 "Rediscover market needs")
ORBIT SHIFTING: THE DYNAMICS OF IDEAS THAT CREATE HISTORY
AUTHOR: Rajiv Narang & Devika Devaiah
PUBLISHER: Random House India
Price: Rs 499
ISBN: 9788184003208
Organizations get easily locked into a mental model that categorizes and then freezes a market need. Some of the biggest business differentiations and growth stories have come from the breaking through of this mental model boundary, with the rediscovery of a market need.
Orbit-shifters usually have the greatest opportunities to rediscover market needs in markets that are considered mature and settled. For one, breakthroughs have occurred when the frame of reference of looking at customer needs shifted from functional needs to the emotional needs of the customer. Second, rather than just focus on obvious functional needs, orbit-shifters have discovered co-temporals: the points of time in the lives of customers when two or more functional needs coexist and how they can leverage the coexistence of these needs. Going further, they have also uncovered and leveraged co-spatials: the spaces that customers live through where two or more functional needs coexist. Third, in sectors that have settled into a polarized view of the market, orbit-shifters find ways to reframe the market spectrum in itself - uncovering a new, third space that had been completely missed earlier. And fourth, while settled players in the market get stuck in the cycle of creating value adds, orbit-shifters question and redefine the core purpose.
Rediscover the market need: from functional to emotional
NovoPen: Novo Nordisk broke through a mental model boundary by making the shift from a functional to an emotional (social) need. It led to the creation of the NovoPen, an orbit-shifting drug delivery device for diabetics.
In January 1981, Sonnich Fryland, the marketing director of Novo Nordisk called Jorn Rex, the head of packaging, and Dr Ivan Jensen into his room. Fryland removed his fountain pen from his pocket, and as Jorn Rex says, 'He asked us if it would be possible to produce a device that looked like a fountain pen, was easy to use, which could hold a week's supply of insulin and administer two units of insulin at the touch of a button. The pen had to be simple and discreet, and preferably look like, well, an actual fountain pen.'
Pursuing this orbit-shifting challenge, the team at Novo Nordisk came up with the NovoPen, a compact fountain-pen-like object whose cartridge had the capacity to hold insulin for one week. NovoPen had solved a major problem faced by all diabetic patients, the problem of having to carry a separate syringe and vial to administer their daily dose.
After the launch of the NovoPen, Novo Nordisk, which had been battling the threat of losing market share in its core product - insulin - now became the leader in Europe and Japan with more than 60 percent and 80 percent market share respectively. The difference in price between NovoPen and the traditional syringe and vial was not a deterrent in its popularity. Diabetic patients were much happier to use it as it answered their most immediate concerns about using syringes. For one, it was easily portable, as it was shaped like a pen. It was also compact and easy to carry, and saved the user from social stigma. In addition, NovoPen had a mechanism to meter doses hence improving the accuracy of usage. The process of using it was less painful and easier to understand so it appealed to young patients and the elderly as well. It made the drug delivery mechanism much more user friendly and it liberated diabetics to live a normal life, 'Now I control diabetes rather than diabetes controlling me'. Novo Nordisk had identified patients' deepest emotional needs and produced a device to address them, breaking through its own mental model that had so far focused more on drug development rather than on drug delivery.
Co-author, Orbit Shifting
What truly inspires people to take on an orbit-shifting challenge is the realisation that it is a transformation vehicle and not a performance goal, Devika Devaiah tells Ankita Rai
Some times a best-in-class product may not take off, because not all the stakeholders are convinced that it will succeed in the market. How should companies overcome this wall of doubt?
Stakeholders (usually decision-makers in the organisation) seek certainty. Other functions, on the other hand, may go along with the new idea, but they try to fit the new idea into the current capability. If the new idea has to 'fit in', then dilution is inevitable. Most big ideas don't die, they are simply diluted. Hence, the orbit shifter has to engage not only key stakeholders and other functions, but also implementers and partners in a journey that takes them from doubt to confidence in the idea.
One can never mandate passion; one can only co-build a shared dream. So rather than pushing for ownership, the orbit shifter should focus on enrolling all stakeholders in the innovation journey until it becomes a shared dream.
The book says 'the biggest fear of orbit-shifting innovation is not the fear of commercial risk but personal risk.' How should companies overcome this?
Taking on an orbit-shifting challenge involves stepping out of the personal comfort zone and going into the unknown. The bigger fear is the fear of losing reputation, of losing personal credibility among peers. Most organisations cultivate a culture where 'heroes' are managers who excel in under-promising and overachieving. This promotes orbit-maintenance and actively discourages personal risk.
What can an organisation do to inspire people to take on orbit-shifting challenges?
What truly inspires people to take on an orbit-shifting challenge, is the realisation that it is a transformation vehicle and not a performance goal or even a stretch target. Once they see this, the pressure of performance recedes. For example, for the Star TV team, the orbit-shifting challenge of creating a quiz show that would be as big as an Indo-Pak cricket match on a Sunday was a transformation vehicle; it propelled them to rethink every aspect, the content, the format and the marketing of the show. The TRP rating of Kaun Banega Crorepati did not achieve those of an India Pak cricket match, but they succeeded in creating a transformative impact.
