Innovation through experimentation is key

The other night I read the story of the Wright brothers to my son. It is a fascinating story that highlights how important experimentation is to the success of innovation.

The Wright brothers, Orville (August 19, 1871 – January 30, 1948) and Wilbur (April 16, 1867 – May 30, 1912), were two American brothers, inventors, and aviation pioneers who were credited with inventing and building the world's first successful airplane and making the first controlled, powered and sustained heavier-than-air human flight, on December 17, 1903. From 1905 to 1907, the brothers developed their flying machine into the first practical fixed-wing aircraft. Although not the first to build and fly experimental aircraft, the Wright brothers were the first to invent aircraft controls that made fixed-wing powered flight possible. From 1900 until their first powered flights in late 1903, they conducted extensive glider tests that also developed their skills as pilots. Their bicycle shop employee Charlie Taylor became an important part of the team, building their first aircraft engine in close collaboration with the brothers.


Trial and error


Reid Hoffman, founder of LinkedIn, did not build the networking site into a $1-billion valued company in one day. He developed his skills and tested ideas while launching and experimenting at SocialNet and PayPal.

Kevin Systrom, founder of Instagram developed his skills, experimented ideas while working  at Google, Odeo, Twitter and Facebook, before launching his successful venture. “The most pivotal moment for us was when we decided to stop working on Burbn (the mobile HTML5 checkin app) and start work on what would become Instagram”, confessed Kevin.

Going back to my son, he rode his bike for the first time last spring. He worked really hard to learn how to ride. Did he work out the theory of how to do it, jump on the bike, and start riding flawlessly? Did he follow my advice on what to do and what not to do? No. He started with training wheels and worked it out through trial and error, with determination, repetition while focusing on the end goal.

Experimenting is a critical innovation skill. None of us think twice about learning to ride a bike through trial and error, so why is it so rare in business?

There are two main reasons. One is risk and failure aversion. In a work or school setting, our brains are formatted to learn theory and what the outcome should be instead of experimenting through trial and error.  People don’t like to make mistakes, and they don’t like to look foolish, whether it is an adult or a child. Trial-and-error can cause both of these things to happen when things don’t work out as expected. The second reason is that our organizational cultures are often not designed to experimenting. In larger organizations, we are often trying to improve efficiency. Doing this means that we must reduce variation and risk. But innovation and experimentation increase variation. There is a tension between efficiency and innovation.

However, the benefits of experimenting outweigh these issues. The problem that experimenting solves is this: it’s nearly impossible to know in advance which ideas will work and which won’t. If we experiment, instead of guessing which ideas will work, we can test them. This helps us get better making decisions based on data.

At a Centric event last year, John Evans from Allegion explained how his company is able to kill or shelf innovation if first results are not encouraging. It is important to encourage, allow space and time for experimentation, and coach employees that potential failures are just a way to learn how to better products. Failures are just a part in the innovation process, not a discouraging and painful end. When first results are not looking positive, John Evans’s team will either merely kill the project, or shelf it for future opportunities and experiments. Allegion employees understand that some experiments may not prove to be successful, but it is not the end, just a step (back) in the innovation process.

In the experimentation process, budget and time should not be a concern. As soon as we put barriers (budget constraints, time constraints, failure aversion), we kill the intent to create, innovate. Creativity and innovation only thrive when there is no boundaries, no aversion of failure, wasting time or money.

When the Ford factory in Detroit made a 3D printer available to its employees, it never imagined that the number of new patents registered would jump by 30 percent the first year! One Ford employee, for example, designed and produced a defogging valve prototype. If he had not been able to test his idea easily, he would have probably given up before it could take shape and be developed. Providing experimentation tools thus makes it possible to release great innovation potential, invaluable in times of crisis. The material and technical obstacles to experimentation are being lifted. Many tools are free or can be pooled, relieving the need to request additional budget. It is no longer necessary to engage experts, because prototyping tools can often be utilized intuitively. When technical skills are needed, the existence of dedicated communities makes it possible to receive immediate assistance. Technically, just about anyone can thus develop his or her own prototypes. On the other hand, intangible obstacles persist. Providing tools for experimentation is not enough to change the company culture. Many teams never or only belatedly consider developing even rough prototypes. So how can one capitalize on these new opportunities and make experimentation an everyday practice? 

