I've been in the tech business since 1981, most of it in the Valley. Intellectual arrogance is the rule, and not just in product/service development. It is the VCs, the angels, marketing, management, sales ... anywhere someone or some company has achieved a market advantage. Seems like a necessary part of human nature (a perfectly understandable motivator for others to rise).
I've worked with dozens of companies here, from Asia and the Middle East, helping them get products to market, and have seen how this can destroy companies, people and their families. It is *always* time to question the status quo, and it is *always* time to innovate. The moment a company gets traction, they should start looking at disruption, even if it is just, ultimately, an exercise and they learn from it.
Look around, ask questions, do some basic research, hold contests, hire students part time, hold brown bags, be open to ideas from the outside (and really mean it!). Do something! Don't ever think price is the answer, don't ever think nobody else hasn't thought of what you had, and never, ever think your way to the market is the only way.
And, make certain - absolutely certain - good ideas don't just disappear because they weren't nurtured to fruition. Countless times great ideas have, and will continue to, just fade away. The Valley is littered with incredible ideas that never got the support they needed. It is *not* just the innovative idea that wins, but a holistic program of continuous, contiguous process that needs constant support and monitoring. Not heeding this advice could easily be your ruin. For nearly 30 years, I've seen it first-hand.
Just recently - after a few runs at trying to get a start-up going - I sat down with some old and capable friends and we talked about this very thing. As a result, this fall we will be opening a tech business accelerator - an end-to-end start-up ecosystem - to help individuals and small companies bring their ideas to market. Services like incubators, special one-time programs and infamous corporate/education partnerships (all of which we've all had experience with) don't offer the kind of support actual marketable products and services need to succeed. We hope to make a real difference and be, at least, one group of people who actually tried to do something about this endemic problem.
A tough economy means hunkering down and working twice as hard to maintain the status quo, right?
Not necessarily. This may be the perfect opportunity to throw out old notions and ways of doing things and introduce fresh ideas. Roger von Oech, creativity guru and author of the irreverent classic, A Whack on the Side of the Head, is still a wellspring of “whacky” thinking for business, and recently explained to Robert Scoble why creative thinking is really important in today’s uncertain economic climate. (Bob Scoble’s video interviews here and here.)
The most important piece of advice he could give to businesses, he says, is to be willing to let go of any and all ideas or preconceived notions. This is especially pertinent these days. “There’s something about letting go that frees up possibilities,” he says. The current economic climate “is forcing a lot of us to let go a lot of assumptions that made sense in 2007, or ‘08. Now we have to come up with new approaches.”
For example, a lot of new opportunities have arisen around the iPhone — something inconceivable just a couple of years ago. von Oech even has an app for his “Creative Whack Pack,” first offered as a deck of cards with advice for looking at problems in new ways.
von Oech says he has seen countless companies rise and fall over the years. The issue? “Companies become arrogant,” he says. “I saw that happen with a lot of Silicon Valley companies. They think, ‘my crap doesn’t stink.’ They stop looking for answers, and start believing their press clippings.”
Stay humble, and stay curious, he urges. And block aside time to spend seeking out new ideas. “Give yourself a non-task day every six weeks or so, just to look for ideas in other industries or disciplines to see what you can borrow. You’ll discover a lot of amazing stuff going on.” He adds that “I feel sorry for the companies where they’re so production driven and quarterly driven that they’re not open to new ideas.”
It could be argued that the economic turmoil we’ve seen is exactly the “whack on the side of the head” many organizations need to generate fresh thinking. Regardless of economic conditions, fresh, unconventional thinking is a smart approach to taking your organization in new directions. Remember, the status quo is no longer status quo.
