(Leo Reynolds has all kinds of cool pictures at Flickr.)
I heard an amazing story several weeks ago from the person that leads innovation at a very large US company. Without giving too much away, I wanted to share it.
A leader had a hunch that there was the opportunity for a low-cost, time-saving consumer product. The trick was that there was nothing else like it. To get it right would mean the team would need to develop new technology, craft a new brand and enable a whole new consumer experience. Simply put, it was going to be hard if not impossible.
The leader told their team: "You've got seven chances. Don't come back to me until you've succeeded or you've tried and failed seven times."
The team got it right on the fifth try.
The story starts in the late 1960s. The product was launched in 1970, creating a whole new category in the process. It is still sold, quite successfully, to this day.
That's amazing innovation leadership.
If you gave somebody seven chances, how many do you think it would take for them to get it right?
