Innovation Toolbox

Innovation Toolbox for Startups and Enterprise

Idea Generation

Pavan [email protected]

www.pavansoni.com

About Pavan Soni• Research Fellow at IIM Bangalore (Corporate Strategy & Policy)

• Former Innovation Evangelist at Wipro (6 years)

• Bachelor of Engineering- MBM Engineering College Jodhpur (Gold Medal) and

MBA- NITIE Mumbai

• Conducted Innovation Talks & Workshops for – Café Coffee Day, Capgemini,

Cyro-Save, Dell, Ericsson, Fiserv, FSS Services, Future Group,

GlaxoSmithKline, Hexaware, Infosys, Mahindra, Marico, Rane Motors,

Tanishq, Tata Steel, Thermax, Titan, TotalGaz, Wipro and World Trade Centre

amongst others

• Recipient of ‘On-the-Job Achiever Award’- Lakshya- CII Mumbai in 2007 for the

work on Innovation

• Recipient of Innovation Excellence Award at 5th Indira Innovation Summit in

2012

• Pioneered the concept of WiCamp and Let Sparks Fly in India

• Associated with Karnataka Knowledge Commission, Bangalore Chamber of

Industry and Commerce and CII

• National Mathematics & Physics Olympiad Scholar

• Mentor- JGI iDEA (International Entrepreneurship Program)

• Guest lectured at over 25 MBA and Engineering institutes across India

• Speaker at TEDx BITSGoa ,SIBMPune and HewlettPackardBangalore

• 21 Articles and Paper Published in National & International Journals

• Contributed book chapters in three published books on innovation

• Popular blog- www.pavansoni.com (8,000 page-views per month)

A scholar for life. Not many things interest me, but if any, it doesn’t interest many. Call it contemporary science, advanced management concepts, societal economics or simply innovation, all this interests me a ton! You need to be sharp, fearless, believer and creative to be a part of my family

READING | WRITING | TEACHING

[email protected]

www.pavansoni.com

www.theinflectionpoint.info

www.ManagementIQ.net

Landscape Formation

Solution Vegetation

Best Case Solution

1

2

3

Diverge ConvergeIntent:

Apply the Science of Creativity for

Problem Solving & Opportunity

Creation.

Deferring the

judgment!!

The Systematic Creativity Process

3 Pavan Soni, Innovation Evangelist.

Landscape formation

1. Business Model Canvas

2. Strategy Canvas

3. Mind Mapping + Problem Exploration

4. Five Force + VRIO Analysis


Business Model Canvas

Key Partners Key Activities Value

Proposition

Customer

Relation

Customer

Segments

Key

Resources

Channels

Cost Structure Revenue Streams

5

Source: Business Model

Generation Pavan Soni, Innovation Evangelist.

Strategy Canvas

6

0

1

2

3

4

5Price

ServiceAssurance

Reputation

AccessibilityReliability

Range ofofferings

Experience

Focal Company MNCs Domestic Companies Finge Players

Source: Blue Ocean Strategy

Pavan Soni, Innovation Evangelist.

Mind mapping + Problem Exploration


Source: Tony Buzan

Five Force + VRIO Analysis

8

Five Force Model (Porter, 1980) VRIO Framework (Barney, 1991)


Source: Porter & Barney

Solution Vegetation techniques

1. Buyer Utility Map

2. Three-tiers of Non-Customers

3. Value Innovation

4. Epicenters of Business Model Innovations


Three-Tiers of Non-Customers

10

Soon to Be

(those who will jump the

fence soonest your

performance dips or prices

rise)

Refusing

(they are not willing to

work with you or don’t

consider you worth)

Unexplored

(those whom you haven’t

explored adequately or

you don’t deem worth)

Who are they?

Why are they disloyal?

How to retain them?

Who are they?

Why are they uninterested

in doing business?

How to entice them?

Who are they?

Why didn’t you look at

them?

How to get them in?



Buyer Utility Map

11

Purchase Deliver Use Supplement Maintain Dispose

Buyer life cycleProductivity

Convenience

Simplicity

Risk reduction

Fun & image

Environmental

friendliness

Cu

sto

me

r B

en

efits

6 x 6 = 36 ways of

opportunity creation



Value Innovation

Pavan Soni, Innovation Evangelist.12

Value

Cost

Price

Profit Proposition

Value Proposition

Create

Raise

Eliminate

Reduce


Epicenters of Business Model Innovation

13

Resource- driven Offer- driven

Customer- driven Finance- driven

Example: Amazon Web

Services

Example: Cemex (Mexican

cement company)

Example: 23andMe

(personalized DNA testing)

Example: Xerox 914 (lease at $95 per

month, 2000 free copies, 5 cents per

copy


Source: Business Model

Generation

Best case solution techniques

1. Weighted scoring method

2. Sure-winner framework

3. Net Present Value

4. Cash-curve assessment

5. Non-dollar returns evaluation

6. Zero to One protocol

7. SUCCESS principle of idea narration

8. Case presentation template


Weighted Scoring Method

Intent:

