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Find Your Lightbulb: How to make millions from apparently impossible ideas
John Wiley and Sons Ltd, April 2008, Pages: 272
Chapter 1 explains the importance of writing your own script, and setting yourself a real challenge in order to make your big idea happen. Although it sounds irrational this should be something which takes you out of your immediate comfort zone because it is your unexamined assumptions that make things seem impossible. Case studies (eg Microsoft, Celtel and Innocent) illustrate real life examples of how, through forcing yourself to try new and innovative things, you will find tremendous motivation and the power to attract others who will help (both those who are excited by what you seek to accomplish and those who will proclaim “you must be out of your mind.”)
In explaining all the reasons why your idea won’t work, your critics, whether experts, colleagues or even relatives will actually provide you with a checklist of the things you need to design to make it happen. As President Kennedy said “the first moon mission was inadvertently designed by those scientists who told us why it couldn’t possibly work.” Possible case studies include; Go, the British Olympic bid, and Zopa.
A major pitfall for many entrepreneurs and innovators is failing to distinguish the ‘ends’ from the ‘means’. Chapter 3 explains the importance of being very clear about the ends (results) to which you have committed. It explains how precise ends can equal highly flexible means and how to learn from successes and failures along the way in order to move towards your desired ends. This rule is supported by numerous studies at MIT, case studies could include Hewlett Packard, eBay, Monilink or Lost Wax.
You will get nowhere without taking risks and having some failures. In fact to make a big idea work you will have to come up with countless smaller ideas for new products, services and processes and of these only a few will work effectively. Notably, you need to make sure failures are quick and cheap and winners are big. When it's impossible to make a failure quick and cheap at least make sure the risk you are taking is a smart one i.e. you can afford to lose the money you are investing if it does go wrong, and it will make a worthwhile return if it works.
The problems at Cable and Wireless, the failures of the dot com era contrasting with the successful approach of Tesco and Vodafone to their global expansion and Ideo’s successful innovation processes attest to this very point.
Most meetings seek a consensus that everybody can buy into but nobody really likes. Sadly, consensus kills innovation. So from the start it’s crucial that you make sure your meetings are a productive use of your valuable time. This chapter explains how to reinvent meetings so they become places of dialogue and creation; places where limiting assumptions can be challenged and busted. Experts here include Tracy Goss and Gordon Starr who have both transformed the way meetings are run in big organizations (eg AT&T, Pacific Gas and Energy) and Ideo for whom productive meetings are a way of life.
New businesses, products, and ideas are all trying to address currently unmet needs for customers of one sort or another. Normally your target customers will not be just like you and it’s a big mistake to think they are. You need to determine exactly what types of customers you are aiming at, what motivates them and what they are trying to achieve. In order to do this you will need to observe customers in action, often using prototypes whilst treating conventional customer research with caution. With expert advice from Ideo, Murmur and the Added Value Company, Chapter 6 details the best way to go about achieving accurate customer insight and why it’s often such a thankless task
Chapter 7 explains why your own reputation is especially crucial in the infancy of your ideas. Even if you have no track record at all, your reputation will start to get established the second you open your mouth to talk about your idea. What you say and how you say it makes a huge difference. Later of course, you may express the reputation of your company or product/service through a brand. The principles are the same and much of what you can accomplish is going to depend on the reputation/brand you establish. Featuring advice and case studies from leading, advertising companies and marketing gurus (Mother, Fallon, Identica).
Making a success out of innovative new ideas and businesses needs everything that human beings have to offer; Creativity, commitment, teamwork, mutual support, unreasonable energy. But, whilst you will be rewarded by unleashing the human spirit also beware - you really do get everything human beings have to offer. You will find a sense of humour is your most valuable asset in dealing with the trouble they will inevitably get you into. Incorporating case studies from organizations who pride themselves on achieving exactly this (eg Apple, Google, Yo! Sushi).
The bolder your intentions, the harder it will be to achieve the results you need. There will be times when it feels like the universe is ganging up on you and putting insurmountable obstacles in your path. For this reason, you have to be certain and stubbornly determined that ultimately you will prevail in achieving the ends you have defined (however irrational this seems) and at the same time be ruthlessly honest and clear about where you are now and what needs to change about the means of getting there. This place at the edge of reason is a difficult one to occupy but both Mike’s experience and academic research show it is the place of power for the entrepreneur and the innovator. Examples include Virgin Atlantic, Carphone Warehouse and Pret a Manger
Ask yourself ‘have I strayed into complete insanity anywhere? Don’t step so far off the edge of reason that you go completely mad. This chapter explains how to guarantee you’re on the right path, and steer clear of self-destruction. Each point is illustrated with a variety of compelling case studies including Marconi, Prudential, and the UK public sector
The final chapter takes a proactive, practical look at how to put the 10 rules for success into action. This comes in the form of seven simple, easily digestible steps anyone can take. In order to demonstrate the 7 step process in action, chapter 11 guides you through his recent projects (Egg, Garlik) from concept to completion. It also identifies resources (books, people and companies) who can help at each stage.
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