Scott Wassmer, Global President – Appnovation.
“There are three ways to make a living: be first, be smarter or cheat.”
That line—delivered by John Tuld (Jeremy Irons) in the 2011 film Margin Call—has always resonated with me. Obviously, cheating is something I’d never condone. But being first and smarter? Well, those are important concepts that should be at the core of every business.
Most business leaders understand the need to be smarter—although they typically call it “innovation.” As Steve Jobs discussed, innovation is about connecting the dots in ways others haven’t considered in the past—a strategy that can allow your organization to differentiate from the status quo, develop new products and services and ultimately create a business advantage.
But while many businesses openly prioritize innovation, few are equally enthusiastic about being first. Being first involves taking steps to become more agile. In many ways, it goes hand-in-hand with being smarter: After you create your innovative new product or service, it’s helpful to bring that offering to market as quickly as possible (before someone else does).
While being first to market doesn’t always guarantee success, it does give you an opportunity to test a market opportunity before anyone else, make appropriate modifications and lock in customers before your competitors have a chance to respond.
So how do you bolster your ability to “be first?” Well, it helps to create powerful internal accelerators. If you don’t know what I mean by that, it’s okay—most organizations might not.
In the simplest terms, an accelerator is a process, toolset, technology or a way of working that helps businesses get to market faster. Here, I’ll outline a few different examples of internal accelerators—and explore how you can go about creating some for your organization.
Internal Accelerators In The Real World
For many, Google is synonymous with innovation. Being smarter is deeply embedded in the company’s corporate culture and mindset, thanks to policies like “20% time,” which allows employees to spend a fifth of their time working on passion projects.
Part of the reason I find Google, for example, to be successful is because it’s also deeply committed to being first—a feat it achieves through a variety of internal accelerators.
• Data-driven decisions. Google relies heavily on data and analytics to inform and support its innovation efforts—and pursue those projects that have the greatest chance of market success.
• A collaborative culture. The company’s culture fosters the free-flow of ideas by encouraging employees to speak up, experiment and take risks.
• A flat organizational structure. Google facilitates communication and information-sharing by grouping employees by business function and efficiently connecting managers with employees, teams and groups.
Internal accelerators can also take the form of technology—like AI-driven chatbots, for instance. Bots like ChatGPT can be valuable tools to help teams work faster. For instance, due to its research capabilities, ChatGPT can take over labor-intensive research for content creation. This step can boost a marketing team’s efficiency by freeing up their time to work on higher-value tasks like story ideation, content planning and even writing.
Another accelerator that I use with clients is called the Values Index. In today’s environment, having measures in place to better understand your customers is a significant business advantage—but to keep up in a swiftly-changing marketplace, monitoring behavior isn’t enough. The Values Index is aquantitative study that helps uncover the subconscious motivations and attitudes that drive that behavior.
By understanding what people believe, what they feel and what moves them, companies can better direct their innovation, marketing and consumer intelligence efforts—bringing new innovations to market faster and more efficiently.
Tips For Integrating Accelerators Into Your Operation
To prioritize the act of being first—and introduce more internal accelerators into your organization—it’s important to adopt an agile mindset. That is, focus your attention on opportunities to increase speed and agility and make continuous learning and improvement cornerstones of your operation.
In most cases, this will involve a significant cultural shift. Specifically, you’ll want to create a working environment where people:
Embrace failure. By adopting a growth mindset, and having the freedom to see failure as a learning opportunity, people can be more inclined to take calculated risks (which, in turn, could lead to industry-leading innovations).
Focus on what matters. By prioritizing actions that will result in the greatest impact (rather than things like office politics), your organization can move forward at a faster pace.
Collaborate. Great things can happen when you take steps to break down organizational silos—and allow for the free exchange of ideas between team members and across departments.
Make data-led decisions. Fast-paced organizations both invest in data and give teams the tools to understand that data, so they can use it to guide business decisions as well as refine and improve processes.
Put the customer first. When employees are encouraged to keep the needs and desires of customers at the forefront of every business decision, I find that a company is more likely to design successful products and services.
Prepare for change. In today’s market, new information, technologies and trends are emerging all the time. Companies that are open to change—and that understand this reality—may be better positioned to adapt quickly.
Continuously learn and improve. To be first to market, you can’t afford to stand still. By investing in personal and professional development for your team, and taking steps to continuously improve on existing processes and systems, you can make sure your organization is constantly moving forward.
The Pay-Off
When companies make it a priority to be first as well as smart—and adopt anagile mindset—they realize a host of benefits. In addition to being able to adapt to change faster, companies can also create products that are of higher quality, meet customer needs and provide greater value. This, in turn, can dramatically bolster brand reputation—and increase your company’s position in the marketplace.
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