The great disruption

In Harvard Business Review Scott Anthony wrote an interesting piece about innovation (HERE). In this he states :

"Thriving in the Great Disruption requires a particular breed of innovator. Specifically, innovators should look to master three disciplines:

1. Placing a premium on progress. While more and more companies recognize the name of the game is transformation, the tolerance for blind experimentation has never been lower. Innovators will need to continue to find creative, cheap ways to bring their ideas forward. Fortunately, they can tap into a plethora of powerful tools to facilitate rapid learning.
2. Mastering paradox. Leaders in most Fortune 500 companies grew up in an era where they could succeed largely by exploiting their existing business. Today's leaders need to master both exploitation and exploration. They need to develop the ability to rely on precise data in their core business and intuition and judgment when they are creating new growth businesses. They have to live the old F. Scott Fitzgerald mantra, "The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the same mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function."
3. Learning to love the low end. In the dark days of October and November, consumers flocked to discounters like Wal-Mart and McDonald's. Increasingly value conscious consumers and hungry low-cost competitors mean that innovators have to learn how to love low-end business. That doesn't necessarily mean that companies have to slash prices. Rather, they have to figure out how to deliver what consumers in low-end segments consider value."

He goes on to assert that in these times companies have to "make innovation a strategic priority or suffer the consequences".

While he clearly identifies both the technology boom and competition in global markets as the accelerants to this need, he does not seem to acknowledge that in most instances the innovator is rarely the winner in the market place. Microsoft did not invent the GUI, Ford did not invent the motor car, Boeing did not invent the aeroplane, Apple did not invent the MP3 player, Flip were not the first simple video camera to market. I think the winners in this shake out will not be the innovators. The winners will be the ones who see the market opportunity in certain innovations (either ripping them off or partnering with the innovators) and bring it to market in a way that resonates with a particular audience. It will not be innovation per se that wins out. It will be the imagination of a future that most others cannot see. Creative thought combined with a real world application of technology will be the philosophers stone.

The rise of the professionall class

Multiple personality used to be an illness, now it's a positive asset and increasingly a career choice.
Strikes me that most of the people I know that are doing really well during this down-turn do not work for a single employer or have a single income. Most of them have multiple revenue streams and have diversified their career to match their diversified interests. Not only does this seem to be a sensible strategy for the immediate short term it also seems like a sensible strategy for a more satisfying life. No longer do you have to choose between your personal interests and your professional career. You can have your cake and sell it too. I've been trying to think of a great Marian Salzman type name for this career choice. Some people call themselves "Slashers" because of the way that these people answer the "occupation" question e.g. writer/entrepreneur/homesteader/web 2.0 architect. Although, maybe it's an English thing but "slashing" has a totally different meaning. My best attempt at a name is to call them the 'professionall classes' because it really does seem to be a new class of career choice that seems to have it all and do it all.

Unemployment collective

Help friends who lose their jobs.
You never know when you may be fired and insurance can be expensive. Truth is you don't need a big insurance company to take your premiums and make a profit. I recently heard of a group of friends who decided to support each other in these uncertain times. They found 10 close friends who were gainfully employed and created a support collective. Each person put in $1000 to an interest baring bank account that gave 3% interest (this was a month ago). This money was available to any of the group who lost their job and needed a little extra support while they find other work. The group wrote up a simple agreement on appropriate uses and how much could be taken from the fund every month by those who needed it. It struck me that you could also ask the members of the collective to pay a small premium, say $50 per month, to build the fund over time. My initial reaction to this was that I might resent the money being used up by different group members but then I realized I'd probably already spent at least this amount of money on friends who had lost their jobs by buying them drinks and picking up the tab at restaurants.

