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There is a paradigm shift in the way innovation is happening today. In this blog, we find out how innovators of today can leap-frog traditional ways of innovating to bring their micro-innovations to the fore.
Traditionally, innovation was driven to scale by large businesses and organizations that had deep pockets and significant resources at their disposal. Over the last two-decades however, start-ups are increasingly driving innovation and are offering new types of products & services at greater speed than big business houses.
However, micro-innovators of today with little or no investment can potentially displace even start-ups in speed and value when it comes to innovation. These are individuals or small groups of people without any formal business entity in place. They come together and organize themselves as a virtual team and work on an innovation project. They disband when the project is done, the goals have been achieved, and move on to something new. But they work collaboratively, often virtually and geographically apart, and are agile and move fast. They have acquired key skills and knowledge in emerging technologies and tools, they understand the process of innovation, knowhow to leverage online technology platforms and marketplaces to their advantage. They are highly passionate and driven. They often work on shoe-string budget, spending from their own pockets, without external funding. They know how to package and offer their skills and knowledge in the form of an innovative product or service, and reach mass market instantaneously by leveraging open-source and freely available online technology resources, platforms, marketplaces and collaboration tools.
They are here for the long haul, and often start early in their careers. They are also able to tweak their products or services rapidly than any traditional business can, and can reach out to local markets that are often untouched or not adequately served by traditional businesses.
While, traditional businesses think in terms of coming up with one big product which will reach a mass market and succeed, the micro-innovators of today come up with multiple micro-products and services that can collectively reach mass market. They realize that not all innovations enjoy the same level of success - that many will fail and few will succeed. So, they believe in trying several things, before one or two succeeds and brings them revenue. A micro-innovator will not have one source of income unlike employees in traditional jobs. Instead, he earns his income simultaneously from several sources. It could come from selling an innovative micro-product, offering a micro-service, conducting a training programme, setting up a home-based maker space to coach, mentor and guide budding innovators, or even from part-time consulting gigs.
Unlike traditional businesses that start with a business model or a business plan, micro-innovators don’t necessarily need to have one. This is especially true if you are targeting your micro-product or service at yourself, or a small number of end-users. In addition, if you leverage online technology platforms and marketplaces, the business model is already well-defined. All you have to do is determine whether your innovation can readily fit into the existing model offered by the platform service provider. If yes, you are ready to go. You earn an income every time some user buys your micro-product or service from the marketplace. Your revenues increase in proportion to the number of users buying / using your offering.
Democratization of innovation has brought about a paradigm shift in how innovation is happening today. Ready and affordable access to technology and tools, coupled with availability of various innovation support forums and enablers has made innovating a lot easier for the micro-innovator. If you are a micro-innovator, all you have to do is gain the requisite skills and focus on your innovative idea. The rest is taken care for you. You don’t have to worry about any of these things unlike in the past:
In summary, you could be running a business without formally setting up an organization.
Today, there is a lot of focus on building innovative products, solutions & services for the next billion people or the next 3 billion people who are as yet untouched by the digital revolution. As such, traditional products & services cannot fit their needs. However, innovating for this people brings with it humungous challenges. This is a complex market, and many of the users in this category are first-time users of technology. Their income levels are limited. Their needs are diverse, they have significant challenges in using technology based products & solutions, including language, lack of familiarity with technology gadgets, are either semi-literate or even illiterate. They also access internet based services on affordable mobile phones, rather than on expensive traditional computing devices such as desktops or laptops.
Creating a product or service for this user segment is very challenging. Instead of creating such products and services, we could explore the following alternative options:
In the past, innovators depended on ready-to-use frameworks, tools and products as building blocks for their innovations. In the future, innovators will rely on online technology platforms and marketplaces as building blocks. These innovations will involve aggregating data and services from across multiple platforms to deliver solutions that are highly impactful, rich in content, ubiquitous, while also being transparent to end-users. Imagine how an solution that combines data and information from IoT platforms, AI & machine learning platforms, analytics platforms, VR & AR platforms will look like? What kind of experience will it offer to its users?