The key is to enlighten innovation through experimentation

Eric Ries promotes a core method for experimentation. Although the Lean Startup method is essentially built for tech start-up companies, it can be applied and customized to any type of business.

Here is a method you can apply:

Ideation: form a team of various skills, expertise. Collide ideas and define what need the product or service might fill. Focus on the opportunities, not the obstacles.

Build: anything can be prototyped (product, service, customer/user experience, business model…).

Test: test not only the practicality of the prototype, but validate on a small market or through trials.

Measurement: gather qualitative and quantitative data, user insight, and figure out what works and what does not work.

Learn: from the data and insight collected, apply what you’ve learned, either to make adjustment (go back to build) or to launch. After the launch, we have to accept that we may not have made the perfect product or service right away, but that it is a opportunity to improve it and perfect it along the way, by taking consumer feedback and consumer insights.

If you’re a change agent in your organization, encourage your team to do this as well. As people get better at, things will start to improve. And you’ll start to build a culture of experimentation.

It’s like learning to ride a bike.

What we must unlearn to be innovative.

I recently came across a blog from Penelope Trunk my wife shared with me about home schooling. Common themes are found in various projects I have led where companies and individuals are stuck in their traditional way of thinking and see their business become stagnant, irrelevant and eventually die.
 
Through our education, from kindergarten to grad school, then through our professional lives, we have been shaped in the same mold, even though we hear here and there that we need to “think outside the box”, that box being only aimed to fit into a bigger box, like the Russian dolls. Conventionalism, risk aversion and complacency kill innovation and entrepreneurship.

We must unlearn what we have learned in order to be innovative. You don’t want to be an innovation killer, do you?

Here is a (non exhaustive) list of behaviors and thinking patterns we need to unlearn.

Unlearn how to face failure. Our society’s perception of failure is negative. We try our best to avoid failure, or hide it. There is no shame in failing. Failure is merely part of the learning process. It is a stepping stone for future success. We should embrace failure and celebrate it as much as we celebrate success.

Don’t focus on the $ bottom line. If all matters to your organization is $, your future is in jeopardy. Revenue growth, increased profit margin are only a consequence of your innovation and efficiency efforts. Innovation rarely pays off right away; it takes time, money and efforts. Innovation is an investment into the future, not a short-term $ goal. You should put aside part (the rule is 10%) of your operating budget to lead innovation efforts, with no metrics on immediate ROI (otherwise it defeats the purpose).

When you look at a problem, don’t look at it as a whole. Take it apart in pieces and start building a solution with the pieces in a different way. As an example, the Indianapolis Zoo knew they were facing a major issue with the new orangutan exhibit: an increase of 30% in attendance. Looking at the attendance and parking problem as a whole, they saw an immediate solution: expand the parking lot. This meant raising more funds to build a new parking lot, with the challenge of having an empty lot when the attendance is low. By taking the problem apart, they realized that they had to better manage the flow of visitors across the week, versus trying to fix a massive visitor influx on the weekend. They introduced a dynamic pricing, spreading attendance more evenly between busy and low periods, thus controlling the parking issue and providing a better experience to the visitors every single day.

Stop thinking that your products differentiate you from the competition. Think of Apple. In its early years, Apple represented the anti-system, anti-PC world. If you were mainstream, you were a PC user. If you were different (Apple’s “think different”) or artsy, you were a Mac user. After Steve Jobs came back to Apple and made what Apple is today, suddenly the brand became mainstream, to the point of alienating early Mac adopters. Apple products went from being in a niche to being adopted by the masses. Although they changed the industry (and literally our lives) introducing i-Pod, i-Phone, i-Pad, the Apple products have become mainstream and fully commoditized. Samsung introduced their smart watch before Apple, although the i-watch had been the talk for years. Google introduced the smart glasses first... Apple went from being the industry’s #1 brand and disruptor to being second-to-market trying to catch up with the competition. As products and services are easily commoditized, the unique differentiator comes with the brand experience a company creates for its customers or users. It is much harder to plagiarize a unique brand experience than it is to plagiarize a product or a service.

