Innovation is not born from the dream

Shahzadi Jehangir
Aug 24, 2017 · 2 min read
Photo Courtesy of Dazzle Jam

The goal is to take those successes that pay the bills, keep them going and optimise them. But use that money to make a new thing that creates a new kind of success. Any animal can clean and feed itself. We overcome resistance to do that thing that scares us. That’s what makes us humans. We have the ability to make something that matters now.

Unconventional forms of energy generation like wind and solar power are challenging the economics of traditional power plants and are providing the blueprint for a future in which conventional power plants no longer supply the bulk of a home’s electricity.

Seeking to adapt to upheaval in the energy market, a Dutch utility provider Eneco decided to increase customer loyalty by doing something different. Eneco tested a promising energy monitor in dozens of homes. The company making these monitors failed to deliver enough and some of the monitors didn’t work. Things couldn’t have gone worse. But a strange thing happened when Eneco sent workers to recover the monitors. One tenth of their customers refused to open their doors. They were so happy with the energy insights that they wanted to keep the monitors.

Eneco is providing services rather than kilowatts and betting its future on an unusual strategy, selling less power. It looks for people who already have solar panels at home and tries to sell them a large home battery like a Tesla Powerball. The surplus power generated is stored in the battery and Eneco pays its customers to tap into a portion of that storage to help balance the electricity grid. They may not be following a grand plan but this process of proceeding by trial and error may be what will ensure Eneco’s survival and help consumers shift to cleaner energy.

Understanding humans and the way we connect with each other and the world around us is the key to unlocking the potential for true innovation. Innovation is not born from the dream, its born from the struggle. At its core, innovation is about solving problems in the present, not simply about creating the future.

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Strategist, Innovator & Corporate Entrepreneur… I’m obsessed with driving change for the better. I read, write, think and do to make the newly possible happen.

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