Why most companies can’t innovate

A man with gangrene in his leg goes looking for a cure. He hobbles in to see a surgeon. “Amputate,” the surgeon says. Unhappy with the surgeon’s advice, the man limps to the lawyer next door. “Sue,” says the lawyer. Unsatisfied, he drags himself to the advertising agency across the hall and asks if they have any ideas. “Yes, of course,” they declare, “advertising.”

Absurd as it sounds, this story speaks to the heart of the challenge around innovation. We have a tendency to massively overvalue what we know. Business leaders tend to overvalue precedents that have helped them get to the top and creative people tend to overvalue their talent. We assume that what we already know relates to every situation and that it will somehow be central to the solution. As the saying goes, “When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.”  

It is precisely this issue that prevents companies from innovating. They just can’t set aside their assumptions. When I ask companies to think about their gnarliest, wickedest problems, they tend to respond in one of two ways; either the problem is internal, “we’re too bureaucratic”. Or they’re focused on capacity: “We’ve got all these delivery trucks back in the yard by 3pm, what can we do with them for an extra three hours a day?” 

In both cases, the starting assumptions are buried in the existing business. 

What’s so often overlooked and undervalued is the customer. What does the customer want? How are they meeting these needs, desires or dreams currently? And, most importantly, why? 

You can’t innovate, or create anything that people will care about, if you are not prepared to forget what you know and start with an open mind.