TransformaTion

After years being delighted
by the diversity of the
innovation challenges
coming over the transom—
in our case, a decidedly
mad mix spanning wellness
to whiskey, soft drinks to
software, money to music,
hotels to haute jewels,
microchips to potato chips,
and literally soup to nuts—
you suddenly find yourself
gob-smacked by the thread of
similarity running through it.
Across companies, categories and countries, an
armada of innovation teams sets forth daily, each
with great promise, an aggressive, growth-minded
leadership team, a formidable body of knowledge
about its market space, and a tangible asset base
spanning brands, infrastructure, technologies
and market presence. Yet the majority struggle
to unlock the transformational answer.
The struggle triggers a call for help from
outfits like ours, and a conversation that,
in one way or another, dances toward the
same big question:
So how will you guys crack
the transformational answers
we haven’t managed to
unlock ourselves?
What they mean of course
is: C’mon guys, what’s the
big answer’s proverbial
secret sauce?
What’s the repeatable rain dance that allows you,
or anyone else for that matter, to crack the lightning
strike transformational answer that we somehow
can’t quite see for looking?
What we tell them, and offer here to anyone in
innovation with transformational ambitions, is that
they’re asking the wrong question.
The real alchemy of transformational innovation
isn’t about the answers at all.
The answers are, believe it or not, the relatively
easy part.
The tough bit is what
comes before:
Finding
transformational
questions.