One airshow act that always pleases is when an aircraft lands on top of a moving car. What makes it immensely interesting every time I see the act, is knowing that every landing, even on a fixed runway, is unique due to wind, ambient temperature and traction. Add to that a moving vehicle and the confines of a runway, and suddenly you have multiple items that all need to align with precision. The pilot needs to have the airplane at the right point, in the right attitude and at the right airspeed. The truck driver needs to begin his roll at the right time and hold his speed carefully. The airplane must touch down cleanly and then the combined rig must get stopped to declare the stunt a success.
Doing innovative growth work in a firm is much like this.
The very thing that creates the resources to do the work, (i.e., the current business) provides significant challenges to the creation of the next new growth business. Why? Because the powerful gravitational pull of the incumbent business model, along with our human preference for repeatable, sustainable patterns, makes it very hard for firms to move new opportunities.
This is true even for initiatives that land in the same business model (i.e., are going to the same market, being built in the same supply chain and are being sold by the same distribution team). When we are stepping outside this to do really new work, the target market, the organization and the technology provides these moving targets – much like the truck provides a moving runway.
When you want to explore an adjacency – either a new product for the current market or a new market for an existing product, suddenly you have an even more significant alignment job on your hands.
The key is to know that alignment work is quite different from execution. When we know the path, and it is well worn and predictable, we can execute. Getting resources, teams and intentions aligned is the hard work of preparation and context building.
When it’s new to us we need to search for just the right combination of organizational capability, product capability and market demand. We then work through them using both collaboration and searching techniques.
Understanding the 3 Moving Parts
In our work with organizations, we frequently have to help with a framework that allows this search and testing to be done efficiently. The typical firm is over anxious to move to the execution phase and will shortcut the exploration work – leading to sub optimum launches and expensive quick cycle updates.
Getting more specific, we use frameworks that allow us to isolate each of the three moving parts and examine the impact of a range of options. We work out where the “corners” of the model are, and explore the interactions.
As an example, we worked with a firm on a new offering that is in the logistics technology space. They were dominant in their geography for manufacturing supply chain support, and were keen to have a new line of service. As described above, we started with work on the firm itself, understanding its competencies, and the competencies of upstream and downstream value chain partners. We looked at its systems, sales methodologies, core customer base and areas of repeated success. We built all this onto a very detailed business model map.
Next we looked at the technologies underlying their offerings. They had a highly-developed capability to integrate hardware, software and networks. This allowed us to step above the individual manufacturers and look at integrated offerings that truly met their needs. By setting up core “value clusters” with technical roadmaps, we had a nice baseline to work from.
Lastly, we took a deep look at the current market. We spent some time with key clients and asked them direct questions and listened carefully for what they said and what they didn’t say. We developed a great feel for not only where they were, but where they were headed in the next 36 months (much like knowing where the truck will be when we need to land).
With this carefully developed baseline, we went to work on potential opportunities. We did a lateral scan across emergent logistics and IOT applications and found one area aligned nicely with the firm’s skills, technology and market competence.
The Next Growth Curve
In our scan, we picked up the drive in consumers’ taste for farm to table tracing of fresh food. This, combined with the changes in the regulatory environment, made for a nice growth edge for the small-to-mid sized supplier that needed to up level their ability to provide full track and trace capability.
Because we had done our homework, we knew there were several hurdles:
- We knew we needed to add training in a regulatory space to the core organization
- We needed to add a new set of trade shows and professional organizations to the marketing plan
- We needed to up level the inside and outside sales team to be able to effectively serve this new client base
From a technology point of view, we needed “value baskets” of devices, software and cloud support to drive this new area. We chose to partner with a new firm to handle the higher-level software integration.
We found that the market was truly moving quickly, and we needed to be prepared for the arc of where it was headed, not just where it was. We landed the plane and engaged.
Wrapping Up
Being able to effectively work across these spaces is both challenging and rewarding. We have found that there are a limited number of practitioners that can come alongside a firm and help support them through a launch of an adjacent service that has organizational, technical and market variables.
We have built a unique set of tools and frameworks that allows firms to do this work well, and land their new offerings in the meat of the market. If you’d like to have a discussion, feel free to give me a call at 847-651-1014 or use this link to set up a 20-minute, (no-strings-attached) consult.