Stop thinking that you need a perfect product before you launch it. Iterate to innovate. Strive for continual innovation, not instant perfection. The best part of working on the web? Google get do-overs. Lots of them. The first version of AdWords, released in 1999, wasn’t very successful – almost no one clicked on the ads. Not many people remember that because Google kept iterating and eventually reached the model we have today. And they’re still improving it; every year Google runs tens of thousands of search and ads quality experiments, and over the past year they’ve launched over a dozen new formats. Some products they update every day. Google’s iterative process often teaches the company invaluable lessons. Watching users ‘in the wild’ as they use Google’s products is the best way to find out what works, then the company can act on that feedback. It’s much better to learn these things early and be able to respond than to go too far down the wrong path.

Stop thinking that you can’t share knowledge or ideas because you fear they’ll be stolen. Open collaboration is key to future innovation, growth and relevance. For instance, during the 2013 Day of Innovation in Indianapolis, executives from Eli Lilly and Company and Delta Faucet met and decided to collaborate on their respective innovation days inside their companies. The more you collaborate, even with your competitors, the more opportunities you create.

Stop thinking you need to stay focused on your industry and stay in your natural environment to be an expert. By looking into other industries, colliding your ideas to others, opening to new perspectives, you will open up your organization to new ways of thinking and new opportunities. Often times your competitors are not the ones closer to you, but those coming from outside your industry.

The future is in how fast you are at unlearning.

Planting the seeds of innovation in education

Don Wettrick is on a mission: revolutionizing the world of education by training the next generation of innovators.

A reformed teacher (he taught to middle and high school students for 17 years), Don started planting the seeds of innovation at the Franklin, IN High School 3-and-a-half years ago, having found inspiration in Daniel Pink's book "Drive".
Because of the State's education standards, he had to find an innovative way to start his class as it was not part of the state catalogue. One class called "group discussion" was the platform for him to start his journey, as it encompassed most of the ingredients needs: group setting, brainstorming, discussion...
After a short stint in Franklin, Wettrick was hired by the Noblesville, IN High School to be their innovation coordinator. There he has found the perfect environment to carry on his mission: trust and transparency. Unlike many other schools across the nation, Noblesville HS does not block social media, such as Twitter, Facebook or Youtube. "It is a very progressive school", Wettrick explains. "Everything we do is transparent and open to everyone to see: students, parents, teachers, mentors...". He created his own channel on Youtube to explain what his students do on a weekly basis. Soon, Don Wettrick and his students will be able to work in a brand new innovation center. But above all, what makes the environment so prolific to his mission is the school's willingness to fail and to celebrate failure. The philosophy there is trial and error, and experimentation. "By empowering students to take risks, we've made them be more responsible. As a matter of fact, we've not seen any abuse of social media for instance. It is a very special and unique environment, which you don't find in many other schools, unfortunately".

What does an innovation class look like?

First, with each new group of students, Don has to teach them different skills: how not to be compliant, how to think differently, how they should challenge and confront him instead of taking his words for granted. "Right now, it is natural for kids to be compliant, to sit and listen to what their teachers have to say, without questioning. The system beats the creativity out of them. Kids have been trained that way; my first job is to unteach them". He hears new students in his class asking him what he expects them to do. His answer: "I won't tell you, you need to find your own opportunity, find collaborators, I'm only here to help you, not to tell you what to do". At the beginning, some kids freeze up because it is such a foreign and disruptive concept to them. However, they quickly grasp the benefit of it.
During the first weeks of the class, students will identify their own opportunity to develop a project. They will formulate a plan of action and time table, find collaborators and resources, like any entrepreneur would do. "Online collaboration enables access to information, resources and mentors. With Skype, Google Hangout or Twitter, my students talk to a mentor in the Silicon Valley or an app developer in Beijing", Wettrick explains. "Teachers don't know everything. If a student wants to work on a solar panel, I can't teach them. I will lead them to connect with experts (collaborators) around the world". The response from such experts is amazing. They are baffled when a high-school girl tells them she is part of an innovation class and she is developing an app. Social media is at the foundation of this innovation class, enabling students to connect 24/7 around the globe. "If we want to study neck injury, we may contact Peyton Manning. He will probably not respond, but his doctor will", says Wettrick. Professionals are shocked by the boldness of students and are willing to help these students who are curious, want to learn, and who are responsible.

