Tom Peter's 5 P's of Innovation

Valarie Willis, principal with the Tom Peters Company tells us that Tom has come up with five P's of Innovation Success. She states, "As I read them, I thought about how I have believed for quite awhile
that innovation comes as a result of Pain, Passion or Need.  Usually one of the three will move us to do something new, different and creative.  Of course, Tom always has a different take on things so
here are his 5 P's:"

Pissed-offedness - Something that makes you so mad, that you decide enough is enough, let's fix this!  Dick Nettel of Bank of America tells the story of how people had to press a buzzer to get in and out of the mail room at the bank. The buzzer was 'important' for security reasons.  They figured out a way around that buzzer,Dick said, 'it was like a light bulb went off,fix the problem."

Passion - Passion drives most non-profit companies, so why not organizations?  Dyson who invented the first vacuum that wouldn't lose suction was passionate about his invention, even though it scared the other vacuum companies. The other vacuum companies couldn't imagine a bagless vacuum, after all, bags were worth millions in sales.  Dyson almost went broke bringing his vacuum to market. Passion prevailed.

Pals - Never go it alone. If you want to go out on the limb, be sure to have someone holding on to you so that you don't fall.  LeJeune from Fabcon manufacturing came up with an idea to make concrete panels for building lighter.  He had two other Fabcon employees in on the idea, who served as sounding boards. The company eventually created a new product called VersaCore, which according to Gallup helped the company to stay in business.

Politics - What is it that no one likes, it exists everywhere, and everyone is guilty of it but me? Politics would be the right answer.  Think of politics like gaining sponsorship, and as a way to get your idea 'sold' in the corporate marketplace. We all need influential people who can help market and sell a good idea.  Every project needs a project sponsor or champion

Persistence - Most ideas will get shot down before a person finish speaking, but those who prevail will not give up on an idea.  There were two sisters who invented a product called Ghostline, this is a poster board with faint lines so that you can write straight on the paper, but it looks as if no lines exist.  They invented this product after helping their young relative with a science project where they had to start over several times to get it right.  They stayed with their idea until they found a paper company that would produce it for them. Their persistence paid off, they now get royalty checks in the mail, from not only the company that is producing the paper, but from a competitor that tried to copy their idea!

If you want Tom's PowerPoint slides on innovation, you can download them from his site:
http://www.tompeters.com/slides/uploaded/TRY_It_072407.ppt

Comments

[Jack Hipple]

I really enjoyed Tom's wonderful description of dealing with problems. As a long time TRIZ giek, I find these problems echo the approach we have used for some time in problem solving, but they provide some new words to describe!

"Pissed-Offedness" is another definition for a contradiction that looks unresolvable to some people. The solution to the buzzer problem is an example of the basic Ideal Final Result concept in TRIZ: Something performs its function and doesn't exist. One of the ways of getting there is the tool of "trimming". Arbitrarily remove a component of a system and ask how its function can be performed with the elements left. (Think toothpaste in handles of toothbrushes, cleaning solutions in handles of mops, restroom entry designs without doors, CNN reporting without their own reporters, etc.). The Dyson vacuum is another similar example.

Passion - Passion drives most non-profit companies, so why not
organizations?

Amen, brothers and sisters! Wonder if anyone has correlated the lack of passion with the percentage of MBTI ESTJ types in corporate leadership today? In my consulting work, I continue to type innovators(usually ex-corporate innovators) and see no exceptions to the results of previous studies of ex-innovators from an industry study that shows they have are always "N's" and also have high Kirton KAI profiles of 120 or higher, while the organization around them is 80-90.

Pals - Never go it alone. If you want to go out on the limb, be
sure to have someone holding on to you so that you don't fall. One of our big ego problems is the belief that our problem is special and unique and that no one could have possibly have solved it before. I've been doing problem solving using patterns of invention from the inventive literature and in 7 years, have never seen this to be a fact.

Persistence - Most ideas will get shot down before a person finish speaking, but those who prevail will not give up on an idea. There were two sisters who invented a product called Ghostline, this is a poster board with faint lines so that you can write straight on the paper, but it looks as if no lines exist.

Amen, again. But I can't help noting again that the principle used in this new product is the primary TRIZ inventive principle: Something performs its function and doesn't exist.

I realize that some of this is heavily TRIZ biased, but the reason I am so passionate about this type of thinking is that I cannot stand to see time and money wasted generating problem solution ideas that already exist.