Strategy #18 in Insight 2020: Leadership Strategies for the Era of Acceleration.
When thinking about new product or service development, don’t do it in isolation. Seek advice and guidance from your customers and business partners —or, even let them drive the innovation agenda.Turn your creativity and imagination engine upside down! Make your R&D strategy less about what you see as opportunities - and more about what your partners and customer see.. Adopt the mindset that ‘customer-oriented and partner-based innovation’ will be a key strategy - and you might find that solution to challenges come faster! The very process of turning your innovation-engine upside down will accelerate your internal capabilities - and lead you further into the opportunities that come from the era of acceleration. I explored the concept of upside-down innovation in depth when Burger King invited me in to talk to 7,000 people at their annual franchise conference in Las Vegas. This was shortly after my work with Disney, where I first broached the idea of flipping things around. What…