Innovation and the Seven Deadly Sins
Posted: May 19th, 2009 in Innovation
You remember the Seven Deadly Sins: Envy, Lust, Sloth, Gluttony, Wrath, Pride, and Greed? Well, if not from Dante’s Divine Comedy, then at least from the Brad Pitt/Morgan Freeman/Kevin Spacey movie.
And just as Kevin Spacey’s character used the Seven Deadly Sins as a means to kill people, I propose that they are equally (if not more) effective in killing innovation. I’ve seen it play out again and again in the marketplace. Unfortunately, I don’t have the services of a Morgan Freeman to make it stop.
Let’s start with that green-eyed monster, Envy: “a feeling of discontent and resentment aroused by and in conjunction with desire for the possessions or qualities of another.” In the world of innovation, Envy leads to the development of “me too” products—one competitor coveting the breakthrough success of another and responding by launching an undifferentiated also-ran.
Knock-offs of Hot Pockets, Swiffer, and Bertolli; Blackberry’s Storm; Microsoft’s Zune; numerous teeth whitening strips; most of Hollywood; all of Private Label. The list goes on and on.
Don’t get me wrong, there can be valid strategic and base business reasons for “me too” offerings. Innovation just isn’t one of them.
In the plus column, the presence of “me-toos” often benefits consumers by exerting downward price pressure. But at what cost? The downside is not insignificant. By definition, these knock-offs do not offer consumers any new or real benefits, merely more of the same. And in so doing, they create more noise and clutter in the marketplace—do we really need upwards of 25,000 new products each year in grocery retail?
However, let me suggest that the biggest problem with “me too” offerings is that they have a negative effect on innovation itself. Companies launching “me toos” are the innovation equivalent of hyenas who eat the lion’s kill. (In that way, they embody another Deadly Sin: Sloth—but let’s leave that exploration for another posting.) Breakthrough new product and service development is a lengthy, costly, risky adventure. The fact that your competitors are sitting idly by, waiting to share in the spoils of your victory (should you prove successful) only makes the prospect of innovation even less attractive.
So what’s a conscientious lion to do? Reform the hyenas? Not possible. Give up the hunt? Not advisable.
In my experience, the only prudent approach—and the optimal one at that—is to ensure that you have insulated your breakthrough innovations from competitive intrusions to the greatest extent possible. Having started with in-depth consumer insights is a necessary, though not sufficient, requirement for sustainable innovation success. Ultimately, proprietary protection can be achieved only when new offerings simultaneously solve real, unmet market needs in ways that leverage your unique core competencies, IP, and brand extendibilities. Of course, this can be left to happenstance. However, the surer course of action is to take stock of these “proprietary assets” prior to performing any market research in order to inform that research and subsequently uncover important unmet needs that you can address better than any of the hyenas out there.
Next in the series: Lust