Students meet three times a week in their innovation lab. Monday is the time for an open forum, a debate on a specific issue chosen by the students, or an exchange on how to solve of problem that a student is facing with his project. Students learn from TED talks, magazines such as WIRED, blogs... "The goal is to get kids interested in what's next", says Don Wettrick.
Tuesday or Wednesday is for planning, in groups of 2-3. Some times students leave the building, other times they skype, google hangout, looking for the next collaborator, doing research...
On Friday, students reconvene, a bit like a congress. They recap the week, reflect on what they've learned, write group and individuals blogs, record Youtube podcasts...

Students have worked on app development, one of them is coding for Google glass. The "Pass system" used at Noblesville High School was developed by a 15-year-old student and his collaborator out of Launch Fishers. They are working on a project to redesign hospital gowns. Students also collaborate with Universities such as Stanford.

Don Wettrick has taken his students on field trips to the Silicon Valley, is planning trips to the East Coast, to meet with some of their collaborators and other influencers.

The innovation class at Noblesville HS is elective. Because Don is the only innovation director in the school for the time being, he interviewed and selected the students himself. He does not care about the grades, he wants motivated, creative students. "My model student would be a skate boarder, because he is non-conventional, doesn't like a structured environment, succeeds by trial and error, is not afraid to get back up after falling painfully, and because he is artistic".

Controversy coming up...

Don Wettrick's innovation class is not easy to replicate in all schools because on the culture lying in the very traditional world of education. In his book to come out in the next couple of weeks - Pure Genius: Creating A Culture of Innovation and Taking 20% Time to the Next Level - Don explains what his philosophy is and how he created this unique curriculum. He even dedicates 3 full chapters on the use of social media as the foundation of teaching innovation to kids.
He expects a lot of blow back once the book comes out "because it is unconventional". He admits doesn't own the truth, he simply wants to offer an alternative. "Do I believe I have the right approach, absolutely. But I understand not everyone will agree. Innovation is not for everyone, but everyone can be innovative. The next idea can come from anybody, if they know how to think differently".

The earlier kids can learn about creativity and non-linear thinking, the better.

"Don Wettrick has turned the traditional classroom experience on its head, allowing the students to take control of their own education. The results are stunning! This book should be the blueprint for the future of education." 
Tina Seelig - Professor, Stanford University, Author, inGenius: A Crash Course on Creativity

“Can school be a place where risk-taking and creativity flourish?  Don Wettrick offers and emphatic “yes” — and shows how he’s done it. Wettrick has incorporated a range of creativity-generating concepts into his teaching and turned his classroom into an innovation factory. This book teaches you how to do the same and still maintain rigorous educational standards. You'll be amazed by his students’ accomplishments and eager to put his ideas into practice."
Daniel Pink, author of DRIVE and A WHOLE NEW MIND

Don't commoditize your brand

A brand is the external reflection of a company’s inside culture and core values. In order for a brand to stay relevant, be different and unique, it must reinvent itself continuously. If a company’s products or services don’t change the game regularly, they suddenly become a commodity, as unique and innovative they could have been at some point. EVERY product and service becomes sooner than later a commodity. What’s critical is for the company to keep its brand relevant by innovating and bringing to life new game-changing products or services.

Many companies struggle here, however, with development portfolios that are anemic. Take a look at the breakdown of projects in the typical firm’s development pipeline today versus the 1990s. Today’s portfolio features a far higher proportion of improvements and modifications, but new-to-the-market projects have dropped in half. This only reinforces the commoditization of products.

On the path of commoditization…

In today’s world, you either choose to commoditize, or to innovate.

