Musashi's Dokkodo (The Way of Walking Alone)

part the company does well because Apple has developed and
cultivated a culture of continuous innovation, one that assures that
the products and services they offer remain meaningful and relevant
to their customer base. And, they’ve invented some truly out-of-the-
box concepts such as iTunes where it’s not the music they are
selling as much as the delivery channel. In this fashion they make
money on other people’s hard work as well as on their own. Pretty
slick, huh?
Innovation can be challenging, but there’s a science to it:
Ideate
. At the simplest level the process begins by generating
ideas. This can include brainstorming, crowdsourcing, and a
host of other methods of coming up with concepts to evaluate.

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Some ideas may be new things entirely whereas others
repurpose old inventions or ideas such as 3M did with its Post-
It Notes.
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Analyze
. The next step is to open-mindedly vet and analyze
the ideas, letting the best ones bubble up to the top. With
limited resources we cannot implement everything so we must
choose only those that are most likely to pay off in a big way,
discarding lesser concepts altogether or saving them for later.
Prototype
. Next we create a trial run of the product, service, or
process using a “fail fast, fail often” approach as we attempt to
develop and refine something we think will be a winner.
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Typically this includes leveraging customer input, market
research, beta testing, and other factors to help us be certain
that we’re on the right track and assure that what was
envisioned will actually come to fruition.
Produce and Support
. Leveraging what we learned with the
prototype we finalize the design and put it into production.
During the useful life of the product, service, tool, or process
there is almost always room for continuous improvement, so
we must devote time and resources toward that too.
Repeat
. Finally, we need to restart the process for our next
iteration of invention.
It’s not just businesses; careers are killed by blindly clinging to the
past too. Continuous learning is vital for keeping ourselves employed
and employable. It is a very good idea to obtain a professional
certification appropriate for our occupation wherever possible so that
we will not only be accredited but also be continuously introduced to
thought-leaders and cutting-edge innovations in our industry and
vocation. Attending conferences or classes oftentimes lets us rub
elbows with pioneering thinkers from other companies whose ideas
we can adopt for our own (assuming we obtain permission first, of
course). For example, I brought a supplier innovation process into an
aerospace company that came from a soft drink manufacturer. While
the two industries couldn’t be farther apart, we both manage our
supply chains similarly so it was a natural fit.

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It’s not so much unneeded possessions that we need to guard
against holding onto in business, but rather outlived ideas,
processes, and knowledge. As we evolve, learn, and grow
personally and professionally we can discard the things we no longer
need.

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