Innovation Facts

Innovation Fact 6 – Embrace happy accidents

Breakthroughs are not always the result of genius. Often, they are a result of what we call “happy accidents” — unforeseen events that lead to new insights.

Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin when he accidentally left an uncleaned petri dish in his lab at night and saw that a strange kind of fungus had developed. Percy Spencer got the idea for the microwave oven when he noticed that the chocolate bar in his pocket started to melt while he was studying microwaves for radar technology. Superglue started as a very irritating and sticky by-product of research into the application of transparent plastic firearms sights on WWII weapons.

A lot of organisations still base their innovation on old-school thinking. They ask to get a calculated promise on the money that will be made from investing in innovative products. But in the real world where a disruptive idea can change an industry almost overnight, such thinking is futile.

Fertile soil for innovation

The most innovative companies combine high alignment of purpose with high autonomy for teams in their organizational culture. They also tend to organize common lunches or weekly social activities that bring together people with different backgrounds into random conversations that result in new ideas. Ideas that may be worth working some more investigation.

Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new

Albert Einstein

Learn to fail

Breakthroughs often rely on the open-mindedness of innovators to notice something new, unexpected, and intriguing. Innovation usually happens where teams have the autonomy to try new things. Where daring to fail is seen as a good thing. To capture these ‘mistakes’ it is recommended to have some sort of registering protocol, to catalogue and preserve the remarkable ‘misses’ if they do not get an immediate follow-up.

Search for surprises

At creax, we believe in the power of cross-industry research. After defining the function we want our innovative solution to provide, we start a broad research phase where we’re looking at how similar problems have been solved in other sectors. Can we learn something about vacuum cleaners by studying industrial extraction hoods? Or maybe we can adapt shaving technology and use it in a new lawnmower?

This extensive research brings together a wide range of topics, inspiring us to establish new links between previously separate components. Not happy accidents per se. But a good way to break through the limitations of your current research and spot some surprising correlations.

Be open to what comes your way. We must be willing to stumble onto solutions that we hadn’t intended in our search for innovation.

Get out of your comfort zone. You will fail, but it might be a brilliant mistake.

Innovation Fact 6 – Sidestory: AI can also lead to “happy accidents”

Did you know that artificial intelligence (AI) can also lead to “happy accidents”?

AI proposes answers/concepts based on a request or prompt and a learning database. And AI makes mistakes. While these mistakes can be frustrating and even cause skepticism, they can also inspire us and lead to new and creative ideas.

AI happy accidents
Concepts of women’s running shoes created by Midjourney’s text-to-image AI platform

Using Midjourney’s text-to-image AI platform, several women’s running shoe “designs” were generated from the same request. Some designs show classic features, some are bolder, and some are over-the-top. But some concepts also accidentally show pairs of shoes in different colors, or hybrid sneakers, a combination of a boot and a running shoe. Without the AI-generated models, we probably wouldn’t have come up with these ideas ourselves. By taking advantage of these mistakes, we can potentially create something totally new and innovative! “

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Other Innovation Facts

Innovation Fact 1 – Existing solutions never last

Functions remain, solutions change. When addressing perceived needs in the market, go beyond solutions and try to clarify the main functionality you are trying to provide.

Innovation Fact 2 – Find the real problem

There are many reasons why products fail, but one of the most important ones is that solutions do not always solve the real problem.

Innovation Fact 3 – Focus on one thing

Focus on one thing and do it better than anyone else. Once you found clarity on your core values, focus on developing your product or service to optimally achieve these values. Do not let yourself be carried away by what you see around you.

Innovation Fact 4 – Learn to steal

Don’t reinvent the wheel. Focus on the function you are trying to solve, look around you and find inspiration to build upon. Then make it your own, optimize it and share it with the world.

Innovation Fact 4b – Beware of the “not invented here” syndrome

We tend to criticize and discard ideas that did not originate from us, consciously or unconsciously. Beware of this and always look at ideas and concepts around you with an open mind and judge them by their value, not by their origin.

Innovation Fact 5 – Don’t judge an idea too soon

Many technologies or products have been met with skepticism and laughter when they were launched. When you feel the urge to ridicule new products, try to have the reflex to objectively analyze that innovation.

Innovation Fact 7 – Keep it simple

Keeping things simple has many advantages. Look at your products or services and ask yourself: “Does it really need to be this complex?” Can I make it easier for users, without losing essential elements”?

Innovation Fact 8 – Too busy to innovate

Planning is essential for innovation – the pull of the ‘urgent, not important’ of routine tasks is just too strong. It’s time to take action and re-tune, plan more time for the important long-term projects, because these are the ones that will help your company to remain relevant.

Innovation Fact 9 – Learn to listen

By responding to the real needs and interests of your target groups, you learn how you can innovate. Never assume you know all there is to know about your product. Learn to listen and reap the benefits of the gathered insights.

Innovation Fact 10 – Sell an old idea to someone new

Developing new solutions can be expensive, complex and risky. So why not identify new applications and markets for your existing knowledge and solutions? This lowers the risk and leads to new successes faster and cheaper.

Innovation Fact 11 – You are never too big to fail

Innovation is often seen as risky, but it doesn’t have to be a fuzzy process of trial and error. By applying a proven method and understanding your industry and market, you can make informed decisions, removing the risk from innovation.

Innovation Fact 12 – Know when to innovate

Getting the timing of innovation right is fundamental to maximizing the returns. Bad timing can lead to disaster, whether you get to market too early or too late. These are the items to consider.

Innovation Fact 13 – Learn from the best: biomimicry

Biomimicry or learning from nature will only gain importance in the future. Before companies make any design decisions, they should ask: “How would nature solve this problem?”.

Innovation Fact 14 – Waste is money

What is of no use for you can still be valuable to someone else. Audit your waste stream. It can pay off to put some effort into identifying partners who are keen to take your waste and use it as a source material for their product.

Innovation Fact 15 – Society changes, so should your company

Nothing is permanent except change. Pick up these societal changes as fast as possible and think about how they impact your business. And dare to disrupt your own business.

Innovation Fact 16 – Robots will take your job

Do you fear that robots will take your job? A lot of jobs wil likely disappear, but it is up to us to arm ourselves against a future of uselessness. Learn to hit the ground running.

Innovation Fact 17 – It’s not because you can that you should

Stubbornly developing a product nobody wants will lead to disaster. So, think critically about your idea, discuss it with others any way and any time you can. Challenge your idea and adapt to new insights and understandings.

Building on two decades of experience with over 1,250 projects in a wide range of industries. Creax is a trustworthy innovation partner.

Creax nv
Vaartstraat 130, 8500 Kortrijk (B)
BE0810607620

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