Launch Your Innovation Convoy
By: Maya Kosoff, with Sean Branagan
The future of media and entertainment is being created in real time. It is not obvious what we do today that will affect, shape or become this future. Because of this uncertainty, we have been recommending that companies use a storied technique to mitigate risk, share information, accept that uncertainty is a given and develop a new set of skills for this unknown future: Launch a convoy.
Used by the military in World Wars I and II, convoys are groupings of dissimilar vehicles on a singular mission. Small ones. Large one. Faster moving ones. Slower moving ones. In naval history, convoys were designed to provide protection and multiple services to each other. They also increased communication and crosssharing of knowledge. By launching a convoy of innovation you admit you don’t know what will work, but you increase chances of success.
Today, the convoy concept can be seen in how venture capitalists invest. They pick an investment thesis and sectors in which they focus. Then, they invest in a portfolio of companies. These companies can learn from each other, but the investors have the aggregator’s advantage — they can learn from all of their portfolio companies, and apply those learnings in future investments. Media companies need to do the same.
Innovation has been happening in all areas of the media business: in how we create, distribute, consume, share, track, manage, monetize and re-create our media products. The rate of change has only accelerated in recent years.
Launching a single big innovation project is exciting, and its immediate effects feel good.You have a big press release and news coverage. Everyone talks about you. But it’s probably not appropriate, given the depth and breath of changes going on.
With an innovation convoy you can launch big and small projects in all these areas of your business.
You can start pilots, partner to develop demos or testbeds, invest in some areas, pick new vendors for testing, and even acquire a small startup if you can. You don’t have to go it alone. You have a convoy. You can also tailor the convoy to the culture of your company. If you are a company that partners first, do that. If you tend to build it yourself, go do that. But also try the alternative way for balance and learning. The key element: LAUNCH.
There are plenty of business consultants and great books on innovation, and many talk about culture change and tactics. But few deal with the width and depth of disruption that the media industry has seen. The convoy approach is a good answer to the level of uncertainty and the diversity of solutions needed.
“I came up with the Innovation Convoy concept when listening to a Naval history presentation on leadership and innovation. The convoy was an answer to a problem of how to better defend cargo ships during war, but it was also a leadership strategy for taking action by trying things,” Sean Branagan, director for the Center for Digital Media entrepreneurship, told me.
Having witnessed firsthand the lightspeed rate of change in media and technology and seeing how unprepared media companies and professionals are for these changes, Branagan has been recommending the convoy concept to those he advises. “Years later when I would see these big company press announcements about media innovation projects, I realized a convoy strategy could help mitigate the risk, increase the learning, and actually protect the company’s true innovation effort and mission. Big announcements feel great, are familiar and are usually followed by pats on the back, but it’s a bad strategy in a world of uncertainty and fast-changing market forces.”
Launching an innovation convoy benefits media companies in myriad ways. You need to learn fast, and a convoy quickens, broadens and operationalizes that process by making you nimble. You’re already a creative organization; with a convoy, you can apply that creativity in the development of your business, your products, and your services.
For too long, more traditional and established media companies have shied away from introducing too much innovation too quickly. But the concept of a convoy allows you to develop innovation and entrepreneurship muscle intrinsically, inside your organization. Instead of being disrupted and constantly finding yourself chasing the next big thing, you’ll learn to disrupt.
We don’t know what we don’t know. But with a media innovation convoy, you will learn more than you can imagine, and you will see things you never saw before. Most importantly, it gives you more control over a constantly changing landscape. How do you know it’s working? If you look back in six months and you aren’t embarrassed, you’re doing it wrong.
Being an early adopter is the same as being a follower. By taking on a convoy approach, you’ll lead by leading.
Bon voyage.
