Exploring Opportunities (Part 1) : Approach and Mindset to Capture Signs of Innovation
mct provides business design support for departments like New Business Development and Research and Development by using design thinking to explore business themes, identify business opportunities and issues, and verify business ideas. ( Click here for details )
This time, we will introduce the theme of “opportunity search” in business design, from the basic concept to mct’s specific approach.
As the first part, we would like to share about our approach and mindset in searching for opportunities, under the theme of “Approach and Mindset in Capturing Signs of Innovation”.
Opportunities for innovation emerging within the industry
In his book, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Peter Drucker, a leading authority on business administration, organizes opportunities for innovation into seven categories.
· Unexpected success and failure
· Incongruities
· Needs
· Changes in industrial structure
· Changes in population structure
· Changes in perceptions
· New knowledge
The sequences of seven opportunities are also meaningful. The top four are “factors that appear within the industry”, the bottom three are “factors that appear outside the industry (generally)”, and it is explained that the probability as an opportunity for innovation is the highest from the top, reducing to the bottom. In other words, the opportunities for innovation are actually already present within the industry.
Drucker explains that the reason why we cannot seize these opportunities is because the industry’s implicit assumptions and biases narrow our view and prevent us from seeing signals and signs as “unexpected elements.”
“Unexpected successes and failures” listed at the beginning of the seven opportunities, especially unexpected successes, are the most important elements, and despite the fact that we are already seeing results, we do not associate them with our existing business. It tends to be regarded as an “unexpected element” that does not exist.
This time, I would like to introduce methods and ideas for “capturing the signs that have already appeared” in a total of 6 blogs under the series of “mct’s opportunity search”.
Series content:
Part 1: Approaches and Mindset for Capturing Signs of Innovation
Part 2: Uncovering Signs with Anomalies Driven
Part 3: “Diverse glasses” to recognize opportunities hidden in anomalies
Part 4: Three types of opportunity-seeking user research focusing on anomalies
Part 5: Using inclusive design as opportunity-seeking user research
Part 6: “Positive Deviance,” a problem-solving approach to learn from positive outliers
Opportunity-seeking mindset
I will discuss about specific approach and methods from the second part, but what is necessary to capture opportunities positioned as such “unexpected elements” is the observer’s mindset.
It is important not to overlook facts that at first glance seem irrelevant, and to have a different perspective from the way we use our mind in our daily work, to see how we can be interested in and be exposed to unexpected events inside the industry.
By verbalizing and intentionally transcending the prevailing views of reality, rules, and norms that are implicit assumptions, let’s explore solutions for dimensions that have not been considered before.
References
“Innovation and Entrepreneurship” Peter F. Drucker
At mct, we support business development and digital transformation while sharing insights, from opportunity exploration to market and customer understanding, concept creation, and business design.
Specifically, we help refine business ideas on a side-by-side basis, develop business creation processes for companies, support the development of human resources responsible for business creation, and support the operation of co-creation ecosystems that aim to solve social issues. We also support a wide range of business design, please visit our website for more open resources and further details: https://mctinc.jp/service-bddx
Originally written in Japanese by Fumihiro Shimono, posted at mct’s Blog: https://mctinc.jp/blog/20221011
mct design strategist