Think of Apple. In its early years, Apple represented the anti-system, anti-PC world. If you were mainstream, you were a PC user. If you were different (Apple’s “think different”) or artsy, you were a Mac user. After Steve Jobs came back to Apple and made what Apple is today, suddenly the brand became mainstream, to the point of alienating early Mac adopters. Apple products went from being in a niche to being adopted by the masses. Although they changed the industry (and literally our lives) introducing i-Pod, i-Phone, i-Pad, the Apple products have been become mainstream and fully commoditized. 

Samsung introduced their smart watch before Apple, although the i-watch had been the talk for years. Google introduced the smart glasses first...

Apple went from being the industry’s #1 brand and disrupter to being second-to-market trying to catch up with the competition.

As products and services are easily commoditized, the unique differentiator comes with the brand experience a company creates for its customers or users.

To stay with the Apple example, Apple still has some edge there, although competitors are catching up.

It is much harder to plagiarize a unique brand experience than it is to plagiarize a product or a service.

It is critical for a company to adopt a mindset of innovation and seize every opportunity to make its brand different, beyond the products. The brand experience is a vital differentiator. 

Now, more and more experience strategists seem to be focused on customer retention, and sometimes acquisition. With more and more companies employing the exact same approach to customer journey work, the concern is that all experience begins to look the same. And this again commoditizes the product.

It is easy to create a brand and a “promise”. What is hard to achieve is to deliver on the brand promise over and over again. As innovative as the brand promise may be at some point, other brands will follow and suddenly your promise will become commoditized, again.

McDonaldization of Starbucks…

When Howard Schultz left Starbucks in 2000, his successor Jim Donald decided to automate and time the Starbucks service, from time required to grind coffee, to mix ingredients, to minimal interaction with customers. In other word, Jim Donald mcdonaldized Starbucks. When Schultz returned as CEO in 2008 appalled by the dilution of the Starbucks experience he had brought to life, he decided to revive the brand promise. He closed all stores worldwide to (re)train managers and employees on the true customer experience, leaving on the counter $7M that day. He brought the brand promise back to its origin, and has continued to deliver on the promise ever since.

Signs that you are on the path of commoditization... and how you must remedy...

You must find a way to be different. Sure, you can position your brand differently but that’s not enough. If you promise something different and then give everyone the same experience they know, chances are you’ll compete on price only. If you don’t do something different, you’re merely a commodity.

1. DON’T use the exact same metrics as everyone else in your industry. If everyone measures the exact same thing, eventually everyone begins changing their product in ways that do the exact same thing.

DO set metrics based on your brand and business objectives (in short, your strategy) and what the customer wants. Create metrics that challenge you to continuously improve and innovate, in a way that is uniquely yours. Compare your company to your ideal, not industry standards.

2. DON’T focus on the exact same customer touch points as your competitors. If you are focused on the exact same moments of truth that your competitors are (and you measure the same thing), those moments will begin to look very, very similar.

DO focus on genuine original key touch points. Immerse yourself in your customers’ natural environment and lives to REALLY understand what they want. Uncovering the unmet needs is what will differentiate you from the pack.

3. DON’T have the exact same target audience as everyone else in your industry. You know your company is behaving like a flock of sheep when you have the same touch points, same metrics… and you are going after the same audience as your competitors. How can you be the black sheep to drive the flock in another direction?

DO look at what people want and less at who people are. The same people want different things from experiences depending upon the situation they find themselves in. Know the situations; know what they want in those situations and target those things.

4. DON’T settle for being an er-brand. Your tactics are focused on being better at the same things that your competitors do. Red flags go up whenever I hear a pitch that explains how a new offering is just like another but is small-er, bigg-er, thinn-er, light-er, fast-er, sexi-er, whatev-er. Hearing “we’re just like X brand but we’re…” sets off warning signals about breakthrough ability and long-term viability. An -er position is a dangerous one to adopt. It relegates your brand to subordinate status compared to the brand used as your reference point – and it tells customers that your brand possesses only comparative value, rather than having its own inherent value. It also puts your brand under constant pressure to introduce new products on Brand X’s time line, because now your brand value is tied to Brand X’s product. You have little basis for achieving meaningful and sustained differentiation.

