Failure as an Innovation Strategy | BNET Poll

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  sbrennaman35410/27/08 Report as spam
  1

  RE: Failure as an Innovation Strategy | BNET Poll

  My company follows the multiple test theory and involves nearly leader in the organization. Unfortunately they (we) do not do a very good job of creating alternate courses of action. Developing these usually ends up with a muddled solution that eliminates most of the problems but creates others that come along later (the law of unintended consequences). I have tried to develop alternative courses of action for new products and services and have had some success within my own sphere of influence. However, if the project involves a large cross section of the organization, it is sure to be come bogged down with modifications and additions much akin to the financial bail-out bill of recent history from Congress. So much so that much of the entrepreneurial flavor is eliminated or at least mitigated. All in the name of consensus building. But if it fails, then the ?perpetrator? (initiator) is often hung out to dry. Then ?Failure is not an option? becomes the mantra.

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  Steelady10/27/08 Report as spam
  2

  RE: Failure as an Innovation Strategy | BNET Poll

  Although my company has always been small (<20), I
  have found failure a critical component of growth.
  When a result is produced either for my company or a
  client that can be termed 'failure', I begin a process of
  working backwards from the result achieved. By re-
  tracing our steps, we can see where we took a wrong
  turn and why we made that particular choice at that
  juncture. We can then put in the correction with staff
  or contractors. We continue on that path until we've
  found all the errors. The next time we have a similar
  project, we can use what we learned to avoid the same
  problems -- we might create new problems -- but
  we're always learning. After a large failure in my first
  business, I came back in less than 3 years and created
  my first $1 million a year business. I could never have
  done that without the failure -- it made me a success.

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  colette110/28/08 Report as spam
  3

  Failure as an Innovation Strategy

  If you run a social network, you must constantly enhance your site to stay current and relevant to your community. We run MBAconnect.net, a social network for MBA alumni and current students from all business schools worldwide. We try to listen to common suggestions from our community, and we ask a core group of our MBAs what they think of an idea for a new feature. If this market research is positive, and the benefit outweights the cost, then we build the first iteration and launch it. And our members will tell us if they like it or not, and if not, what we can do to improve it.
  
  Sometimes the market research gives false positives or false negatives, so instead you have to rely on your gut to guide you. But you make the best business decision based on the information that you have at the time. This makes it a lot easier to accept the outcome, whether it works or not. If it works, that's great; if it doesn't, that's part of the learning. And often gems emerge in the failure process that give you greater understanding of your community and how you can serve them better. So failure is a very necessary element of the learning and experience curve.
  
  Like Guy Kawasaki says, "Ship, then test". You can test all you want to, but the best way to know if your feature is ready to be launched, is simply to launch it and let the market tell you. If you overtest in pre-launch phase, you might be perfecting unnecessarily or adding features (both at extra cost) that the market doesn't want. So just get it out there and iterate.

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  Perigrinus10/28/08 Report as spam
  4

  RE: Failure as an Innovation Strategy | BNET Poll

  What, us fail?

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  ghatbkk10/28/08 Report as spam
  5

  RE: Failure as an Innovation Strategy | BNET Poll

  We take a multiple path approach, and each approach is evaluated on its financial viability, its commercial viability and its operational viability (is the return worth while/can we afford it - does it have a market - can we deliver?). Some fail, and we learn from those failures. Some are successful and then not so successful because of market changes, etc.

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  gotyactc@...10/28/08 Report as spam
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  RE: Failure as an Innovation Strategy | BNET Poll

  We're a small human resource, leadership and team building firm. Failure has always been a primary prerequisite to "success": it's necessary,
  early and often.
  
  Think about it as learning to ride you first bicycle: few succeed the first time out. Success typically comes with embracing the process of change, growth and trust.
  
  Few "leaders", no matter how accomplished, have
  hit the "bulls-eye" their first time out. Ironically, lawyers call it a "practice":-)
  
  Food-4-thought...Blessings, RA

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  R. B.10/29/08 Report as spam
  7

  RE: Failure as an Innovation Strategy | BNET Poll

  You hear a lot of talk about how failure is necessary to success, but in reality, it's not tolerated. And anyone who fails in any way becomes suspect and their status is greatly reduced (Are they in the right job? Do we need to get someone else to handle this? Should we continue to employ them?). You can go from golden to garbage in 24 hours, all because you make a mistake or don't hit a deadline. I would love to find a place where it's different, but I've been around a long time now and I've never seen a company where you were actually allowed to fail, even though you were trying your hardest and giving it all you had. It's all about performance. If you don't perform 100% positive all the time, you aren't valued.