Best practices provide a solid foundation, but breakthrough innovations often come when leaders dare to buck industry norms. Jeff Bezos' famous Day 1 philosophy stresses customer obsession, embracing external trends, and high-velocity decisions, highlighting the need to maintain a startup mentality to keep innovating.
The Risks of Following the Herd
Blindly adhering to status quo processes may seem safe, but it can lead to stagnation. Copying competitors guarantees you'll never surpass them. And doubling down on what worked previously leaves you vulnerable to disruption.
Kodak dominated photography for over a century before digital cameras upended their film-based business almost overnight. Their focus on maximizing current products versus exploring emerging technologies led to bankruptcy.
Leaders who challenge norms and reinvent continually outmaneuver those clinging to legacy models. Netflix moved from DVD rentals to streaming after seeing the writing on the wall. Now they lead a redefined industry, while Blockbuster went bust clinging to physical media.
Cultivating a Culture of Bold Experiments
Transformational innovation springs from a culture allowing bold experiments and learning from failure. This requires psychological safety where people feel trusted and supported while taking smart risks.
Amazon attributes much of its success to embracing bold bets. Leadership principles like "Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit" and "Invent and Simplify" signal that passionate debate and questioning the status quo are encouraged. Bezos himself has stated, "Experiments need to scale. If they don't work, you need to be able to walk away."
Google built its empire by encouraging engineering-driven innovation from the ground up. Initiatives like the 70/20/10 rule, allowing engineers to devote 20% of their time to passion projects, enabled emerging into spaces like mobile, AI, and self-driving cars.
Rethinking How Technology Can Transform Experiences
When exploring new technologies, it pays to start from the outside and work backwards. Evaluate how leveraging innovations in bold new ways could transform customer and employee experiences.
For example, NFL teams developed apps providing instant video replays to fans in stadiums, enhancing engagement. Car companies are exploring how in-vehicle VR could entertain passengers. NASA rocketed team morale and public interest via augmented reality space station tours.
Approach technologies like AI, IoT, and spatial computing with a blank canvas mindset. How could they overhaul business processes or create new revenue streams? Don't limit emerging tech to traditional applications.
Decentralizing Decision-Making
Legacy organizations often hamper innovation with bureaucratic layers. Top-down structures centralize authority with executives who may lack technical vision or the pulse of modern consumers.
Pushing decision-making out to small empowered teams sparks agility. Amazon's two-pizza rule specifies that no team should be so large that two pizzas couldn't feed them, keeping units decentralized and nimble.
Unlocking innovations requires both executive support and grassroots-driven development. Leadership must cultivate and fund experimentation while trusting staff closest to the problems to pilot creative solutions.
Scouting Adjacent Industries for Inspiration
To spur creative thinking, look beyond your own vertical for examples of technologies applied in groundbreaking ways. Solutions often transfer across industries.
For instance, a biotech firm developed AI techniques to predict protein folding. This tech was adapted by financial firms to model risk patterns in markets. And auto manufacturers drew on big data analytics from social media platforms to assess vehicle customer sentiment.
Stepping outside echo chambers also brings diverse perspectives. crowdsourcing campaigns attract concept submissions from every background worldwide. A multitude of lenses spot opportunities singular views miss.
Partnering with Startups and Academia
Large enterprises often struggle to replicate startup agility. But they can gain exposure by partnering with emerging innovators.
Pilot integrations with young companies rolling out bleeding-edge capabilities. Invest in university research labs spearheading new techniques. Acquire startups with promising IP but unproven business models and provide commercialization launchpads.
These partnerships infuse fresh thinking into legacy technology stacks. They also provide ringside seats to evaluate emerging developments up close rather than being caught off guard when they hit mainstream.
Maintaining Continuous Momentum
Defying the status quo cannot be a one-off effort. Leaders must continually question processes and explore technologies from new vantage points.
Establish mechanisms to constantly gather outside input, run experiments, and learn from results. Set innovation goals, not just operational ones. And incentivize staff at all levels to suggest creative improvements.
Technology shifts rapidly. Organizations who disrupt themselves are best positioned to embrace new opportunities and adapt to rising rivals. For enterprises trapped in rigid structures and mindsets, extinction looms. By defying instead of following norms, leaders can unleash innovations that propel sustainable success.