New venture outsourcing blog

A recent WSJ piece cites the MIT Sloan Management Review on the topic of Innovation Strategy. The entire piece can be summarized in a few words – don’t ignore innovation. Michael Schrage of the MIT Media Lab points to examples of innovation in what are often considered fatigued products. Starbucks has its twist on age-old office coffee, Dyson on the tried and tested Hoover Vacuum, and GE on the humble toaster. The very symbol of invention, the light bulb, has been steadily transformed from incandescent to compact fluorescent to LED.

Columbia Business School’s Dr. Greenwald said “in the long run, everything is a toaster” referring to tomorrow’s commodification of what is today an innovation. Reality is that most of us are interested in creating meaningful, lasting companies. In order for these ventures to succeed they not only need to be built upon innovate technology but also engender an ethic of continuous innovation. It wasn’t enough for Hoover to create the now eponymous vacuum and then pursue a cost-cutting path (Dyson, branding itself on innovation, has become a serious competitive force). Our new companies often focus on the first few innovations which will change the market, help people, and fill a need. We should ensure that innovation is not limited to starting-up – in the end the culture of innovation within a company is a determinant of success.

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A recent WSJ article by Antonio Regalado highlights the strength of Brazilian firms as trusted outsourcing partners. Some major companies have decided to partner with Brazilian groups to get software projects done quicker and cheaper than domestically. But where is the rest of the story? The new model in outsourcing is dual-shore companies which eliminate all cultural and time-zone issues. There is substantial room for innovation in the outsourcing or distributed work business model (if a coffee shop can be innovative, than certainly you can too). India’s experience in this space allows for the next generation of outsourcing businesses which include specialty services, more efficient operations, and increased offerings. While Brazil comes online as do many South-east Asian nations, American companies will become more selective in choosing overseas partners. It remains to be seen what Brazilian or Malaysian firms will do to differentiate themselves from their Indian competition – simply showing up in this space isn’t enough to build successful companies. Will India call itself the Brazil of Asia?

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I was recently at a talk by Marshall Goldsmith entitled “what got you here won’t get you there”. His focus is on creating change at the highest levels of large companies. Perhaps his message can be generalized a bit…The ability for a company to adapt is a hallmark of success. Cheaper products, more customers, and refined business processes are among the tried and tested paths to growth. The real question is what tools can we use to enable this growth. Dr. Goldsmith says it won’t be the ones we are familiar with. Guy Kawasaki also preaches the importance of new, innovative tools to accomplish old tasks. The old paradigm is hiring one employee to create X output by Y unit of work. If suddenly you need 10X output, you better find 9 more employees or loose the customer. The modern solution to this problem is the flexible team – one that evolves as your business needs do (so that today you can have X output and tomorrow 12X and a month from now a stable 6X). I think this is one of the latest tools to get you there…What do you think?Learn how Inventure Global provides outsourcing for startups so you can accelerate growth, increase stability, and rest assured!

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