Why traditional innovation doesn’t work based on historical data!!

We are going through one of the most significant periods of global uncertainty that is impacting every corner of this world including our families, friends, our ability to be normal, and every financial market or company regardless of size. The last time this happened and shared similar global impacts was the Great Depression of 1913. 

We are entering a brand new global revolution where only the most innovative, nimble, customer-centric, creative, strong-willed and empathetic; nations, companies and employees will succeed in creating a new innovative culture that will be unrivalled and unmatched by their competitors. This means?

We are bracing for a new ‘Challenging’ dawn and a significant new reality on what lies ahead for all of us in every corner of the planet. I am not trying to create fear-mongering in any way but where comes change, comes new opportunities for our civilisation to become better if all parties agree? This means no blame, it means action!! Pretty simple right? 

‘Pre-COVID-19’. The situation regarding the use of innovation and customer insights  was very embarrassing in my opinion. Most companies really do not truly know or understand what their customers want? They say they do but the reality is a limited ‘blurred’ insight or <30% understanding of a customer that may have been with them for their lifetime!

Our favourite brands and companies collectively waste billions of dollars each year trying to get you the consumer to buy their products. Companies honestly think they know what their consumers want? 

There are obviously many companies that do deliver what the consumer needs but the reality is they equate to <5% of leading global brands who consistently out-perform their competition, generate strong YoY growth and end-up acquiring their competition. Was that you?

So why does this continue? Companies collectively create and promote unappealing consumer advertisements, infomercials, videos etc or conduct consumer interviews with the minimum number of focus (test) groups to generate an output of agreed market consensus! 

Once results are in, new products are created while not factoring-in; a real customer audience beyond 50-100 focus group members or 1,000x real guinea pigs (users). One must also factor-in that many of these companies do not utilise tried and tested methods such as design-thinking, AGILE and/or similar structured processes. 

The impact of this historical approach helps contribute as to why up to 95% of new products fail!

Now that we know why this approach doesn’t work, let's focus on large/enterprise companies that do have the resources but again they fail to hit the mark with the same failure rates across new products <95% of the time. These larger companies can afford the required resources, tools, platforms, programs etc and have a huge edge but at the same time, they really struggle to execute! 

Why is execution of new ideas or customer insights such a problem? The list of reasons is very large, very political within the company and not necessarily aligned to the company strategy or business objectives. So how can we change this?

To be brutally honest, I think there is no single-way to change this dilemma but there are many proven ways which can collectively change and challenge this antiquated model. Without true, genuine leadership, sponsorship and a burning desire for real change that everyone is committed to, companies will continue to struggle or worst-case they just won’t exist anymore. This is reality right now!

I wanted to include some statistics shared by the late Clayton Christensen (Harvard), an absolute legend, global guru and Harvard expert across the Global Innovation ecosystem. The statistics quoted here by Clayton Christensen (Harvard) demonstrate that public consumer support or public opinion will always hold the cards based on the number of new products created, failed and/or being recreated or re-hashed for the sake of it. So if the consumer holds all the cards, what are we really doing about it?

The above discussion is really important to note for any new product or customer insight that sits behind any new market product development. Successful companies will use a multitude of skills and processes that try to engage the customer’s empathy, while affirming, the real feasibility and validity of the customer through a well orchestrated commercial business model. 

I take this opportunity to challenge the historical status-quo and processes that contribute to how traditional innovation is delivered. The information that I am sharing is well documented in terms of its extremely low success-rates and you must consider why? UCROWDME, ‘Ideas as a Service’ will become the new norm for global companies and citizens to create together as one in a more meaningful and value-driven approach, whereby the ‘Voice of the Customer’ is actually heard and not just glanced over?

UCROWDME, ‘Ideas as a Service’ is about creating a single, scalable, unbiased, equality driven platform where global citizens (users) can create and ideate at scale for free, with real empathy and conviction, against their favourite brands, companies, employers or respective Government departments. 

Corporate citizens (paid subscribers) i.e. any registered company with 1+ employees will now have a real opportunity to compete against their biggest competitors. A single-level playing field once and for all; that provides an opportunity for talent to shine, enabling ideas to flourish, new designs that push boundaries and all within a trusted, secure environment where ALL intellectual property is secured with provenance via Blockchain.

Why am I writing this and why now?

Challenge the status-quo, challenge you as the next inventor, challenge why your company runs in a hamster wheel and doesn’t design, act or impact like your competitors. UCROWDME is about creating a truly connected global community where everyone has the same equal opportunity and the rules of engagement are equal and fair. Pretty simple right? :)

UCROWDME ECOSYSTEM OVERVIEW:

1:3000 Raw Ideas or Conceptual Ideas equals 1x commercial success ($100M +/-)

Improvements in the standard of living depend to a remarkable degree on the success of industrial innovations, but the odds of any one idea becoming an economic success are so very low that many ideas are needed. Success curves for industrial innovation have been developed from three major sources, including: the project literature, patent literature and experience, and venture capitalists. Remarkably similar results were found from all three sources of information.

The UCROWDME platform will be able to reduce the quoted numbers above based on 3,000x raw ideas = 1x commercial success by at least 50% based on our 'Artificial Intelligence' powered engine delivering many algorithms that remove the first two stages of the proposed 'Success Curve'. Our platform will even extend into elements of stage three thus reducing the number of raw ideas required for a commercial success excluding any realised resource costs documented in the above table.

My Inspiration:

Steve Jobs, Clayton Christensen, Mauro Porcini, Inc.com, MIT, Greg A. Stevens, Jonny Ive, Guy Kawasaki, James Burley, Thomas Eddison and Pluto.

Inspirational Quote:

I'll let the late Steve Jobs answer that one: "The only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it."

For more information on UCROWDME please email: [email protected]

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