They certainly move markets! Whether they are tablet computers that are such a rage, smart phones and their apps, social networking, compressed digital formats (such as MP3) replacing CD players, e-books nudging paper books aside, or extreme skiing, rap music, boutique hotels, reality television, our interest in nutrition (organic/bio becoming increasingly preferred) — you name it, they’re all about ideas. These new ideas are displacing old ones. Someone gets a new idea, it catches on and the world is changed. Not as easy, of course, as it sounds; but, in truth, that’s the way it works.
For many societies, the search for good ideas has taken on a sense of urgency. Their standards of living have become so grand that they can no longer compete in “making things” because the cost of their labour is too high. As a result, once making things is out, “knowing things” becomes the next possible advantage to pursue, and that means finding and harvesting new ideas. In these places, money is spent on R&D, new universities are established, and celebrated thinkers get appointed to government panels, but, in truth, it’s all very improvised; and if ideas result, so much the better, but often the results are meagre, and maybe never actually measured or appraised. In the end, resources are committed but our understanding of how to best generate new ideas is not improved.
The Holy Grail of ideas
What do we really know about where good ideas are? How do we find them? What are we to do with them once we get them? Not much, it turns out! In fact, one of the most amazing things that I’ve learned over a career in executive education is that for the most part individuals and organisations know very little about where the last good idea came from, or where the next one is likely to be found. It is just something that we don’t spend a lot of time thinking about.
The truth is that idea work is very important, but not well understood. While some of us follow the exercise regimes of sports heroes in the hope that we might build better physical states if we mimic them, few of us inquire about our own idea exercises. Have we gotten “better”, “stronger” and “quicker”, when it comes to “lifting” ideas in the past few months? Would we even know? Sadly, I fear, the answer is incomprehension: we’ve never thought of it this way! In fact, we’ve never even thought about it at all!
Maybe now is the time to begin. I’ve always been fascinated with how some individuals are just so much more adept at finding and working with new ideas, while others haven’t a clue. For a long while, I’ve believed that if only we could study the behaviours of idea-adept individuals we could all become a bit more effective as idea workers. With this in mind, I’ve been part of a team (with Andy Boynton, Dean of the Carroll School of Business at Boston College) that has been exploring whether it’s possible, in fact, to learn from successful idea workers. We think that it is, and have outlined some of the secrets in a new book entitled The Idea Hunter. Let’s begin with a few thoughts on the nature of the ideas that we are hunting.
‘Neighbourhoods’ of ideas
The world is not flat when ideas are involved. There is no equality in the likelihood of finding a good idea between one location and another. Despite a very popular book by Thomas Friedman that argues that The World is Flat, when it comes to ideas, there are “neighbourhoods” that are much more attractive than others. Interested in Web 2.0? Go to Silicon Valley! If you go anywhere else, you are reducing the likelihood of finding a good new idea. Why? Because people with Web 2.0 ideas congregate around Silicon Valley; so, there is a higher probability that you will discover a good new idea there, than, for example, Paris, or Milano, or even Shanghai. Can’t leave China, and still interested in Web 2.0? My suggestion is to go to Beijing’s Zhongguancun district.
There, you will be more likely to “bump into” someone from Beida, Tsinghua or the Chinese Academy of Sciences, or even alumni of Founder, Stone or Lenovo who will be interested in your ideas and might have ideas of their own, or know somebody who does. You are less likely to find that sort of information in Shanghai or Guangzhou, and certainly not in smaller cities. Good idea hunters know this and they, like any “big-game” hunter, go where the action is in order to enjoy the best chance at “hitting their targets”.
Ideas don’t travel alone. Similarly, idea hunters know that one good idea typically leads to several more, and that, as a result, good ideas are typically accompanied by other good ideas. This makes for better hunting. Though any one idea might not be usable, the likelihood of one coming from a larger number is almost always much more promising. As two-time Nobel Laureate scientist Linus Pauling once said: “The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas.”
Bill Fischer is professor of Technology Management and programme director for Driving Strategic Innovation at IMD, Switzerland
