Our agency focuses on creativity and innovation. From time to time we post interesting tidbits on creative thinking in general. But our real attention is the process of creating more innovation from idea combination. Here are some great corporate innovation examples to stimulate thinking on this subject.
An idea is nothing more nor less than a new combination of old elements.
– James Webb Young
Check out our thoughts on building innovation.
As background, our perspective on creativity and innovation is very simple. It is not about invention. Rather it is about collecting and connecting dots — bringing together two (or more) ideas to create an altogether new idea.
It often seems easy to know when the next big thing is upon us. Someone like Steve Jobs or Elon Musk stands on stage and tells us what is being launched next. The business press gets excited, pundits swoon and a thousand imitators are created. Before long an ecosystem develops and the world is forever changed.
In reality, though, things are much murkier than that. Innovation is a process of discovery, engineering, and transformation and it is only the last part that is visible to most of us. The seeds of a revolution started long before, in obscure labs and at conferences with high priests presenting papers written in arcane vernacular.
Since the 1950s, the engine that’s driven new knowledge to, as Vannevar Bush put it, “turn the wheels of private and public enterprise,” has been the US government. Unfortunately, moving new discoveries out of federal labs has often been a slow and cumbersome process, but a new model holds promise for greatly accelerating breakthrough innovation.
We live in the age of digital disruption, a time when businesses are challenged to adapt to significant transformation or die.
That’s not an exaggeration in an era where many brands are both materializing and disappearing daily.
Technology is advancing faster than the new applications for it, and our competitors are innovating also at a rapid rate.
So the need for new ideas and innovation is very intense, as survival depends on it.
Related: Generating Ideas by Convergent Thinking
We often think of innovation as inventing new things, but we may be smarter to think of it as recombining old ones.
The truth is that important breakthroughs usually come from combining ideas from different domains. Often very different, sometimes weird ideas.
Some examples
A recent example is the Apple ecosystem. There were plenty of digital music players around when Steve Jobs and Apple launched the iPod.
Note he also combined his player with iTunes, which made content both more accessible and palatable to music companies. He then threw new products into the mix – the iPhone, iPad and now Siri – creating more combinations and even greater value.
Marrying ideas has been around for ages, quite literally. One of the greatest inventions of all? One contender is Johannes Gutenberg’s printing press. Before Gutenberg, all books had been copied by hand or stamped out with woodblocks.
Around 1450 in Strasbourg, Gutenberg combined two ideas to invent printing with moveable type. He coupled the flexibility of a coin punch with the power of a wine press.
His invention enabled the production of books and the spread of knowledge and ideas throughout the Western World.
The secret to problem solving and innovation is curiosity. You generate lots of ideas to find the best of the best. By generating ideas you start by asking lots of questions.
By being curious. By thinking widely and not discarding ideas too soon. By convergent thinking. All of which help us to better understand and define the changes we are looking for.
Are you looking for ways of generating more innovative ideas by combining 2 or more different ideas? Consider these areas to stimulate your thinking:
Corporate innovation … changing business models
Business models are often neglected when considering new ideas for your business. They shouldn’t be. One of the best examples of an innovative business model is from Safelite Auto Glass.
What’s innovative here you may be thinking? It’s simple. An auto glass repair business that comes to you for your repair. Saving you time and convenience. A value proposition and business model that is hard to top.
Another good example is eBay, reflecting a new model and application of supply, demand, and sales.
Corporate innovation examples … partnerships
Nearly every new idea is a synthesis of other ideas.
So a great way to generate ideas is to force combinational possibilities from collaboration and partnerships with other people of diverse professions and skills.
Get a diverse team together and brainstorm how you could mix and combine existing and new ideas together. Combine products with those from wildly different sources.
Combine products and services
This is an easy one to think about.
Picture the smartphone product and then envision all the services this product provides the millions of apps that the smartphone can provide. Absolutely mind-boggling, isn’t it?
Multi-use
Can you come up with new product ideas that have multiple uses? Doesn’t have to be complex.
For example imagine a drill, with bits for multiple uses, such as a drill, sander, cleaner, screwdriver, etc.
Consider an example of Internet Privacy
Running a business today almost certainly means having a digital presence, and being connected to the Internet.
While the benefits of this transformation are many, the security issues are still a daily challenge, with many solutions in the marketplace to address them.
Now internet service providers can sell the browsing habits of their customers to advertisers. The move, which critics charge will fundamentally undermine consumer privacy in the US.
Yes, internet service providers (ISPs) such as Comcast, Verizon, and AT&T are free to track all your browsing behavior and sell it to advertisers without consent. ISPs have access to literally all of your browsing behavior.
They act as a gateway for all of your web visits, clicks, searches, app downloads and video streams.
This represents a huge treasure trove of personal data, including health concerns, shopping habits, and porn preferences. ISPs want to use this data to deliver personalized advertising.
Looking for a valid VPN solution?
Consider adding value by adding function.Adding function to packaging
A simple example of this is the use of milk cartons to display missing persons’ picture and description details.
Can you imagine a better place to get this kind of attention?
Corporate innovation models … extra function
What do you get when you combine a camcorder with an iPod? A digital camcorder that uses a hard drive rather than tape. Up to 7 hours of video on one hard drive.
Plus you can do simple edits on the camera – like deleted scenes, even if they are in the middle of your “tape.” You can set up playlists (like on the iPod). Plus downloading to your computer is as simple as using iTunes.
No need for the tape, which slows data transfer significantly.
Dual function
This combination is a little more difficult to imagine. But this really only means there is more upside in this area, yes? A couple of wild dual function products we would use as examples here.
The first one is an inflatable sleeping coat that doubles as a sleeping bag. It makes camping in the great outdoors a little more convenient.
A second example is a jet ski that converts to a dune buggy with the simple push of a button.
Make it work differently
Take a product and think of an absurd way to make it work. For example, in the developing world batteries are expensive and electricity is unreliable.
Imagine a reliable radio that people could wind up by hand. It exists and has transformed the availability of information in many of the poorest regions of the Earth.
Think of what you would get combining a suitcase with a trolley?
Simple, a suitcase on rollers.
Another example? Combine a bell and a clock to derive an alarm clock.
Weird combinations
Combine products with those from wildly different sources. Take it to the extreme.
The more bizarre the combination the more original the ideas that are triggered.
An example is the combination of a bridge and canal overpass for boats and walkers.
The bottom line
