448 Words | (1) Innovations Happens at the Edges; Not the Center, (2) The Center is the New Edge, and (3) Leverage the 80/20 Rule to Grow in Relevance, Revenue and Impact.

Innovation Happens at the Edges; Not the Center

Innovation: Enter into your user’s experience for a first hand look at what needs improvement.

Desired Outcome: Increased relevance and impact for your consumer; increased revenue opportunities for you.

Innovation rarely occurs at the home office or within formal structure or process. Incremental improvement, maybe, but no real transformational change. Innovation happens most frequently in the trenches where the end user is actually engaging with your product or service. This is where the magic happens. This is where you can actually see what’s working and what’s not. Only there, at that moment, you will enter the user’s experience and only there will you see what needs to be improved.

The Center is the New Edge

Innovation: Understand your product and service better than your consumers.

Desired Outcome: Get in front of the curve and anticipate what’s needed before anyone asks for it.

Perry Marshall foresaw Google Adwords and Facebook Ads before anyone else did and became one of the highest paid consultants in the world. In a conversation with Ray Edwards, the unapologetic Christian copy-writing genius, Perry flipped the “innovation happens at the edges” adage to “the center is the (new) edge.” Perry enters an emerging trend (new product or service) at the center  and becomes their uber-consumer and understanding their qualities better than anyone else inside or outside the company. From there, he can be in front of the needed innovation.

Leverage 80/20 Rule to Grow in Relevance, Revenue and Impact 

Innovation: Concentrate on the 20% that produces 80% of the results.

Desired Outcome: Four times the effectiveness by focusing on the most fruitful 20%.

The 80/20 rule identifies 20% of any effort produces 80% of the results. This rule of thumb applies to everything from 20% of your donors being responsible for 80% of your gifts to 20% of your employees producing 80% of  the accomplishments. Take the time to review your results and re-evaluate your plans to concentrate on the 20%. Your results can be improved four-fold by focusing more on the right 20% or 16 times less effective by focusing on the wrong 80%. For the seminal work on the 80/20 Principle, visit Richard Koch’s website.

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