Fall 2015 I attended my first tech conference. I was like a kid in the candy store. Ever since I learned cheat codes in Warcraft in the 90s and chatted with strangers on mIRC (Cybersecurity and personal and general data protection rules was unknown at the time, I think), technology has fascinated me. Remember, I was born in 1982 and not born a digital native. This is shocking to most people, but true. I am however borderline millennial and super impatient as the stereotype dictates. The digital tools I have at my disposal today are so user friendly I’ve become lazy and things can not under any circumstances go fast enough. I need tech to solve my problems or add value. I need the value of speed and convenience, but what I discovered that September day in 2015, I suffer from major DFOMO! (Digital fear of missing out).

On stage was a 36 y.o. stating he was scared he was going to be digital outdated. At 36. I was 33 at the time and decided I would not be that person at 36. So, I started an intense prioritization program called anti-DFOMO. I must stay updated. At all cost.

Another guy on stage was energetically speaking about a new technology that was going to revolutionize the world and become the «new internet». Curious by nature, I first set out to try and understand this new technology. And the technology was blockchain. I´ve come to learn that blockchain is a word you can say in any meeting and people freeze. Small drops of sweat start to gather on upper lips and people will not look you in the eye. The subject is hastily changed to more safer terms and most people have absolutely no idea what it is, what the use cases are (other than cryptocurrency) and neither did I. So one thing I decided to get, was a tech mentor.

Some odd three years and many tech conferences, long coffee dates with my mentor and exciting digital innovation projects at work later, my DFOMO has luckily decreased. And some of what I learned so far is this:

1) Do not ask what you can do for tech, but what tech can do for you.

Having worked a wee while in the technology consultant industry, and also been on the customer end of major digitalization projects, I´ve seen it time and time again. Do not implement new tech for the sake of the tech. It MUST add value or solve a problem. For people and/or for processes.

2) Learn the basics…

In my current job, I´m working close with the data centre industry and there are some great examples of basic understanding. This industry is one of the world´s fastest growing power intensive industries. But there are variations of understanding of it. So before you voice your opinion about «The cloud» and the need for data centres, please make sure you understand that the data that is becoming «the new oil» and stored in «The cloud» is NOT stored in the sky orbiting around the globe «somewhere in the clouds», but on a server on the ground, in a physical building somewhere. It´s basic. Learn it so you can make sounder strategic decisions. You do not have to be the expert.

3) Celebrate a fail fast culture

Fear of being technologically outdated is real. Many leaders and execs today suffer from major DFOMO. It’s no longer the survival of the fittest that is the rule, but it is the survival of the most adaptive who will prosper and grow. Fail fast! There are so many things we do not know the answer to at the moment, so the risk of not doing anything at all, is greater than taking a risk and failing. Wouldn´t you rather try than to be left behind?

I was recently asked this question by an executive. My simple answer to this is; No. Innovation, or to be innovative has in my opinion been misinterpreted to mean invention. And an invention can be disruptive. Innovation, on the other hand, is finding new and/or better solutions to changing human needs…

You can disrupt by invention, but you don’t have to by innovation. Having been exposed to and worked hands on with innovation as a corporate innovation catalyst, it is evident that the key to innovation success is not disruption. It is evolution. As Darwin classically puts it; “It’s not the strongest of the species that survive, not the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change”.

We have seen in the past years an extreme rush for being innovative. To follow the newest trends. Rushing into projects around utilizing the latest technology, and at the same time forgetting to figure out the right use or the right why for that technology or trend. What also seems to follow is hasted restructuring of the organization and wrongly adjusting processes, hiring (and firing) the wrong people and perhaps just making a good mess of things?

After discussing a bit back and forth with the executive I asked; is your company struggling financially? Are your employees unhappy? Are your customers dissatisfied with your current offering? The executive’s answer to my questions was; “We are financially stable, but to be honest I don’t know too much about our customers and my employees….But we have to be innovative!”

Sounds familiar? Don’t worry you’re not alone and all is not lost.

