Rejig failure with curiosity to succeed

Quoting from an Indian Express article by Shombit 

The failure of a high quality product needs to be studied with curiosity, and from all angles. If you bring positive energy into a failed subject you may refuel its success. Was the French Concorde a failure? Was it not extreme innovation that could fly over Mach 3, close the distance of an ocean in half the time of normal aircrafts? In business, the word failure does not work. Japan announced in 2005 that they are now working on a supersonic aircraft to reduce sound and increase seats while cutting 50% of today’s flying time. They’ve suffered a few setbacks and are now collaborating with research done in France and the US. 

Consumers of emerging economy countries are enjoying a heightened lifestyle with product offers from transnational companies in their open markets. However, in consulting with companies there, I find them to be slack in responding to competition. When a globally reputed company unveils a competing product, instead of delving into that product’s origin of success to rejig their product to meet consumer aspirations, the emerging economy company merely questions complacently, ‘Will it succeed? Will our consumers pay so much? Is this sophisticated innovation required?’ Such questions are baseless and judgmental. Consumers with money are always open to alternative choice and better options.  Innovation in business has to be a passion of curiosity to change the world with, not to question it.

As an industrial house in an emerging economy, you may modernize your business to compete, but unless you inquire into why your global competitor is winning in your economy, your market growth will merely touch the surface, and not sustain.

In 2002 Jean Michel Jarre, the laser and electronic entertainment musician, did two spectacular concerts in China. Son of celebrated music director, Maurice Jarre, whose Dr Zhivago and Love Story have become the world’s standard in easy listening, Jean Michel’s concert was unique because he wove together the Beijing Symphony Orchestra, Chinese National Orchestra, Beijing Opera chorus and notable Chinese rock musicians in his open air Western music concerts. He amazed a billion Chinese stage and TV viewers and everyone else in the world by using Chinese musicians and traditional Chinese instruments in Western music style. Enjoying the show on DVD, it proved to me that the Chinese capability to enter a new realm with calculated ease, and their command over discipline and curiosity will make their nation the future business driver of the world. 

We are proud to be an intellectual society in India. But can our collective intellectual power, not individual intelligence, help us attain world-class business processes and products? Billion-mindset economies like India and China need a disciplined business mentality that can dissect success. To challenge the market, our professionals must collectively understand how and why innovation happened in developed countries. This will orient them towards the very foundation of the innovation mechanism.

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Chitra