Creating market opportunities: innovation is the key

If innovation is so easy and has such great rewards, then why is everyone not doing it? Many healthcare executives may say they just do not have the time. Some may say that the daily pressures and constant firefighting on the job sap their energy. Others may reason that they do not have the resources. These are all valid responses. However, innovation, especially our proposed evolutionary innovation, can start on a small scale and does not have to be the responsibility of one person. For example, 3M encourages employees to set aside a modest percentage of their time to explore new ideas and projects. In addition, some organizations (in and out of healthcare) have adopted "no meeting Fridays" to give staff a chance to reflect and challenge the status quo. An even simpler approach is to throw away the standard agenda for a scheduled meeting and use the time for an informal group-innovation discussion. There is a saying, "If you want things to stay the same, then something is going to have to change." The healthcare industry is changing and will continue to change, despite the best efforts on the contrary. Those who resist the tide of change should heed the parable of the boiled frog, which Peter Senge (1990), in his book The Fifth Discipline, identified as one of the many reasons for eliminating organizational learning disabilities. The lesson of the parable is simple: if you put a frog in boiling water, it will jump out; but if you put it in cold water and gradually turn up the heat, it will let itself be slowly boiled to death because it does not perceive any immediate danger. Are you aware of the gradual market threats to your organization, and are you willing to innovate before the threats reach the "boiling point"? I hope this series has introduced you to some concepts in strategic marketing. More importantly, I hope it has provided some marketing approaches that you can consider, pursue, and apply in your organization.