If I ask, “Are you aware that innovation can take your business to the next level in your domain?”
You’d answer, “Obviously, Yes.”
But, being aware of your business’s next plan and implementing that plan with the right strategy are two different things. This means innovating but in the correct way to gear up the game.
“What is meant by right method?” – You may ask.
Innovation through cross-industry innovation. This promising method offers the opportunity to scale up the red ocean and create a blue ocean. For reference, red-ocean represents the existing products where competition is high, and blue-ocean represent new markets that can be created.
Many companies are already taking advantage of this method by adopting technology from a different industry and, with a bit of skill, transforming it to solve the problem of their own industry.
Additionally, this strategy is also used to increase horizons. For instance, companies coming up with an innovation try to increase their business by exploring new markets around an innovation instead of limiting it to the obvious use. Thus improving the red-ocean market in one case and generating a blue-ocean market in the other.
If you want to know more about which cross-industry innovation is fit for your business –
An Example of Cross-Industry Innovation at Work
I remember a case we handled almost three years ago where we were consulting a company in the domain of building and construction materials in their technology scouting initiative. They aimed at upgrading their products/services and focused their research activity on adding new features.
Out of the many solutions suggested, I recall talking about one innovation from a Chinese plastic manufacturing company that covered phase change materials. The literature provided corresponding to the suggested innovation reflected the advantages of this new phase change material and suggested composition details and the process of developing such a material. To give you an idea about the level of details that were provided I am sharing a snippet of information –
The decanoic acid and lauric acid are to be added to the mixer at a temperature of 50-55 ° C, mixed for 5-8 minutes, followed by the addition of paraffin wax, and mixing is then continued at a temperature of 50-55 ° C for 2 to 3 minutes to prepare a ternary complex phase change material; wherein the paraffin wax, capric acid, lauric acid weight in the ratio of 10 -30: 45-35: 45-35; II: EPDM ternary complex and mixing the phase change material: EPDM was added to the mixer, the mixer temperature is maintained at 75-85 ° C, and then added to the complex ternary step of preparing a phase change material, sensitizer trimethylolpropane trimethacrylate and scaly graphite is added to the mixer for mixing, mixing time 8 -10 minutes….
Such a level of detail helps the company to easily move ahead in their research activity to upgrade their products and decide at a strategic level if they should research in-house or collaborate with the companies that have already researched such materials.
The next step was obvious – exploring the use of polymer-based composite material for building phase change wall interlayers, thus resulting in an environment-friendly, energy-saving solution in the construction industry. Not only this but the material can also be easily adapted to manufacture phase change wallpapers or clothing to give rise to a new type of product line that can prove to be a golden opportunity.
Companies in the textile/interior industry can lead the race of venturing into the gate of opportunity by tracking such innovations from nearby sectors at the right time and launching improved products to capture a larger pie in their red ocean.
On the other hand, companies that are developing such material or the construction companies making use of such a material also have an opportunity to launch less apparent products like wallpapers, flooring solutions, etc., to target energy-saving solutions and thus generate blue oceans for them.
But many fail to do so. Sad reality!
Fret not. There is a solution. To support innovation activity within the company and help them in their technology development/scouting initiatives, GreyB’s research team can be your asset. All you have to do is:
