Success is a Journey: How do you define it for your innovations?

A recent post at Business Performance Coaching on success inspired this blog. Greg pointed out Richard St. John’s 3-minute show from TedTalks on what leads to success. In summary, these eight elements are: Passion, Work, Focus, Persist, Ideas, Good, Push, and Serve.

In simple terms, innovation is the introduction of something new, and a new way of doing things. Innovation is about the successful adoption and application of new ideas, approaches and processes. Innovation is not about managing the status quo — it is about change, and managing the change. It is about failing, learning from failure and persisting.

Given all the challenges of innovation and innovating, we are encouraged to celebrate the successes as well as the failures. We know the eight elements that lead to success, but how do you define success so you know that you have achieved it? I like the Wikipedia entry: “Success: Has no meaning in the world we live in.” (I would be curious to see when/if that entry gets updated…) However, I most resonated with Jim Canterucci’s definition (Personal Brilliance: Mastering The Everyday Habits That Create A Lifetime Of Success): “Success is the choices that are available, and the opportunities that can be created.”

Unfortunately many firms fail at innovation before they even start, mainly due to the aggressive goals and expectations set for the innovation. We seem to forget that innovation is a marathon.. A journey. Yes, the end result does matter, but the end does not justify the means. Utilizing the innovation lifecycle, and understanding where you are within it, can help calibrate your definition of success.

I have been investigating ways to best define the innovation lifecycle. I stumbled across the InnovationPoint‘s whitepaper on innovation lifecycle as a combination of technology S-curve and Market Adoption Curve based on Jeffrey M.’s model from Crossing the Chasm. Though it is product and technology focused, I believe the concept supports other types of innovations. Please comment on any innovation lifecycle models that work for you.

I can pick up some immediate success goals by looking at this model:

• Early adopters are technology enthusiasts continuously looking for better perceived performance. However, the focus is not just on developing the technology but also moving it towards the inflection point where the basic needs would be met by the good enough technology. So, how do you find those customers that will dig the trenches with you on this journey, and how do you work closely with them?
• As the technology continues to emerge, others will enter the space. Potentially there will be a race to become the dominant design. How do you set your baseline comparisons, and ensure you attain the dominant design in the market place?
• Growth is wonderful, but are you ready for it? Can you scale your technology and your organization to support the needs of your ever growing customer base? How are you doing on your process innovation initiatives to support you as you start to slow down, and your technology matures?
• Eventually maturity hits… And customer demands change: low cost, better quality and reliability is now the focus. Incremental innovations (such as process innovations) can lengthen the innovation’s life before the inevitable decline is observed. However, this is also where new disruptive technology candidates will start to emerge. Are you ready for it?
• With the decline of the market did you already retire your product, or still flogging it for diminishing returns? It is OK to cannibalize your products — better you than your competitor…

Overall, I think the most important point about success is not falling in love with your own ideas and plans, but to continually re-analyze and question your assumptions. With that, and the eight elements that leads to success (Passion, Work, Focus, Persist, Ideas, Good, Push, and Serve), be sure to celebrate both your successes and failures.