The most innovative companies in 2014 were: Apple, Google, Samsung, Microsoft, IBM, Amazon, Tesla, Toyota, Facebook, and Sony (Source: BCG). Many corporations are innovating – yet in different areas that have provided each of them with unique success.
· Excess Capacity – Airbnb has more lodgings on any given night than all Hilton hotels combined by leveraging their network’s excess capacity.
· Customer Needs – Hilti, who’s core business is tool manufacturing, became a tool management service for contractors – who need the right tool at the right time. Up front capital to buy new tools is cost prohibitive, especially when required tools are not used often.
· Experience – Whole Foods does not just provide customers with groceries, but with a unique shopping experience including high-quality organic products, strong customer service, and corporate social responsibility.
· Product and Services –
o Nike+ allows athletes to track performance statistics and improvements over time
o Apple offers music, videos and games with their products
o IBM complements technology with their consulting practice
· Brand Extension – Lego moved away from bricks in the 1990’s and almost killed the company; however, their 2014 Lego Movie grossed $463 million worldwide.
· Pricing –
o Adobe made short-term sacrifice during transition from selling packaged software to SAAS in 2011.
o What if a gym membership fee increased if you didn't work out enough?
· Timing –
o YouTube would not have been successful 5 years earlier because bandwidth was not available.
o Webvan (grocery delivery) cratered in 2000, yet InstaCart is hugely successful 14 years later.
· Mergers – 2 companies, Soap and Margarine, merged in 1929 because they were both dependent on the same raw product – oil. Their head-to-head competition for supplies was driving up the production price for both companies. Today, that company is Unilever.
· Location – Innovation hot spots filled with incubators and accelerators include: Silicon Valley, Berlin, London and Tel Aviv.
· Social Responsibility – In the United Kingdom last year, I saw a urinal in McDonald’s that boasted no water consumption, saving 100,000 liters of water a year.
Where is your company innovating?