DO find a unique brand personality that translates into a unique customer experience, enabling your brand to rise above competitive comparison. Using brand personality in this way is not simply about developing creative communications; it’s about infusing every aspect of your operations with your unique character.

Take away…

Customer experience is a great strategic framework for getting people to want to spend time with your brand. It is the right concept, but don’t settle for sameness or for an –er brand. Be original and you won’t become a commodity. 

Indiana on all fronts of Innovation

Last year's acquisition of Indianapolis' ExactTarget by Salesforce for $2.5 billion helped Indiana get national attention, credibility and capital as becoming a center for innovation.

From the stock options gains generated by the acquisition, "many current and former ExactTarget staffers have turned into investors, employees and advisors for a bevy of other local startups, lending experience and wealth to help the next generation of tech successes grow", says Mike Langellier, CEO of TechPoint. The Indy tech scene now draws interest from investors and talent outside the state.

To support this effort, TechPoint, Indiana's technology growth initiative, unveiled in November 2013 the pilot of a first-of-its kind talent recruiting program called IndyX aimed at attracting and retaining skilled individuals by connecting them to the Indianapolis community and thousands of open jobs in tech companies.

The summer coolness in the Midwest does not affect the heat on innovation. Indianapolis has been surfing on the wave of innovation, with many initiatives: Mira Awards, the Innovation Showcase, the Day of Innovation conference...

On May 4, the Mira Awards recognized among others Interactive Intelligence as the Tech Company of the Year, and DoubleMap as the Tech Startup of the Year. The number of applications (record of 170) was an increase of 40% from last year.

On July 10, the Innovation Showcase attracted 850 attendees including entrepreneurs, investors and community supporters. Investor eduction sessions, pitches and exhibits by Midwest startups, panel discussions were the highlight of the event. The winner, Cearna Aesthetics, received the largest ever prize which included $128,000 in investment and professional services. 

On August 28, Centric, an Indianapolis innovation networking group, will host the Day of Innovation conference with local and national innovation thought leaders, with the mission to elevate Indianapolis as a center of innovation. It will also recognize innovative Hoosier companies with the Indiana Innovation Awards.


On January 22, Lt. Governor Sue Ellspermann announced that the Indiana Small Business Development Center (ISBDC) was partnering with Launch Fishers to establish the Launch Indiana SBDC (“Launch Indiana”). Launch Indiana connects Indiana’s innovation-driven entrepreneurs with mentorship, education, and assistance from successful entrepreneurs. It serves entrepreneurs statewide with a sharp focus on high potential companies known as, what Launch Fishers founder Wechsler calls, “Innovation Driven Enterprises.”

Indiana may never be the new Silicon Valley, but it can become a major player on the national innovation scene. The more we educate, inspire, motivate and support local entrepreneurs, the more ExactTargets there will be...

(My) innovation lessons from the World Cup...

Goooaaaaaal!!!!!!! The 2014 fútbol World Cup was a success in many ways. Highest goal average per game, German striker Klose beating the record of goals scored over several world cups, highest average number of passes per game, record score in a semi-final (7-1)...

However, like in any competitive environment, successes come along with failures and tragedies. 

What can you take away from the 2014 World Cup and apply to your business to bolster your innovation efforts?