Devika Devaiah
Co-author, Orbit Shifting
AUTHOR: Rajiv Narang & Devika Devaiah
PUBLISHER: Random House India
Price: Rs 499
ISBN: 9788184003208
Organizations get easily locked into a mental model that categorizes and then freezes a market need. Some of the biggest business differentiations and growth stories have come from the breaking through of this mental model boundary, with the rediscovery of a market need.
Orbit-shifters usually have the greatest opportunities to rediscover market needs in markets that are considered mature and settled. For one, breakthroughs have occurred when the frame of reference of looking at customer needs shifted from functional needs to the emotional needs of the customer. Second, rather than just focus on obvious functional needs, orbit-shifters have discovered co-temporals: the points of time in the lives of customers when two or more functional needs coexist and how they can leverage the coexistence of these needs. Going further, they have also uncovered and leveraged co-spatials: the spaces that customers live through where two or more functional needs coexist. Third, in sectors that have settled into a polarized view of the market, orbit-shifters find ways to reframe the market spectrum in itself - uncovering a new, third space that had been completely missed earlier. And fourth, while settled players in the market get stuck in the cycle of creating value adds, orbit-shifters question and redefine the core purpose.
Rediscover the market need: from functional to emotional
NovoPen: Novo Nordisk broke through a mental model boundary by making the shift from a functional to an emotional (social) need. It led to the creation of the NovoPen, an orbit-shifting drug delivery device for diabetics.
In January 1981, Sonnich Fryland, the marketing director of Novo Nordisk called Jorn Rex, the head of packaging, and Dr Ivan Jensen into his room. Fryland removed his fountain pen from his pocket, and as Jorn Rex says, 'He asked us if it would be possible to produce a device that looked like a fountain pen, was easy to use, which could hold a week's supply of insulin and administer two units of insulin at the touch of a button. The pen had to be simple and discreet, and preferably look like, well, an actual fountain pen.'
Pursuing this orbit-shifting challenge, the team at Novo Nordisk came up with the NovoPen, a compact fountain-pen-like object whose cartridge had the capacity to hold insulin for one week. NovoPen had solved a major problem faced by all diabetic patients, the problem of having to carry a separate syringe and vial to administer their daily dose.
After the launch of the NovoPen, Novo Nordisk, which had been battling the threat of losing market share in its core product - insulin - now became the leader in Europe and Japan with more than 60 percent and 80 percent market share respectively. The difference in price between NovoPen and the traditional syringe and vial was not a deterrent in its popularity. Diabetic patients were much happier to use it as it answered their most immediate concerns about using syringes. For one, it was easily portable, as it was shaped like a pen. It was also compact and easy to carry, and saved the user from social stigma. In addition, NovoPen had a mechanism to meter doses hence improving the accuracy of usage. The process of using it was less painful and easier to understand so it appealed to young patients and the elderly as well. It made the drug delivery mechanism much more user friendly and it liberated diabetics to live a normal life, 'Now I control diabetes rather than diabetes controlling me'. Novo Nordisk had identified patients' deepest emotional needs and produced a device to address them, breaking through its own mental model that had so far focused more on drug development rather than on drug delivery.
Reprinted with permission from Orbit Shifting Innovation: The Dynamics of Ideas That Create History by Rajiv Narang and Devika Devaiah (Random House India, Rs 499)
Co-author, Orbit Shifting
What truly inspires people to take on an orbit-shifting challenge is the realisation that it is a transformation vehicle and not a performance goal, Devika Devaiah tells Ankita Rai
Some times a best-in-class product may not take off, because not all the stakeholders are convinced that it will succeed in the market. How should companies overcome this wall of doubt?
Stakeholders (usually decision-makers in the organisation) seek certainty. Other functions, on the other hand, may go along with the new idea, but they try to fit the new idea into the current capability. If the new idea has to 'fit in', then dilution is inevitable. Most big ideas don't die, they are simply diluted. Hence, the orbit shifter has to engage not only key stakeholders and other functions, but also implementers and partners in a journey that takes them from doubt to confidence in the idea.
One can never mandate passion; one can only co-build a shared dream. So rather than pushing for ownership, the orbit shifter should focus on enrolling all stakeholders in the innovation journey until it becomes a shared dream.
The book says 'the biggest fear of orbit-shifting innovation is not the fear of commercial risk but personal risk.' How should companies overcome this?
Taking on an orbit-shifting challenge involves stepping out of the personal comfort zone and going into the unknown. The bigger fear is the fear of losing reputation, of losing personal credibility among peers. Most organisations cultivate a culture where 'heroes' are managers who excel in under-promising and overachieving. This promotes orbit-maintenance and actively discourages personal risk.
What can an organisation do to inspire people to take on orbit-shifting challenges?
What truly inspires people to take on an orbit-shifting challenge, is the realisation that it is a transformation vehicle and not a performance goal or even a stretch target. Once they see this, the pressure of performance recedes. For example, for the Star TV team, the orbit-shifting challenge of creating a quiz show that would be as big as an Indo-Pak cricket match on a Sunday was a transformation vehicle; it propelled them to rethink every aspect, the content, the format and the marketing of the show. The TRP rating of Kaun Banega Crorepati did not achieve those of an India Pak cricket match, but they succeeded in creating a transformative impact.
Devika Devaiah
Co-author, Orbit Shifting