Breaking conventions

“We’ve always done this way”. Conventional approach vs an innovation quest? Why people stick to conventions and why is it sometimes so difficult to introduce innovations?

The world marvels at Elon Musk´s plans of living on Mars and other crazy ideas. People are (and always have been) obsessed with secrets and with thinking about how the world works. We are hungry for all innovative and extraordinary ideas. From this point of view, it is quite paradoxical that often an innovation of an innovation yields little or no response from your customers. Why?

Path dependence

The first reason seems to be simple. People might be amused by the idea of building a skyscraper on the Moon, however, change the packaging of their favorite pasta brand, and you suddenly invite some harsh criticism. That’s where theory differs greatly from practice. Once people feel safe and conformable in their lives and their environment, they may then start looking beyond the basics and into growth or entertainment powered by innovation.

Have you ever contemplated why some inventions were successful while others were not?

Just think about it: by the turn of the 20th century a new invention, the telephone, sturdy landed on the market. A long distance phone call was ridiculously expensive, and yet people embraced the invention enthusiastically. Fast forward a hundred years and we make calls around the world for pennies while walking about a park instead of having to be standing in a hallway.

That invention filled the recognizable need for communication improvement as it was visibly better than telegraph which required specialized training in sending and receiving communications. Now, without any training at all, young and old alike could connect to anybody who was willing to take their call. It played into convenience, our need for communication, with obvious advantages and no visible disadvantages.

In contrast, think of flying cars. They’ve been trying to take off for decades, but never quite managed to land on the market (puns intended). Why? In contrast to the telephone, despite a few somewhat questionable advantages, one does not have to strain their vision to see the risks and hurdles involved.

The story of QWERTY keyboard

In the days when typewriters ruled the writing world, the QWERTY keyboard was invented. The advantages were obvious then: the keys used most don’t get stuck and the letters used least move to harder to reach corners.

Let us ask ourselves a question: Why, oh why do we still use QWERTY, even though the primary reason (keys getting stuck) is no longer applicable? Here’s why: It’s called path dependence. Path dependence is the reason why sometimes it is hard to introduce changes, even in the light of obvious modern-day advantages leading to or even being in the core of progress.

However, we as people would never reach the growth we are enjoying now without innovations, without the leaders who thought outside the box and who weren’t afraid to break the path of dependency.

The power of trustworthy relationships

Most success stories are based on hard work and trustworthy relationships between people. Therefore, if you feel that your business needs the next step up, bet on building personal relationships with your customers. That will open up much greater space for introducing new and crazy ideas, that differentiate your business. And “differentiator” is something that, together with hard work and strong relationships, will take you to that new level.

Be unique, provide people with safety and extraordinary care to allow them to dive into the secret tools and gadgets they haven´t known before.

We all need early birds, trail blazers, adapters that, alongside with us, want to ride into the future prepared for what it may bring.

“If I had asked people what they wanted they would have said faster horses.”

Henry Ford pointed out the importance of new ideas. People were used to living their convenient simple lives, they knew how to ride a horse, and they wanted faster horses. When something faster than horse Ford introduced, the public did not embrace it at first. And look at us now: do you know how to ride a horse? Would you ride one instead of driving? It seems to be natural for us but it wasn’t in the past where people were caught in the net strung between possible and already known solutions.

Connection of old and new

At OKTIUM, we utilize the same very approach. We honor traditional proven ways (like personal human connections), but we also want to keep pace with time and use state-of-the-art functions. One of the solutions of connecting good old with brilliant new in the field of business is an instant live video connection platform that is easy to use, clear, and well-arranged in mobile and desktop environment. Give your customers a great opportunity to see your products live, and talk to a real salesperson while they are shopping online. Yes, space is digital but the salesperson is real.

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