's Small, Needs Nurtured, And Is Creative? ... Innovation

I am so honored to be invited by Interface Online to present at Venturefest in Glasgow on 1 September 2016 [here], and I hope to give a few helpful tips to entrepreneurs, engineers, and, really, anyone with a great idea.

Understand the market and the customer

One thing I can say is I'm inspired by a whole lot of people ... John MacPherson [here], Don Smith [here], Eamonn Keanne, Gordon Stewart [here], Dr Jamie Graves [here], Richard Lewis, ... possibly not people you have heard of if you don't work in Scotland, but they are people who have vision, and who sustain it. There's often no barriers, and their roles become one of guiding, enabling and supporting, but also in providing important information on articulating the need for innovation.

They also taught me about understanding the customer and in defining the problem that you are trying to address, along with articulating the innovation in a way that others can understand and for which they can see the benefits. The gap is this ... and our innovation addresses this by ... and we'll build .... and reach our target market ... but all along we'll be assessing and reappraising, and taking advantage of any new opportunities that will come along.

So, I'm not a Professor of Business Studies, so don't ask me about the theory behind making innovation a success. I'm a technical bod, and that is what I am good at. I know how to spot great people, identify a gap and how innovation would plug it, and then I'm able, I hope, to articulate to business people what the benefits would be. We have a good track record in attracting funding for our spin-outs, as our research is always focused on producing things which are useful, and which have impact.

My position, as a Professor, helps me get over the technical credibility bit, too. If I say a piece of cryptography is good, then it is likely to be, as I'm giving my academic option on it.  When academia loses it ability to be critical and independent in its thought, it has lost one of its key foundation blocks. So I often help companies with technical due-diligence, and to articulate to investigators to strength on an innovation.

Inspired by ... Amazon

So, one company that really inspires me by Amazon, especially in the way they managed to build an amazing virtualised infrastructure for their e-Commerce system, and then it was so good that they started selling it. That is what I call innovation, and moving into new markets based on your expertise. Their profits from Amazon AWS are now rolling in, and they have created an infrastructure that allows a one-person company on the Isle of Skye to have the same infrastructure as Ford or Boeing.

As you may know we do a great deal of innovation, and we have two successful spin-outs, with another one on the way. We have help so many companies with their innovations, typically with the support on Interface Online [here].

I have some personal thoughts about innovation, especially that small companies innovate better than larger ones, and that it is people rather than funding that make the difference. So, I'm going to use some statements from the CTO of Amazon (Werner Vogels) as my guide:

Innovation comes from small teams that work directly with customers.

Yes! Yes! Yes! If you think a big budget for R&D is going to find you the next great thing, that you are really missing the point. You can't just purchase new ideas. Why do government-led initiatives for IT often fail? Well, it's just someone's job, and they just do it because they've been told to do it. A company gets a contract, and they deliver to milestones, and that's it! If it is your dream ... your vision ... and your driving force ... your shared vision ... that's a whole lot different.

Personally I'd rather give funding to a few guys who know how to build things and have invested time in showing a few prototypes, than a large company who just see it as the next contract that they've won. With government IT contracts, we often see a continual failing to deliver on any form of innovation, as the contracts often go to large IT companies (who often just sub-contact the more difficult elements to smaller ones anyway).

Innovation comes from great minds, and from people with vision. It is knowing where you want to be, and creating a plan to get you there. Along the way, there will be bumps, but you've got to sustain your vision, and re-enforce to others. We always found that a great 3-slide PowerPoint deck was perfect ... "What's the problem?", "What we've done", and "What it will look like", were always a great place to start a meeting. A nice diagram always helped us in getting our case across.

It is easy to prioritize new projects when the engineers really know the customer.

It can't be understated, but if you're developing a health care application, and it's going to be used by nurses, you need to engage them at every point of the innovation, and get them on-board, and to take feedback. Too many systems are designed by taking an existing piece of software, and just porting it, and then by software engineers just thinking about how it should look and feel. The word "engineers" is also important here, as true engineers make things that match a requirement.

Amazon works to lower costs for customers, not just lower costs for itself.

These days innovation around a product often involves working with customers on a long-term basis, and you have got to make sure that your customers do not feel that they are being used to lock them in. If they've adopted your innovation, they should feel privileged and you should do everything possible to make their business better. In that way those who have committed to adopting an innovation will be praised for their work.

Amazon stays focused on the next new thing to build instead of the success its had in the past.

Yes! Yes! Yes! Too many companies sit back on their previous work, and then when something new comes along, their markets can often collapse. Innovative companies should always be looking at the horizon, and prototyping and pushing forward new methods. While it is often not blue-skies research, companies should be looking at the 1-3 year horizon, but know of the 3-5 year horizon too, otherwise they will be caught-out.

Anyone can be a visionary if the person nurtures creativity and works in an environment where new ideas are welcomed.

What a wonderful thing to say ..."Anyone can be a visionary" ... notice to the elements of "nurtures creativity" and "works in an environment where new ideas are welcome".  Truly inspirational talk. Personally, for both staff and students, I'd love to see this on a plaque outside my university:

This is Edinburgh Napier University ... you can be a visionary. This is a place which nurtures creativity and where new ideas are welcome

People can get better at innovation as they age

Yes! Yes! Yes!

You learn as you get older.

You learn what works and what doesn't.

You learn to cope with difficult questions.

You learn to do your research and know your competition.

You learn how to influence.

You become more respected in your judgement and your knowledge.

You learn when to change.

... and most of all ... you learn when you see that something isn't going somewhere.

For many of the project we have done, we often get in an experienced person who really knows the market we are addressing. Not someone with great marketing ideas, but someone who has lived and breathed the market. For computer security, we talked with people like Don Smith, Eamonn Keane and Richard Lewis, as they know exactly the range of products that are in the market, and also the things that are missing.

Conclusions

I cannot articulate innovation better than Werner Vogels, and believe that Amazon is one of the best examples of how to create a company who really understand innovation and their customers. I'm a techie, geeky, sort of Professor, but I do have an eye for know when something is great, and especially where the person involved is great. Often with innovation, it's the great people that you are investing in, as they will take you to places that many would never dream about.

What I've found is that there are so many people who say ... "You can't do that", "It won't sell", "Someone is already doing that", "Where's the market?", and you just have to sustain yourself through it. Once you have a track record, people start to trust your judgement, but it's a rocky path. There are also people who doubt your vision, and who do not want to take risks. They follow the book. They don't see the vision. They do things by numbers. They turn the cogs of the machine, and never the potential of helping an individual or a team.  

I respect those that can spot talent and support and nurture in any way possible. As universities, this should be our core foundation, either from our students, our graduates, or in supporting SMEs.

For small companies, innovation comes naturally, but for big companies, they need to adopt Amazon's approach of creating small team, and allowing anyone in the company to take their ideas forward.

Here's to the next generation of great visionaries ... our future prosperity will be built on them.