Your customer(s): their business and your innovation

Posted by Tom Foth on January 19, 2010 in Innovation

The business of innovation is not just about your business.  Probably one of the best accounts of this is found in Lane Wallace’s article “Multicultural Critical Theory. At B-School?” published January 9, 2010 in the New York Times (http://bit.ly/5BcyFW).

Wallace explains how Roger Martin determined a decade ago that thinking creatively or critically — and analyzing problems from different perspectives — was as critical to B-School students as accounting and finance.

I think Pitney Bowes’ base business model, around postage metering, fosters precisely that sort of thinking.  A postage meter fundamentally intermediates postage transactions between mailers and the local postal authority.  Therefore, postage meters actually serve two constituencies. Each has their own unique needs, and each has their own way of valuing products and services.  It is our company’s responsibility to bring those needs and values together in one offering/solution.

I am surprised, when talking to someone excited about their first “big idea”, that often, they’ve failed to take into account all of the varied parties who would be potential stakeholders in their innovation.  Often, simple questions , such as “and what about (blank)?  Why would they be party to this idea?  What value would they receive?” throws these new innovators for a loop.

Ultimately, innovators need to think about “the business of their innovation.”  What is the ecosystem it plays in?  Who are the stakeholders?  How can everyone win and receive value?

In upcoming posts, I’ll talk more about how we answer these questions.  But for now: How do you discover what role your innovations plays into all of your customers businesses?

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