Almost every day, we see some company, a giant, specializing in its own domain, stuck in a bit of a pickle. The pickle could be trouble with its research, product optimization, or any other area that might be hindering the company and its products/research from reaching their full potential. At times, companies may struggle to know what to innovate next, and for such companies, cross-industry innovation is a remedy.
What is Cross-Industry Innovation?
Cross-industry innovation is a method for seeking innovation beyond your core domain, industry, or area of expertise. It involves finding analogous industries that are solving problems similar to yours or that have already solved them. Pyramiding searching is a technique that can help you find analogous industries.
Companies sometimes struggle to solve a research problem whose solution can be easily adopted. This challenge often arises because of the complex process of finding solutions in nearby or distantly related industries.
Before we talk more about it, the critical question is: How do you decide whether to look for a solution in another industry?
A clear decision point is: if the problem lies in your core competency area, research it; if it lies in a non-core area, adopt a solution from a company with that technology as its core competency.
Why does a company require cross-industry innovation?
Since we discussed when cross-industry innovation may be needed, it is also essential to understand what this strategic step entails for you.
- Not only will your business have a competitive edge, but you will see it in a new light. This means old problems but new solutions.
- Your risk of stumbling upon a not-so-great idea reduces because you can study the insights and work on the research of other industries.
- Innovation in the true sense comes to life, benefiting not only your business but all the involved domains.
Cross-Industry Innovation Example
Realizing the future of cross-innovation, GreyB had the opportunity to work on various such cases. What was the case? What was the outcome? Well, let us share one with you.
In the case of tobacco domain companies, we identified that they have invested substantial research effort in resolving power management issues in e-cigarettes. The image represents the amount of innovation from some of the top players (company names not shared to maintain anonymity).
The numbers represent the number of patents they filed. Not much stress needs to be placed on these companies’ interest in solving the challenge of power management. All they want is to increase the life of e-cigarettes after being charged, which is a big problem for them, as it is inconvenient for the customers to charge them again and again.
We think you have clearly deduced by now that power management, or increasing the device’s battery life, is new ground for big cigarette brands. Therefore, seeking solutions from different industries to their problems can be a good strategy.
In this particular case, such a challenge is a core competency for battery manufacturing companies or for companies that have already solved it in other consumer electronics devices. We believe that by sharing this, no sorcerer’s spells were revealed!
But then, why is exploring solutions from within other industries less prevalent? The reason is not awareness but the untidy path that leads to locating favorable solutions in an unrelated domain. We can both agree on this – it is not as easy as it is said to be to find solutions in unrelated industries, relate them to the problem/challenge in your industry, and then port them to make them work in your environment. But no more, it is as tricky as it was earlier.
Why GreyB is the safest bet to find Cross Industry Innovation?
We have worked with many companies to solve such technology scouting puzzles and have helped them find solutions from different industries.
In the above example of e-cigarette manufacturers, we helped a company explore and evaluate technologies and solutions developed by battery and handheld device manufacturers that could be adopted by the company.
It not only helped cigarette manufacturers quickly shift focus to designing a better e-cigarette but also helped them change their research strategy and shift research effort to other areas.
In another case, when we were working with a car manufacturer to help its R&D team find a solution to a problem, the desired solution was identified in the aviation industry, and its portability within a car manufacturer’s environment was not a significant challenge. Doing so helped the carmaker quickly shift the focus to implementation rather than spending time researching it from scratch.
Read Case Study
As such situations are becoming more frequent with the growing volume of research and the development of solutions across the globe in a variety of industries, our researchers make it easier for you to find the right domain for your business. We conduct extensive research to identify your pain points and then provide a detailed report that also covers potential startups for collaboration. What are you waiting for? Discover opportunities before your competitors.
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We support industry-leading R&D and Innovation professionals through complex problems. Describe your challenge, and let us bring clarity and expertise.