• Your leader on the field must take responsibility and be accountable. Thiago Silva from Brazil - allegedly the world’s best defender before the world cup - failed miserably. From refusing to be part of the penalty shootout in the quarter-final game against Chile because he could not handle the pressure, to receiving a second yellow card on a stupid foul that kept him out of the tragic and pathetic semi-final match against Germany, Silva showed that if you don’t take your responsibilities and live up to your promises as a leader, repercussions on the team can be disastrous.
• You cannot just hope for the best and wait for (good) things to happen. Many allegedly inferior teams played too defensively thinking they couldn’t challenge their opponent during regular time, waiting for the penalty shootouts to (hopefully) qualify. Even The Netherlands, in their semi-final match against Argentina, played very passively while they had been a striking force in the previous games. Penalty shootouts are always a lottery. Take your destiny in your hands and make it happen, don’t wait for the lottery.
• Be disciplined yet opportunistic. Germany’s DNA is about organization, discipline, yet efficiency and opportunism. Against France, Germany did not have many scoring opportunities, but they seized one opening to score the unique goal of the game. Against Brazil, they seized all opportunities to score 4 goals in 6 minutes to kill the game after 20 minutes only. The mannschaft showed that discipline, strong organization, with the ability to be opportunistic when needed, helps you win.
• You have to rejuvenate a talented and winning team and disrupt the starters to challenge the establishment. For 4-5 years, Spain dominated the world of soccer. The golden generation was unchallenged from the 2008 European Championship, through the 2010 World Cup to the 2012 European Championship. The error in 2014 was to rely (again) too much on their (aging) golden generation and not bring new talents to the team.
• You must evolve as the game evolves. Brazil has been the poster child of soccer for decades, the winning 1970 team being the ultimate reference what what soccer should (idealistically) be. The problem is that soccer has been Europeanized in the last decade, becoming more tactical, disciplined, organized rather than relying purely on raw individual talent with a few game-changing players. Brazil failed in that category, wanting to play the same way they’ve always had.
• If you want to beat the best, you must compete with the best every single day. The US team had a fantastic run, their players defying the odds in the “group of death”, playing with their hearts out to qualify ahead of Portugal and Ghana. However, their run was cut short against Germany in the last group game and eventually against Belgium in the round of 16. What the American players lacked? The highest level of competition day after day in the top European leagues. The MLS is very far in terms of level from the top leagues on the other side on the pond. Most US players play for MLS teams, missing the opportunity to challenge the world’s best players in Europe day after day. This is no mistake why the best African, Central/South American players play in Europe. Why the US players wouldn’t?
• The team always surpasses individual talents. Ronaldo, Messi, Neymar, Silva, Hazard?  Individuals talents may make your team win one or two games occasionally, but over a month-long competition, individual talents cannot challenge organized, disciplined, unified teams. Portugal? Columbia? Belgium?... or Germany?
• If you want to win, you have to be aggressive. Conservatism means death (or in our case - elimination). If you look at the US team’s journey in this World Cup, they had their best results by playing aggressive (Portugal and Ghana). They rumbled when they played more conservative (Germany and Belgium). Why? The US team did not have anything to lose in the first two games, they were the underdogs. Suddenly after two games, they were playing for the group’s first place vs. Germany, and a qualification to the quarter-finals vs. Belgium. When there was more at stake, they played conservative. Big mistake!
• Taking risks is rewarding. Luis Van Gaal made a very bold move when he took out his starter goalkeeper in the last minutes of the extra-time period of the Dutch team’s game vs. Costa Rica to replace him by a substitute goalie. The reason? The substitute goalie was allegedly better at stopping penalty kicks. Very risky, but it paid off. For several reasons, Van Gaal could not do it vs. Argentina in the semi-final game, and The Netherlands lost.
• Innovative products can be the simplest and come from the most unexpected places. FIFA introduced the vanishing spray paint in this year’s World Cup to solve one of the most annoying bad habits of soccer players that would disturb any game. Before the spray paint, the kicker would move the ball a few yards to get closer to the cage, the opposing players forming the “wall” would move closer to the kicker, both sides cheating the 9-meter distance rule. A simple product as the spray paint fixed the 3-decade lingering issue. Cherry on the cake: it came from the oddest place, the “soccer” countries (USA and Canada), not the pure “football” countries. Blasphemy!
• “This is the way we’ve always done it” sucks! FIFA finally agreed to use the goal-line technology this year, to avoid many scandals from past tournaments when a referee would mistakenly validate (or not) a goal. With the video now, you can’t go wrong. Strangely enough, UEFA refuses (for now) to implement the technology for the 2016 European Championship, because this goes “against the pure nature” of the game. Major other sports use this technology, even the very-steeped-in-tradition international tennis association!
• Cultural transformation is critical in order to survive. After several failures in the 90s, Germany went through a complete cultural transformation in the early 2000s (started with Juergen Klinsmann with his assistant Joachim Low, respectively now head coach of US team and German team). Increased collaboration with between the Bundesliga clubs and the national team, development of the training centers for young talents, more movement, more rapid and technical play on the ground, no “star player” but a cohesion of complementary players (from starters to bench)... They reached at least the semi-finals in the last 4 World Cups, and final won yesterday.