A culture for innovation!

To build a culture for innovation, start off by finding the entrepreneurial spark within your company’s DNA. This should be aligned around customers and employees, the two main drivers of classic service value chain theory.

Developing a productive culture for innovation supported by the right agile processes is in my opinion the single most important thing you can do. You should set up an innovation portfolio around

what you deliver today,

what you could potentially easily change and deliver on tomorrow

and what you can deliver in the future.

This will reap results and create a culture of evolutional innovation. (And please don’t misunderstand — thinking big hairy audacious goals are important, but don’t focus all your attention here.) Finding the root cause to your company’s need to innovate is important!!

Worshiping the customer

Amazon is a company who worship their customers, and seem to have found the magic potion to innovation. This is evidenced by their market valuation increase by 1934% from 2006 to 2016. I asked one of my awesome friends, Eliza, who work with customer experiences at Amazon in Seattle what this means to her;

“Innovation and Thinking Big is a part of life at Amazon — but it shows up in many ways. It isn’t an expectation at a specific level or role. It is something everyone thinks about and contributes to. The best part of working at Amazon is the people — and we hire the best! When you get a group of the smartest people together that are all focused on the customer and making the best decisions on their behalf, great things happen”.

Evolutional innovations that we can implement today and tomorrow are plentiful and should be constant. The radical and disruptive ones are far in between. The more radical an innovation is, the more profitable it will be. Yes, the financial risk will higher, but the benefit of said innovation should offset this risk. Therefore, dear executive; Investing in the future without the support of a 50-page business case that strongly support a secure ROI might seem scary, but it is the old way of thinking. You need to change.

So, empathize with your customers, know your employees and be aware of their changing needs. Keep a close eye on technology and trends but make sure you understand what problem it can solve or what the added value will be. Create a strong culture for innovation supported by agile processes. And finally; take some risks and learn from it!!

#innovation #disruption #profitableinnovation #value #technology

Innovation Tuesday er et nytt konsept i Knowit, som ble lansert 18.oktober. Innovation Tuesday er et inspirerende frokostseminar for alle som er interessert i innovasjon, kultur, teknologi og strategi, både for oss i Knowit, men også for kunder og samarbeidspartnere: rettere sagt, for alle som er over gjennomsnittet nysgjerrige!

Først ute var Alexander Bakos Leirvåg fra startupen Lawbotics. Han tok oss gjennom et interessant foredrag om blockchain-teknologien, hva smarte kontrakter EGENTLIG er, og noen gode use cases som eksemplifiserte dette på en forståelig måte.

Teknologien mange forbinder utelukkende med kryptovalutaer er egentlig ganske mye mer enn det. Det kan være vanskelig å forstå bruksområdet til en slik teknologi i et land som Norge, for vi faktisk stoler på hverandre. Blockchain fjerner nemlig behovet for tillit i det to parter skal utveksle verdi digitalt, fordi den samlede konsensus i det distribuerte nettverket sikrer informasjonen. Enn så lenge finnes det ikke mange konkrete eksempler på bruk av blockchain teknologi utover Bitcoin og andre cryptocurrencies. Mange spår likevel at denne teknologien er det nye internett, vi bare vet det ikke enda. Tiden vil vise!

Vi takker Alexander for en inspirerende morgen! 😊

Neste Innovation Tuesday blir tirsdag 12.desember. Da kommer Kahoot! for å fortelle om den spennende reisen de er inne på nå. Det tok Kahoot! 3 år å nå 50 millioner unike månedlige brukere. Nå rykker de nærmere 60 millioners merket. Hvordan skal en av Norges største teknologisuksesser satse videre som innholdsprodusent, samtidig som de holder innovasjonsmomentumet varmt?

VP of Business Development, Åsmund Furuset og leder for digital markedsføring og innholdssatsningen Kahoot! Studio, Agnete Tøien Pedersen kommer til frokostseminaret for å dele sine tanker.

Alle er velkomne, invitasjon med påmelding er rett rundt hjørnet!