Innovation Inspired By Other Industries - When Existing Ideas Are New

Building an organization focused on innovation often requires realignment of priorities and focus on a new approach to doing business. Unfortunately in the quest to do something new and different, innovators often forgo looking at what's already out there for inspiration.

Innovation doesn't necessarily happen in a darkened room. Often it occurs when an old or existing idea in a different environment takes on new life.

A video that recently appeared in Martin Lindstrom's column in Ad Age online, Where to Find Inspiration for New Marketing Concepts- Watch Industries Other Than Your Own, discusses one way effective innovators find new ideas.

Pointing to an unusual exhibit in the Museum of Modern Art that electronically maps New York City's global telecommunications traffic, he notes that one of the best sources of new marketing ideas is in industries outside of your own.

Lindstrom goes on to discuss how the map of incoming and outgoing calls in NYC gives us a snapshot of where business activity is happening around the globe. This is, of course, of interest to other industries beyond telecommunications - such as the airline industry. An increasing number of calls to a locale means increased business there which requires more flights. By viewing the work of the telecommunications industry, airlines have a head start on developing new routes.

While the example Lindstrom gives borrows the marketing research conducted by one industry and applies it to another, there are countless ways to benefit from the successes and failures of other industries.

As I mentioned in a post Innovation: Old Often Becomes New, that appeared in Fast Company: originality is overrated. As successful marketers and innovators we know that the path from inspiration to effective execution contains many pitfalls, mistakes and miscalculations. That's why, in many cases, the most effective way to innovate is to recast an old idea in a new way.

By looking beyond your own industry, with which you surely are familiar, you bring added brain power to the search for inspiration. The quest for ideas for new products and services happens in all industries. Both success and failures in an industry not your own can provide inspiration for ideas that can work or work better in your industry.

One approach that I like to take is to look at an industry that is more progressive than your own. This may be one that is more consumer focused or more fashion forward or simply more consumer driven or less.

Retailers, often frustrated with inappropriate packaging or displays often guide potential vendors to manufacturers from another industry for ideas. This shortcut saves time and energy that industry-centric companies often waste trying to reinvent the wheel and frequently enables the innovative company to gain entry into new channels smoothly and quickly.

Technology companies, especially in the consumer hardware space, frequently hire designers and marketing folks from other industries to help them understand the needs of their target market. While early adopters are drawn to the technology, later on in the product adoption curve, consumers look more to fashion and "coolness", hence the need to "borrow" ideas from fashion industries.

Manufacturers selling to many small resellers and service providers do well to look at companies with similar channels of distribution both inside and outside the industry served. Often a change in the distribution landscape in one industry is the harbinger of a change in another.

Being truly innovative doesn't mean just coming up with new ideas. It means using all of the tools at one's disposal to come up with new, effective and executable ideas. Sometimes that means just looking at what already exists.