Industry Tunnel Vision

Hot-foot from the latest workshop in our ‘Corporate Connections’ project I was inspired to read the latest briefing from trend hounds Springwise:

The light at the end of an (industry) tunnel is a train….

tunnel

This short article sets out three reasons why looking outside your industry’s boundaries to innovate is a productive exercise.  Firstly ‘your competition could be anyone’.  Not only are shoes competing for short breaks for the money in consumers’ pockets,  other new competitors are likeley to leap sideways into your space.  Secondly ‘consumers’ expectations are being set outside your industry’.  Reliability, design standards and brand attitudes are all developing fast and people who demand ethics for example don’t care if you’re making coffee or cars.  Thirdly ‘copying competitors is a race to the bottom’ and Springwise come down against so-called smart followers.  Perhaps not so smart?

As particants in our Corporate Connections project already realise, (all members of the H-I Network, set up to faciliate this kind of x-industry open innovation perspective) stepping outside of your particular tunnel can be illuminating.  This open innovation project is cross-fertilising the pharma, FMCG, telecomms, airline, F1, electronics and energy industries and more.  We hope to be able to prove some of Springwise’s observations with real innovations in ‘the spaces in between’.  I will keep you posted either way…

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