What have YOU learned from the World Cup?

Image credit: http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/teams/team=43948/photos/index.html

Don’t be afraid of change.

C’est comme ça. Early this year, Monday January 24’s violent attacks by striking cab drivers on Uber cars in Paris — with protesters shattering windows, smashing mirrors and slashing tires — were the perfect illustration of change resistance from an industry which has championed the status quo for decades.
Cab drivers said Uber and apps like it, which allow customers to hitch rides nearly instantly from their smartphones, created unfair competition and undermined the traditional cab-hailing business.
It is the opposite: Uber is merely an enhancement of a taxi service, using mobile technology, paired with a lower pricing strategy, convenience, responsiveness, and customer care, not an unfair competition. If you have ridden in a Parisian cab (it could be applied to New York cabs as well), it is a nightmare (dirty, smelly cards, rude drives who rip you off driving all around the peripherique instead of going straight to your destination, and so on).
Instead of embracing the change that Uber brings as an opportunity to improve their operations model, pricing strategy, and (horrible) customer care, French cab drivers did it the French way: destroy, then discuss and negotiate to maintain the status quo, or higher fees. C’est comme ça (that’s the way it is), say the French.

Change happens. It doesn't care whether you like it or not. Change doesn't need your permission. Change is the one constant in business. What you decide to do with change is up to you.

Why don’t people like change?

Heidi Grant Halvorson, PhD, says that it's not just that people fear change, though they undoubtedly do. It's also that they genuinely believe (often on an unconscious level) that when you've been doing something a particular way for some time, it must be a good way to do things. And the longer you've been doing it that way, the better it is.

Rosabeth Moss Kanter, in a HBR blog, reveals the 10 most common reasons why people don’t like change, such as:
- Loss of control
- Excess uncertainty
- Dislike of surprises
- Doing something differently creates confusion
- Concerns about competence
- More work 

Embrace change

We should not be afraid of change, we should embrace it. For individuals, change is the path to both personal and professional growth, the path to a happier life.
For businesses, change is the drive to more opportunities, to increase in market shares, to the development of new products…

Now, take the time to think… How would your company be different:

-if your staff were inspired about change, rather than paralyzed by it?
-if your leaders could raise performances to meet the oncoming changes, and innovate their way into the future?
-if you knew which trends were impacting your industry today and how to position your thinking favorably for the future?

In today's competitive market place, you need to stay relevant to survive. The Council on Global Competitiveness's March 2005 landmark report stated that "innovation will be the single most important factor in determining America's success through the 21st century (...). The past 50 years we have optimized our organizations for efficiency and quality. But the next 50 years we must optimize ourselves for innovation." Innovation is about changing the game.

In a complex and ever-changing economic environment, innovation is critical for companies to survive. Roland Moreno, the French inventor of the chip on your VISA or MASTERCARD promoted what he called "permanent chaos": a permanent state of mind that employees must have to foster innovation.

Many people think innovation is primarily a R&D function. But innovation should be understood to include the entire value chain: from R&D to engineering, manufacturing, distribution, sales, marketing, and even facility utilization and investment strategy. Only a few innovations will be blockbusters. Some will result in incremental changes, but that doesn't make them any less important.

One of Zappos’ core values is to embrace and drive change. “We are ever evolving. If we want to continue to stay ahead of our competition, we must continually change and keep them guessing. They can copy our images, our shipping, and the overall look of our web site, but they cannot copy our people, our culture, or our service. As long as embracing constant change is a part of our culture, they will not be able to evolve as fast as we can.”

Let be change part of your 2014 goals. The more you welcome change, the more opportunities will arise.

What are you doing to embrace change? How does your company master change?