Short listing ideas based on their rating against multiple parameters

Bring group consensus around proposed ideas

IDEAS PARAMETER #

1

PARAMETER

#2

PARAMETER

#3

SCORE

Typical parameters*:

• Desirability

• Feasibility

• Viability

Steps involved:

• Identification of parameters

• Assigning weight

• Rating on a 6 point scale


Source: Stanford Design School

A Sure-Winner framework

Intent:

Evaluating potential of an idea based upon Purchase Motivators &

Purchase Barriers

LowerPrices

GreaterBenefits

Easy to Use

Easy to Buy

Idea 1 Idea2 High purchase motivators:

• Less expensive than existing products

(Lower Price)

• Provide better features than existing

products (Greater Benefits)

Eliminating purchase barriers:

• Must not have any switching or adoption

cost (Easy to Use)

• Must be readily available (Easy to Buy)


Source: Source: Can you Spot the Sure Winner?, Eric Mankin

Net Present Value (NPV) assessment

17

Time of the cash flow

Discount rate

Net cash flow (+ive for inflow; -ive for outflow)

Positive: Go

Negative: No Go

Zero: Indifference

Limitations for innovation projects:

Difficult to estimate ‘rate’ and future cash flows due to uncertainty

Doesn’t take into account Type-2 errors (missed innovations)

Can compare only similar projects, that too at the same time

Offers only go/ no go decision, and not gain/ loss situation


Cash Curve Assessment


Source: Boston Consulting Group

Non- Dollar returns evaluation

Each concept is identified on the basis of impact it creates on each of the

four dimensions.


Source: Boston Consulting Group

Zero to One Protocol

Pavan Soni, Innovation Evangelist.20

Engineering question: Can you create breakthrough technology instead of incremental improvements? (at least 10 times better!)

Timing question: Is now the right time to start your particular business?

Monopoly question: Are you starting with a big share of a small market? (customers don't care about technology as much as about solving a problem)

People question: Do you have the right team? Distribution question: Do you have a way to not just

create but deliver your product? Durability question: Will your market position be

defensible 10 and 20 years into the future? Secret question: Have you identified a unique opportunity

that other don't see?Source: Peter Thiel

SUCCESs Principle

Intent:

Emphatic way of conveying your ideas


Source: Made to Stick

Idea Presentation Template

22

Value Proposition

For what a customer should be willing to pay you?

Customer segment

Who (Business /

Consumer)

Where

Demographic/

psychographic

Preferences

Gain/ pain points

Product/ service

Stand-alone

Bundles

Delivery mechanisms

Partnerships

Revenue logic

Revenue model

Pricing model

New revenue stream /

addition to existing

ones

Anticipated cost/ time to

implement

New resources/

competencies required

Implementation issues

Organizational/

technological/ market/

institutional

Implementation solutions

Strategies and

structures

Partnerships

Interventions


For further reading on Innovation

Innovation section on BusinessWeek (www.businessweek.com/innovation)

HBR Blogs (http://blogs.hbr.org)

Knowledge@Wharton (http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu)

MIT Open Courseware (http://ocw.mit.edu)

Real Innovations (www.realinnovation.com)

Innovation Tools (www.innovationtools.com)

Mind Tools (www.mindtools.com)

TED (www.ted.com)

Alltop (http://innovation.alltop.com)

Creativity for Life (www.creativityforlife.com)

1000Ventures (www.1000ventures.com)

Technology Review (www.technologyreview.com)

Pavan Soni’s blog (www.pavansoni.com)


http://www.businessweek.com/innovation

http://blogs.hbr.org/

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/

http://ocw.mit.edu/

http://www.realinnovation.com/

http://www.innovationtools.com/

http://www.mindtools.com/

http://www.ted.com/

http://innovation.alltop.com/

http://www.creativityforlife.com/

http://www.1000ventures.com/

http://www.technologyreview.com/

http://www.pavansoni.net/

Books on Innovation and Creativity

24

Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation (Steven Johnson, 2010)

The Medici Effect: What Elephants and Epidemics Can Teach Us About Innovation (Frans Johansson, 2006)

Zero to One: Notes on Start Ups, or How to Build the Future (Peter Thiel, 2014)

The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail (Clayton M. Christensen, 1997)

Ten Rules for Strategic Innovators: From Idea to Execution (Vijay Govindarajan, 2005)

Relentless Innovation: What Works, What Doesn't--And What That Means For Your Business (Gerard J. Tellis, 2013)

Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Creative-Thinking Techniques (Michael Michalko, 2006)

Lateral thinking: Creativity step by step (Edward De Bono, 1970)

Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School ( John Medina, 2014)

Blue Ocean Strategy: How To Create Uncontested Market Space And Make The Competition Irrelevant (W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne, 2004)

The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution (Walter Isaacson, 2014)
