The masochism of innovation
Beth Comstock argues that there’s a way forward if you feel your innovation strategy does not always bear fruit. Tolerance for risk, patience, and frugal investment can result in breakthrough innovations. But be careful: It can hurt!
Innovation can sometimes be a painful experience, requiring a healthy dose of masochism:
- Learn to assess difficulty, uncertainty, failure, disappointment, and risk.
- Don’t wait to kill off any dubious ideas or projects. And no, injecting even more money won’t save your project!
- Define the pain points: Before vaunting any positive prospects for profitability, ask yourself what could sink your plans and why you feel so confident.
- Refuse any additional budget! Instead, look to innovate frugally, which will allow you to avoid the pressure to make a return on your investment.
- Search out bad news and negative feedback as a way to counteract your biases, which may be causing you to underestimate the downsides.
- Be prepared to hear that projects aren’t moving quickly enough and haven’t created any value yet.
In the end, you may suffer, but you’ll like the result.
“The committed innovator : a discussion with Beth Cosmtock”
by Erik Roth et Beth Comstock (McKinsey & Company, february 2020)
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