The Wildlife of Innovators

A statement that strikes fear into any business person’s heart is the well known, “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.” Anybody from New Orleans out there?

Although our federal government can do some pretty stupid things—like paying $640 for a toilet seat and $436 for a hammer—when Congress established the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) in 1984, it was a stroke of creativity and innovation that sill pays dividends for the environment and businesses.

Realizing that government agencies are bound by more red tape and political minefields than we can imagine in our wildest bridges to nowhere dreams, Congress created the NFWF to help federal natural resource agencies accomplish their mission without utilizing federal employees and without being bound by statutes.

Now before you start to think that the NFWF is some type of secret Freemason shadow organization, the foundation works with businesses to create programs that strike a balance between the normal cost of doing business and the cost of doing good for the environment. In some cases, the foundation funds the potential costs of environmental impact in advance.

Here are two examples of how it works:

As an ongoing business expense, a power company had to maintain a 10–to–12 mile right of way. The right of way happened to be in an area that was a natural habitat for wildlife. The NFWF was able to leverage what the power company was spending for maintenance to recruit concerned local area groups and individuals. The volunteers now maintain the right of way, and the cost to the power company is no more than it was to maintain it themselves—the difference being that the habitat is now better preserved for wildlife, and the company scores significant community-relations points.

Another example involves a power plant on the Mississippi River.

Exelon, the nation’s largest gas and electric utility, needed to increase its output of energy to serve growing customer demand, which meant that the temperature of a water discharge from its plant would increase by one degree. Following thorough investigation by federal and state agencies, no immediate environmental impact could be determined. But, to err on the side of caution, the power company, through the NFWF, is putting aside funds to mitigate the potential costs of any future impact—kind of like an environmental insurance policy.

While we don’t always think of the government as being especially creative or innovative, in the case of the NFWF, they got it right.

Sometimes you have to create an entirely new entity in order to get a job done, or to look at solving a problem creatively.

No animals were harmed in the writing of this blog.

Ready, Aim . . . Wait a Minute!

Do you have the right ammunition to be innovative? I mean that literally.

Anoka-based Federal Cartridge has been around for 87 years, and—unless you’re a hunter, target shooter, NRA member, or a member of a group opposed to guns or hunting—the topic of ammunition may be about as interesting to you as watching paint dry. But it should be of interest to you if you have any interest in innovation.

The New York Times recently credited Federal with transforming ammunition, which is generally regarded as a commodity product in a commodity category, into a game changer.

Federal’s efforts to repackage its Black Cloud shotgun ammunition excited the Times because even though all manufacturers will talk about how their product is different, we’re still basically talking about a nontoxic steel shot.

That is until Federal looked at a different type of “shell” design—changing the shell’s design and repackaging the product. By changing the aesthetic of how the brand was represented, the product jumps out among a sea of boring, like packages, and sales follow suit.

It’s basic function and form. If you’ve got undifferentiated function, you should be looking at changing the packaging and design, or form. Any of you that own a Michael Graves designer toilet brush know all about this.

Marketing aesthetic experts think form can also translate into experiences, too.

According to the bible on the subject, “When products or services are perceived as undifferentiated in terms of their typical attributes, intangibles like experiences become the key selling points”—enter our “post-apocalyptic ZZ Top aesthetic,” character, aka Phil Robertson, Duck Commander.

Robertson is the spokesperson for the brand, and the star of a series of viral videos that resonate with the target audience. He’s also featured in a Black Cloud-specific social-hub Web site.

The integrated aesthetic effort takes a commodity product in a commodity category and, I can’t resist, blasts the competition.

So, how might you employ marketing aesthetics for your brand?

How Do I Get Started?

Innovation is all around us—can you see it? With the exception of nature, everything around us has been invented and designed. From the toothbrush in the bathroom to the clothes we wear, you get the picture . . . But when it comes to creating innovation in our own lives and organizations, it’s not an easy task. Here are some ideas of where to start the search.

