Hidden opportunities for innovation are often anchored in apparently trivial problems that have only been solved partially, but where a degree of resignation and acceptance of the status quo has set in. Below are a few examples of how revisiting such problems with the right approach can create breakthroughs and unlock tranformative innovation for the organization.
Cases from commercial functions
Solving a problem of under-utilization of campaigns leads to a new Value Proposition and implementation of Key Account Management
Background: In the case in question, the marketing department delivered 3 campaigns a year, which the sales force was supposed to use with clients. However, the campaigns were only being utilized sporadically, and most sales visits had a different focus. Over the years, various attempts had been made to ensure high quality campaigns including involving reps in the development. However, the dynamics continued and a degree of resignation and acceptance of the status quo set in.
Breakthrough: What created a breakthrough in this situation was to look at the problem again but this time from a more holistic perspective by exploring the basic assumptions and values of the stakeholders. What became apparent was that the reps felt that being forced to use campaigns limited their ability to do the “real job”, ie. strengthening the relation and solving client-related problems. This insight initiated an internal dialogue about what value the company and its reps should aim to create for its customers.
Outcome: The internal dialogue resulted in a decision to center the efforts of the marketing function around providing reps with opportunities for using the brand to help their clients reach their professional goals. This sparked a better understanding of when to use campaigns, as well as the creation of a series of new services such as a Patient Adherence Program, a consulting service to help hospitals introduce new best practices, pathology-specific training seminars etc. This again required reps to work in a different and more individualized way with their clients. The insights derived from the new approach sparked new ideas for improving performance in adjacent areas of the business.
Frustration with sales affiliates doing their own marketing content sparks an ambitious, cross-functional 5-year growth plan
Background: The global marketing department had a history of preparing very comprehensive campaign packages with a high-quality content to help a large number of sales affiliates grow their sales. However, in spite of contributing to the development process, many affiliates chose to develop their own campaigns or only use minor elements of the full package.
Breakthrough: In this case, a breakthrough was made possible by exploring the values and assumptions of the stakeholders in the process. The marketing team experienced frustration that their hard work was not sufficiently utilized. But it was clear that other stakeholders, including the affiliates, also experienced a degree of frustration with the support provided by the marketing team. The situation appeared to be locked because all parties believed they were in the right. Realizing this sparked an internal dialogue amongst the stakeholders about what the role of the marketing team ideally should be. From this dialogue it became clear that everybody would be better off, if the role of the Marketing team was reconfigured with respects to its ecosystem.
Outcome: Taking a more holistic approach to the problem revealed the potential for the Marketing team to change from being an entity that supported all affiliates with large campaign packages, to an entity with responsibility to drive growth and profitability of the portfolio. With this approach it was possible to engage in a much more meaningful manner with the sales affiliates. As a natural outcome of the process, collaboration with the affiliates became stronger and focused on a few key countries, and the Marketing team became responsible for driving a an ambitious 5-year growth strategy. This approach was completely new in the organization and was later adopted by adjacent business areas.
Examples from the social sector
Jeanne Liedtka is one of the top experts on Design Thinking. Her book "Design Thinking for the Greater Good" is filled with examples of organizations in the social sector that decide to approach "old" problems that have never been solved satisfactorily with an abductive problem-solving approach like Design Thinking.
By revisiting these problems with the right problem-solving approach they succeed in driving transformative innovation in that they had never imagined.
The "old" problems decribed include include low patient satisfaction in a medical center, declining children's health in in North Texas and lack of public trust in the US Transportation Security Administration.
The dog-shelter example
Thomas Wedell-Wedellsborg is an expert on problem-solving and reframing and has published a great article in the Harvard Business Review titled "Are you solving the right problems?".
The key point of the article is that many persistent problems remain unsolved because we insist on developing solutions for problems we do not adequately understand. The author quotes a survey where 85% of the responding business executives stated that “problem diagnosis” is a weak point in their organization. A central idea in the article is that “problems are typically multi-causal and can be addressed in many ways”.
A key example used in the article is about dog shelters. Traditionally, dog shelters with scarce capacity have, with mixed results, tried to keep their occupancy rate in check by focusing on getting more people to adopt dogs from their shelter.
In this perspective the problem is insufficient demand for dogs, and the solution entails aggressively promoting dog adoptions. With this mindset, all efforts go into getting better at finding new homes for the dogs at the shelter.
However, a breakthrough came when somebody started to think about the problem differently: What if demand is not the only problem to be solved? What about supply? What if one could reduce the supply of dogs in need of shelter? Would it be possible to help people with whatever problem that causes them to give up their pet? The point here is not that it turned out to be more effective to work on the supply side of the problem. The point is that although we have a tendency to look for the problem to the solution, in reality…
“Creative solutions nearly always come from an alternative definition of the problem”.
Examples of hidden opportunities for commercial innovation
The video to the right contains some examples of persistent problems related to marketing and sales that on the surface seemed trivial, but that when resolved can create transformative learnings about the organisation and its customers.
By revisiting these problems and exploring the underlying assumptions and values of the stakeholders, it is possible to find new solutions to the problem and generate a breakthrough.