Haegwan Kim
At first my research is on the law of success, so I want to ask you about your personal definition of success.
Saul Kaplan
My personal definition of success is having an impact and creating a better way to deliver value. For me it’s always about the ability to have an impact on whatever problem it is you’re trying to solve or whatever social issue that you’re trying to work on. Are you having a direct and measurable impact and making a real difference.
HK
Is that the reason you founded the Business Innovation Factory?
SK
Yes, absolutely. We want to create real world laboratories where innovators can explore and test new ways to deliver value. And we focus on areas of high social impact, including healthcare, education, energy and entrepreneurship. All of these are systems level challenges that we believe require systems level solutions. So my mantra is how do you do R & D for business models and systems, the same way organisations do R & D today for new products and technologies. We believe all leaders now have to do ongoing experimentation for potential new business models, even those that might disrupt the current way they do business. The Business Innovation Factory is a community of innovators and a platform to do real world experimentation.
HK
That’s really interesting. You're doing this as a non-profit, can I ask why?
SK
We created it as a non-profit because we wanted to be a neutral platform focused on mobilising systems level transformation in areas of high social importance. That's our mission, and we’re very passionate about it. We’re trying to create a movement and connect innovators in very purposeful ways.
HK
Do you still believe a non-profit organisation has the possibility to make the impact that you mentioned?
SK
I really do; I think it’s the innovators day. It's during these very difficult economic times that innovators really have a voice. I think this is our opportunity to make a difference and to have an impact and there’s a sense of urgency around that. We're beginning to recognise as a society that tweaking our current systems is not going to work. We need to design, prototype and test potential new systems, and the tricky part is how do you do that while you’re still pedalling the bicycle of the current set of models. BIF is a platform to experiment while the current systems still exist. Creating the future by innovating through connected adjacencies.
HK
Sorry, connected adjacencies?
SK
Yes, connected adjacencies. Don't go to war with current models. You will lose if you try to go to war with current models. Create an innovation sandbox connected to your organization, an adjacency where you can experiment with potential new models. Connect your innovation sandbox to the current model so that innovators within the current system can dip their toes in the water, participate in innovation experiments, and see that exciting new ways to deliver value are possible.
HK
That’s a really interesting point. Can I ask why you are focusing on business models through your organisation?
SK
Because we have to expand our definition of innovation. Too many people confuse innovation and invention. The best opportunities to create value are not by inventing new technologies but by learning how to deploy existing technologies in new and different ways to deliver better value to an end user. Business model innovation is the new strategic imperative. A business model is the way organizations create, deliver, and capture value. To me it’s not an innovation until we actually deliver value in the real world. Innovation is simply a better way to deliver value. We need to focus more on the outputs of innovation which is solving the problem and less on whether we can create a new technology. We have more technology than we need today; it's humans that are the problem. We’re stubborn and we resist change. We need to get more comfortable with ongoing experimentation.
HK
Wow, that’s a really interesting point. Many people are just now focusing on technology, but you’re focusing on a system itself, cool. Today many people are saying about innovation and it became a buzzword, so I was wondering how you personally define the term innovation?
SK
My simple definition is innovation is a better way to deliver value. It’s not an innovation until it actually delivers. And I agree with the premise in your question, we have turned innovation into a buzzword. We need to get underneath the buzzword to actually roll up our sleeves and try more stuff to work on new solutions that can deliver value in the real world. Of course if everybody is an innovator and every thing is an innovation then no-one is and nothing is, so we have to get below the buzzword and really work on how to get ideas off of the whiteboard and into the real world. That’s why we created BIF to create real world laboratories where we could do more business model and system level experimentation.
HK
As you’re the founder of Business Innovation Factory, I was wondering what is the best environment to be innovative?
SK
To me, it’s about connecting innovators together in purposeful ways. There are innovators in every single sector of our economy, but a lot of people are stuck in their silos; they’re stuck within an industry, within a function, within a discipline. We believe the right answer is to connect innovators horizontally across silos. Real value is in the grey area between us, between the silos that we’re stuck in. BIF is creating purposeful networks of innovators that cut across silos and disciplines. We provide innovators with a platform and a set of tools to go from concept to a working prototype that can be tested in the real world. We must get better at experimentation and collaborating outside of our organizations and silos.
HK
In terms of connecting innovative people what is the key element to connect people? I’m asking this because today we have the power of the internet and compared with ten years ago, 20 years ago it’s much easier to connect the people and so what do you think about these kinds of transformation of technology from the view point of connecting people.
SK
I think technology has really helped us in this regard. The evolution of social media platforms allows us to connect to what I often call the unusual suspects, because that’s what we need to do. We know how to connect with the usual suspects, the people we meet with and talk to every day. If innovation is really about the grey areas between our silos we need to get better at connecting the unusual suspects. Social media has really helped us to do that and we’re all going up the learning curve of how to leverage social media platforms to connect with unusual suspects. We need to take the next step to create actionable networks, not only to exchange information, but to roll up our sleeves and make the networks more purposeful. BIF is bringing innovators together who want to experiment and work together on potential new ways to deliver value.
HK
The final question, talking back about success, could you give me your advice to achieve success in general, not in terms of innovation or business, just in general?
SK
I’m a huge believer that you need to stay on a very steep learning curve. I think in the 21st century the imperative is to get better, faster. We have to be learning every day, so we have to put ourselves in environments where we’re challenged, where we’re stretched and meeting more unusual suspects, so we can learn something new. We tend to hang around people that we’re comfortable with and I think if we’re going to learn every day we’ve got to put ourselves in environments where we’re uncomfortable, where we can stretch ourselves and be part of a more significant knowledge flow so that we can get better, faster.
Saul Kaplan is the founder of the Business Innovation Factory.
