4 non-Silicon Valley innovations worth noticing

Most current media talk on innovation focuses on Silicon Valley-type tech.  And with good reason.  New technology can have a huge impact on how we live our lives.

But breakthrough innovation is happening in other fields too.  Here are 3 fields where interesting things are happening.

RUNNING

There is a growing movement towards going without heavily cushioned running shoes.  Why?

Running barefoot makes it impossible to land heel first, as most people do when they wear cushioned running shoes.  Instead, the side and front of the foot make first contact with the ground.  Muscles in the foot work to absorb the shock, which reduces loading on the joints.  Humans have been running like this for millions of years, without the joint injuries that many runners experience today.  There is a fascinating TED talk on the subject here.

A number of products have arrived on the market that mimic the effect of running barefoot, without sacrificing the benefits of a rubber sole.  One popular brand in this relatively new category is Vibram. 

And if imitation is any measure of popularity, counterfeit versions of the brand’s shoes are prolific.

The U.S. athletic footwear market generates about $9.5 billion in annual sales.

MEDICINAL FOODS

‘Functional foods’ are foods that claim to have health-promoting or disease-preventing qualities beyond their basic function of supplying nutrients.

Although this idea isn’t new, the recent version of the field originated in Japan in the mid-80s, where product-driven scientific studies were undertaken.

The issue with creating a market of any scale for these products has always been regulatory: any claimed health benefits have to be backed up with scientific data, and for many manufacturers, any health benefits have been difficult to prove.

But if anyone has the experience to conduct research and gather the necessary data, it’s the pharmaceutical industry.

Nestle is looking to bring that pharmaceutical discipline to the category with The Nestle Health Sciences Institute.  In partnership with École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, a respected research university, it aims to create products that can help tackle obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disorders, aging and neurological disorders like Alzheimer’s.

Nestle will be creating products to supply a market that is expected to be worth $128bn by 2013.

SPORTS PHOTOGRAPHY

Extreme sports have always been well filmed, but from a safe distance.  The nature of the sports made a first person POV difficult and dangerous to capture without expensive, professional equipment.

But one company has changed that.

GoPro have created a range of 3 basic digital cameras, protective casings and clamps that can attach to helmets, boards, car exteriors, bike handlebars and any other piece of equipment designed to bring the user to within a safe distance of death.

An entire kit costs about the same as a basic consumer digital camera, and  the high quality images have made them popular with professionals and amateurs alike.

Videos are being created from angles not previously possible for the general public, and each one that’s shared, it’s an ad for the product.

In 2009, sales of all pocket camcorders were just over $2 billion world-wide, on unit sales of 13.6 million. 

PERSONAL TRANSPORT

Bicycle sharing systems have existed off and on in various European cities since the 60s.  But without fail, the majority of bikes would end up stolen or at the bottom of a canal.

Through a series of innovations, various systems have made the bikes harder and less attractive to steal.  The bikes themselves are heavy to lift, and have their own system of parts (which can’t be used on other bikes) and they lock into electronic docking stations around a city.  Users need an access key to release the bikes, which links to their credit card information.  Failure to return it within a given time period results in extra charges.

There are a number of systems around the world, but the Bixi system from Montreal has expanded to various cities, including Toronto, London (UK), Melbourne and a number of US cities.

Bixi posted a $1.5m profit in the fiscal year ended January 2010.  It is owned by the City of Montreal, and is in the process of being spun off as an autonomous company.

Help Remedies

I love this brand.  And I suppose that means it’s doing its job. 

It’s such a dead simple concept. While most pharmaceutical brands take a very scientific route, shouting ‘extra strength’ this and that, Help Remedies do the opposite.

Each product is created and branded as a solution to a problem.  It’s a human touch in what can be a very clinical, impersonal category.  The pharmaceuticals used are identical to their competitors, but served in a different wrapping.  There’s no presumption of knowledge, and no jargon, just “simple solutions for simple problems” as their tagline goes.

It would be great to see more intelligently created products like this on the market, so I hope that the success of Help Remedies will inspire others.

They also have a fantastic website.

Which is more important, idea or execution?

 When I started working in advertising, there was a culture of ‘the idea is everything’. But what I quickly came to realize is that the execution is also very important. In some cases it’s even more important than the idea.

Looking at innovation in other industries, the media don’t often talk about it in terms of idea and execution. Looking at it through that lens brings an interesting light to bear on the subject.

The idea of a ‘digital music player’ is a great example.

Between 1998 and 2000 there were plenty of executions of that idea brought to market. They had names like MPMan F10, The Diamond Rio PMP300, Nomad, RaveMP 2100, and Personal Jukebox PJB-100.

And I’m sure most people would have been content with most of the aforementioned had Apple not launched the iPod, which took the execution of that idea to another level.

I won’t presume to know what people loved about the iPod, but I do know what I liked about it.

I liked its simplicity of use, the fact that you didn’t need to know anything about computers, the advertising, the way it synched with your computer, the name, the way it felt in the hand and the way it looked, not to mention its core functionality.

For me it wasn’t one thing that made it great, it was the sum of its parts.

Cut to 10 years later. Apple has sold over 300 million iPods and at the peak of the market had a 74% share (with the advent of smartphones, it’s now a declining market).

But Apple is probably one of the most case-studied companies when it comes to innovation. How about a more analogue example of the idea/execution dynamic?

Between the 1912 and 1984 Olympics, the US cycling team didn’t win a single medal.

Wind resistance is one thing that slows a cyclist down. That was nothing new in 1984, and high-end cycling equipment was designed to reduce drag where possible. Most equipment was standard across competitors, with athletic performance being the main differentiator.

But in the lead-up to The Games, the US team committed to executing the idea of ‘a more aerodynamic bike and rider’. Among other things, engineers working for the team created aerodynamic helmets, disc wheels, airfoil frame tubing and slick skin suits, shoes and special components. By the end of the design process, the seats were the only piece of standard equipment on the bikes.

The US won 12 medals at the ‘84 Olympics, and much of the equipment became standard for elite cyclists thereafter. Athletic performance was, of course, a big part of that success. But an even bigger part of it was due to equipment innovation.

Once again, it wasn’t one thing that produced the result, but a series of innovations that got closer to the best possible expression of the idea.

In both the iPod and US cycling examples, the execution component was clearly the determinant of success. But if that’s the case, what function does the idea serve?

I think it depends on the context, but most of the time the idea is the catalyst for the execution.

Sometimes it will tightly define it, and can act as an objective to work towards (such as cycling). And maybe this is the case in more established categories. But in other examples the idea may be broader, and is more likely to be defined by the execution. And maybe this is truer for cutting edge scientific and technological innovation, where new technology is created then finds an application (e.g. digital music players).

Conclusion?

For me, execution is everything. Without a great execution, a great idea doesn’t have any tangibility, and therefore doesn’t have any value. I don’t want to discount the importance of great ideas, but what I’m saying is it’s the difference between talking about doing something (the idea), and actually doing something (the execution).

That being the case, it raises a couple of points for me:
- What is ‘execution’?
- If great execution is so important, what are the conditions required to create it?

Two subjects to investigate further. Another post, another time.