Product innovation is the good starting point. Whether you have an actual physical product or a service, look at ways you can change it to improve how it performs. Just think of a simple product like a toothbrush. We’ve gone from basic bristles on flat plastic to ergonomically customized soft, chunky grip handles with swirling, vibrating battery-powered bristles. Don’t get me started about razors.

What incremental changes can you make to your product or service to improve its performance—or what radical changes can you make?

Position innovation is another area to investigate. At its most basic level, the position question asks what do you have and who is it for. When was the last time you re-evaluated how relevant your position is to the audience(s) you’re trying to reach? What worked a few years ago—prior to the explosion of social media, the implosion of real estate and financial markets—may not work as well in today’s environment. When markets make tectonic shifts, it’s time to take a fresh look.

Process innovation addresses exactly what the words imply—changing the way a product is made, or how a service is developed and delivered. Automation, outsourcing, print on demand, and do-it-yourself legal forms are all examples of process innovation. Is there anything you can do to change the way your products are made?

Paradigm innovation is more “blue ocean,” that is, completely changing the way you think of your business. A question I like to ask clients is: what would you do if you knew you could not fail? Put judgment aside and see how you would change your business if the fear of failure was eliminated.

Take a look at these four areas to start bringing innovation to your business.

Elvis is Alive

Elvis is alive and living in Scranton, Pennsylvania. No, I haven’t gone all National Enquirer on you—but I do want to talk about deferring judgment and being open to possibilities because unless we can do these two things, some great ideas will go to that great ’ol Graceland in the sky. So, put aside your suspicious minds—thank you, very much.

Once during a particularly difficult client meeting the legendary ad man Bill Bernbach took a tiny piece of paper out of his pocket, unfolded it, put it back in his pocket, and continued the meeting, which started to go decidedly better. After the meeting someone asked Bernbach what was on the piece of paper. He pulled the piece of paper out of pocket and written on it was the question, “What if they’re right?”

How about we pretend they’re right and get a new perspective?

Sometimes we get so firmly planted in our beliefs that we close the door on anything new and innovative without even realizing that we’re doing so.

When I was doing some work for Target before its widespread national expansion, I was talking to an editor in New York City and described the company as an upscale discounter. The editor laughed and said that was an oxymoron. Who’s laughing now?

See what happens when you reverse your assumptions about something.

Another instance involved a brainstorm with a group of engineers, who also happen to be some of the most creative people around. It took awhile before we could start generating unique ideas because they kept arguing that certain things violated the laws of physics and were thus impossible.

By opening up the possibility that we could create a duplicate planet Earth, where our laws of physics didn’t apply, they were finally able to give themselves permission to suspend judgment. We wound up having a successful ideation session.

Be open to the possibilities, defer judgment, and you’ll find yourself open to greater innovation.

Don’t be cruel. Thank you, very much.

Help Me Help You

I was recently reminded of some of the classic lines from the movie Jerry Maguire when I saw that Minnesota just had its worst quarterly venture capital performance since 1995.

Show me the money! Uhhh, not so much.

According to PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association’s MoneyTree Report, companies in Minnesota attracted just $26.4 million in venture cap during the third quarter this year. To make matters worse, Minnesota’s sluggish performance happened while the rest of the country saw an increase in venture cap funding.

That’s bad news for innovation.

While money’s not everything, if you don’t have good ideas—you’re not going to be able to put money to work for you and grow your business.

But like gas for a car, you can only go so far without money before the engine shuts down. In this case, that engine is innovation.

Help me help you.

It’s near impossible to fully realize inventive and creative potential without funding.

One classic example is the Italian Renaissance. If the Medicis, Pazzis, and other wealthy individuals hadn’t funded Michelangelo, da Vinci, Brunelleschi, and Ghiberti, the Renaissance could not have occurred—just like modern day funding for Silicon Valley and Minnesota’s medical device industry.

Innovation and creativity needs patrons, or, in this day and age, venture capitalists.

When innovation is successful, the innovator wins and the investor wins, so in order to help me help you, show me the money!