Scarcity & Innovation

As innovation practitioners, we recognize adverse conditions, such as natural resource scarcity, job loss, or volitle markets, can drive rather than inhibit innovation. We’ve seen how low levels of disposable income can fuel mobile phone and app innovation. A lesser known example comes from Kenya, where a shortage of water and scrap metal has prompted the creation of a tap lock that deters unauthorized use of water as well as faucet theft.

 Of course what I’m describing is the manifestation of disruptive innovation as defined by Clayton Christensen, undisputed authority on the concept. In his words:

“An innovation that is disruptive allows a whole new population of consumers access to a product or service that was historically only accessible to consumers with a lot of money or a lot of skill.  Characteristics of disruptive businesses, at least in their initial stages, can include:  lower gross margins, smaller target markets, and simpler products and services that may not appear as attractive as existing solutions when compared against traditional performance metrics.”

So if scarcity can provide fertile ground, why do so many companies kill rather than pursue innovation, even at a scaled-back level? This will be the basis for our chat on Thursday, 9 Feb. 

Questions we’ll tackle are:

Q1. What scarcity-related trends are you observing?

Q2. Why do you think companies tend to scale back on innovation during times of scarcity?

Q3. What examples can you share of successful scarcity-driven innovation?

Q3a. Why were those companies able to be innovative when others weren’t?

Q4. As innovation practitioners, what can we do to encourage innovation during times of scarcity?

Downloads

transcript_innochat_020912.pdf

transcript_innochat_020912.pdf 2.81 MB