Spotting Trends and Harnessing the Evolution of Innovation and Technology for Your Benefit

This past November I participated in an Innovation conference where I had to present the results of a group brainstorming session on the subject of how to create innovative cultures in staid companies. This past December I was approached by another Innovation conference to participate as panelist on a thought leadership conference. This February I am giving a keynote address at a Frost and Sullivan conference on the subject of spotting trends and market shifts, I was approached by F&S to do so due to my work in Innovation Management.

All of these events prompted me to think about the subject of trends and to write this entry. Some trends are so, so evident that there are hard to read; it is something akin to fish not seeing water because it is all around them. Who was it that said something to the effect that the hardest things to see/understand are those that are closest to us?

Well, I won’t make this mistake here. One trend seems fairly evident to me now: Innovation is a complex subject that EVERYONE seems to be interested in learning about.

Another trend that I have identified is embodied on the article titled: Universal builds site to master its own mobile destiny, by The Hollywood Reporter. This article addresses the nascent movement to by-pass the “walled garden” approach that has been a favorite of the telecom carriers in the USA.

Since this article, however, the likes of Verizon, to their credit, have responded in kind and have committed to opening up their mobile networks to application providers; a commendable move and a good salvo in the “open networks” squabble.

If one believes – as I do – that “technology will always find a way” then the walled garden approach that carriers have been espousing is dying real-time- as in right now.

The evolution of digital technologies has demonstrated over and over again that with the passing of time, technology will evolve with immense increases in processing power. Further, the trend also has shown that with more power comes more simplicity which in turn drives ease of deployment and, ultimately, its use. This news item is the very proof of this fact; the ability of Universal to want to be “the masters of their own destiny” is only achievable because of the relentless pace of technology.

As technology develops and advances, it becomes dispersed; accelerating innovation and leading to the creation of easier-to-use technologies which in turn enables new business models and revenue models. In the case of Telecom and media, these models are becoming less dependent on the carrier’s strict revenue- sharing percentages and the networks.

We all know by now that resistance to the progress of technology and innovation is futile, therefore carriers and those in the business of delivering content need to have strategies on how to deal with it and these strategies need to be intelligently managed and deployed. Moreover, resistance, and hiding from technological innovations, can embolden their disruptive nature making them even more powerful.

Another, more holistic idea for any industry facing disruptive technologies resulting from the resistance to them, should be to accept them, adopt them and start the process of learning them. How does a carrier enterprise do this? They do it by adopting philosophies and practices from other industries.

Let’s look for instance at the Venture capitalism community. They have very practical best practices that interestingly enough, they, themselves are changing. Instead of just lending money, they are now thinking more along the lines of lending+ incubating + promoting their portfolio companies. It is very instructive to understand how successful Venture capitalists behave. In doing so, one can discover that they have a high tolerance for risk-taking and relish new technologies and business models due to the immense payouts these may bring.

With that in mind, why should carriers (and industry in general) not “play” with the new disruptive technologies by starting parallel businesses outside of the constraints of the mother ship, where they fund new startups, deploy innovation teams and basically go to market with them?

In the absence of regulatory constraints they absolutely should, and they should do so by motivating the innovation teams in those “corporate startups” with equity sharing and ownership structures. Going further, all employees with hidden entrepreneurial tendencies should be motivated via proper ownership incentives to actively think of new ideas and businesses that could be taken outside the company and launched.

This is not something revolutionary. Google is doing it and so will others. No one can argue that Google has not been successful in growing their business and now expanding laterally with intentions on becoming “the masters of their own destiny”.

Lastly and most importantly, no one in innovation management should ever miss evident trends and dismiss ANY new technology as non-disruptive. One does this at their peril.

Technologies can and will evolve and will become bigger and faster disruptors if not addressed intelligently.