Great example of a 'lead-user' innovation
You're out in the front lines in Iraq and you don't have anything that helps you spot trip wires. What do you do? You make your own solution to the problem. This article tells the story about how soldiers are using that brightly coloured "silly string" to solve this urgent problem. They spray a stream of the silly string out in front of them, if it falls to the ground, things should be OK. However, if there is a wire, the silly foam will fall in an inverted "V" as it gets caught in the wire.
You can probably imagine that the soldiers might even be adapting the existing can of silly string so that it shoots the thread of foam further in front of them. Possibly by heating it up first with a lighter or blow torch (don't do this at home kids!).
What's so interesting about this story is that it shows that, from the army's perspective, the innovation is coming from the soldiers themselves, not the top brass: it's coming from the bottom up (or outwards in). This is what happens with radical innovations. Compare this with what happens with the far more common incremental innovations: the idea for these innovations comes from the top down (or inwards out).
I wonder what else you can use a can of silly string for?
You can probably imagine that the soldiers might even be adapting the existing can of silly string so that it shoots the thread of foam further in front of them. Possibly by heating it up first with a lighter or blow torch (don't do this at home kids!).
What's so interesting about this story is that it shows that, from the army's perspective, the innovation is coming from the soldiers themselves, not the top brass: it's coming from the bottom up (or outwards in). This is what happens with radical innovations. Compare this with what happens with the far more common incremental innovations: the idea for these innovations comes from the top down (or inwards out).
I wonder what else you can use a can of silly string for?
Labels: innovation
posted by Gordon Graham at 2:05 AM
2 Comments:
That is a great example! However, and just for kicks, I would argue that this is an example of market diversification since there is no emergent property technology develompment here. It's an off-the-shelf product being used by a different set of customers. On the other hand, since it is the new customers who took the silly string to else use (radically!), I have to say that this is one of the better examples I've seen for some time. A small comment to your conclusion; Isn't it odd then that there are companies that don't have top-down/bottom-up knowledge issues - and these happen to be the most innovative companies in the world?
Hi Erik! I agree that from the firm that makes the spray's perspective it is a market development (old technology/new market). It can be quite a difficult job labelling the numerous types of innovations, especially when you consider the various perspectives. Maybe it would have been better to call this a "breakthrough" innovation rather than radical?
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