5 new recession hacks

1. Start a "support local business" movement or even a implement a social currency between local businesses/customers that trades support and rewards 'local loyalty'.
   Never before has supporting local business been so fashionable. Not only is it environmentally responsible (carbon footprint and all that) but supporting a local business in a recession is crucial to maintaining a strong and prosperous local community. If your immediate community is prosperous then it is likely that you can be prosperous too. Create campaigns to only spend locally on local produce and businesses. Encourage supporting small businesses or big local employers. This does not need to be just retailers, food and product manufactures. Many service companies have local alternative suppliers. If you are really motivated you could also try creating a locally recognized social currency (sort of like a widely recognized reward scheme). There have been many historic successes with this as a strategy for ensuring survival in a recession. (see example of Worgl in Austria 1936 - Here) or check out Timebanks.
   
   
2. Promote products and services with promo codes
   There are many really active coupon chasers out there and most direct mail responses come from these people. Thanks to the Internet there is practically no need to go to the expense of mailing customers or even creating promotional materials any more as the coupon chasers are out there looking and wouldn't dream of not checking out one of the promo code sites before they buy. So if you've got a promo, or even simply want to drive some business then simply submit a made up promotion and promotion code to one of the sites like retailmenot.com or fatwallet.com and watch the responses roll in. (You will have to honor the deal you describe but at least you didn't have to incur the cost of marketing it).
   
   
3. Become a producer not just a consumer
   "Urban homesteading" is on the rise (and it's not like the British TV show "The Good Life" - If you've never seen it check out here). You will be amazed at how many things we have been taught to consume which we can easily produce. Whether it is simply recycling materials to other uses, baking bread, growing tomatoes in window box, keeping a yogurt culture or a bee hive there are many things you can make yourself without too much effort. As a resource we love Homegrown Evolution.com
   
   
4. Google Adsense
   If you have any ability to attract people to the stuff you write, this is a great way to earn some extra cash. Get paid by google for serving ads to your content or site. The more traffic and clicks you get the more you get paid.
   
   
5. Micro donations through Paypal
   Like Wikipedia many sites are supported by donations. Paypal have an easy to add button that allows you to get donations from appreciative readers of the content you create. If we create more of a culture of mutual support for content we value then there is a good chance we will be able to support our own initiatives through donations.
   

Recession Hacking

Those who survive this recession will be the ones that find better, more efficient ways to run businesses and garner revenues. This is as much a re-think as a recession. As the Chicago Tribune files for Chapter 11, so Gawker and others are hiring. Webcasters such as Michael Buckley of "What the Buck" are giving up their day jobs while employees at the big networks are being forced out of theirs. This is more than a recession it is a change of guard. Out with the old and in with the new. As we discover that the Internet means everyone can talk to everyone, anytime, we are finding we can fundamentally changes what we do and how we do it. Technology facilitates things that were never before imaginable. Groups form instantly; we can share practically anything with anyone anywhere in the world in moments; we can mobilize to gather for a disco in Wall Street or to freak out commuters in Grand Central. We can think, imagine, create, build, sell, share and act together as never before. Flash mobs will become flash squads, flash activists, flash artists, flash builders, flash teachers, flash retailers, flash healers, flash advisors, flash businesses of all kinds.

It’s not surprising that the first businesses to go down are those with the biggest hierarchical structures and the strictest controls on information -shrouded in mystery and privacy protection - yes we are talking about you in Wall Street, Madison Avenue and Motor City Detroit. The businesses that will survive will use transparency and openness to their advantage, use their employees not as workers but as active participants in a bigger social agenda. Corporations will have move from corporate social responsibility practices that are white washes over their ambivalence to their customers and develop meaningful social missions which will not only give them greater reason for being but will give customer greater reason for engaging and helping them. Businesses of the future will be fully visible to their customers and will be judged not on the words that they say in their advertising but the actions they take along side their customers in the real world.

The first hack out of this recession will be a mechanism for businesses and individuals to be equal participants in a number of social agendas that benefit us all.

Innovation in the next year will be rife but it will not be VC funded nor will it come from corporate America. People will experiment themselves and share their experiences. That experimentation will be adopted faster than we've ever seen and will change business models, brand landscapes, categories and trade routes. New lifestyle brands will emerge and new ideas will spring from everywhere. Remix culture and the web will be the reason we adapt to change faster and more efficiently than previous generations hit by recession.