In these times of financial crunch and flat growth, there will inevitably be advocates of a return to old Keynesian economics. However successful Keynes’ ideas may have been in their time, I somehow doubt that the same recipes that brought the world back from the Great Depression would work just the same. And it may well be that Keynes himself would also be looking for new ideas if he, rather than his economics, were to return:

“The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping from old ones.”

John Maynard Keynes

In innovation-speak we use words such as disruptive, breakthrough, rule-breaking, outside the box, leapfrogging. All these suggest indeed some kind of barrier raised by our current mind frame, which we have to overcome before a new idea can truly take shape.

Most religions have an annual celebration where people must get rid of the clutter that has accumulated during the past year, clean the house thoroughly, and move into a new cycle with a refreshed mind and renewed energy. (Coincidentally, as I was drafting this post, I learned that today is such a day for Tamils, who celebrate the Thai Pongal festival).

Perhaps companies too should have an annual festival where projects that have been limping along are joyously scrapped, where assumptions about how to run their business are re-assessed, where old ideas are shelved, so that new light can be shed on new ideas.

In an earlier post, I highlighted that we should not expect eletric cars to substitute motor cars like for like. Disruptive innovations typically involve a shift on more than one dimension. A simple three-dimensional innovation model comprises:

• Product innovation – coming up with the next technical upgrade as automakers – amongst other – have to do permanently,
• Customer innovation – reaching out to new customer segments as Nintendo did by developing video games for girls on the Nintendo DS,
• Business model innovation – changing the way value is created and shared as Apple did with iTunes.

At the risk of over-simplifying, an innovation that plays along one dimension only is likely to be incremental, while an innovation that plays along at least two dimensions is much more likely to be disruptive. Apple’s recent successes have been built by squaring the circle with the magic Apple Pi number that enables them to play on all three dimensions at the same time.

As a new product technology electric cars will inevitably face consumer resistance. They are much more likely to take off (figuratively!) if they come in association with a business model shift from ownership to usership that dramatically reduces the technology risk as perceived by the consumer. But once the shift from ownership to usership has been made in this context, it will gather momentum: consumers will wonder why they should sink such an amount of capital in a fast-depreciating asset while they can enjoy the same benefit for a pay-as-you go fee. Once the usership business model takes hold, there will be no going back.

Here are some excerpts:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 8,900 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 3 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

The most read post in 2011 was ‘The Bread Collector – When Tradition Meets Social Innovation’.

Click here to see the complete report.

A first question is: why didn’t I do it earlier?

As a consumer, I’m not a pionneer, not even an early adopter. I’m too weary of fashion and hype to rush to the store when a new product is launched. And I would most definitely NOT queue all night to be amongst the first to wave a new gadget in front of cameras in the morning as if my life was at a turning point. On the Diffusion of Innovations curve that was shown in an earlier post, I’d place myself at the beginning of early majority. But having a low change threshold, I’m usually open minded about trying out new things. ‘Try’ is the key word here. While hype and the satisfaction of being one of the first to own something will work for some, discretion and a chance to test the product, to prototype how I could use it, will work better for me.

A possible lesson for innovators is therefore: if you can design a business model that allows customers to get a full scale experience trial, you will accelerate the diffusion of the innovation to the early majority. But I’m not talking here about having a demo in a shop; I’m talking about enabling the customer to have a real-life experience of the product. This does require serious business model design, which in some cases will be easy (eg 30-days free software download) and in other cases a lot more difficult (eg how do you get customers to buy an electric car in the first place?). In the case of Autolib’ they had a 1-day discovery pass that I could buy for 10€.

A second question is: why (and how) did I do it this time?

It was New Year’s eve. My normal car was at the garage for repair. I had to cross Paris with family all dressed in festive attire, with presents for our hosts and sleep over kit  for the night. Public transport was an option, but not one that we felt particularly excited about. Some definitely less than others! So at 18:30 I decided to make a run for it, knowing that I had to head back home to pick up the family, with or without car, by 19:00.

• In addition to the hundreds of Autolib’s 24/7 automated stations, there are a few dozens of Autolib’ shelters open for business till 20:00 7 days a week where you can get your pass done. There was one 10mins away from my home.
• There was a helper on duty able to explain to me face-to-face how it all worked. Arguably he didn’t say much more than what I had already read on their website, but it’s easier to trust a person than a website.
• I was connected to a remote but real admin staff who had my picture taken, my ID and driving license scanned remotely, and my badge delivered instantly.
• 10mins later I was out of the shelter, getting the crash course (sorry for the pun) about how to unlock the BlueCar and lock it in at destination.
• 25mins after leaving home, I was driving the car.

The lesson therefore has to be that a great product is only a good start. What will make or break the innovation is the attention given to the total customer experience. Anyone who has purchased equipments at an Apple Store and at any other electronic goods retailer, will know the difference between great and dreadful customer experience.  

Today, on New Year’s day, with my 1-day discovery pass, I picked up another BlueCar to drive back home. It all worked fine again, and I know I will be using the service again without any hesitation. For a typical early majority consumer, I’m now converted to a new product at the same time as some of the very early adopters.