你長大后想干什么?最近有人問我這個問題,回答起來比我想象中要難。七歲的時候,很容易就能夠想到一個答案——那時你的鄰居街坊就是整個世界,人行道是世界里唯一的高速公路。但是作為一個成年人呢?故事截然不同。 我小時候在德國長大,那時我想成為一名飛行員,探索阿爾卑斯山以外的生活。但隨著我們長大,地平線似乎變近了,我們的選擇卻好像沒有那么清楚了。由于找不到更好的詞,我只能說,我們的答案變得模糊不清。 很多公司都面臨著同樣的困境。在這個瞬息萬變、競爭日益激烈的世界,你如何定義理想的公司?接下來的問題是:你要怎么實現(xiàn)這個目標?答案很簡單,那就是創(chuàng)新。但創(chuàng)新到底是什么意思呢?它對企業(yè)高管的意義和對目標客戶的意義是否相同呢? 我的公司萬事達卡(Mastercard)想要找到答案。因此,我們與《哈佛商業(yè)評論》(Harvard Business Review)合作,調查一流企業(yè)高管的意見,匯編成報告,這份報告于11月5日發(fā)表,名為《成為2020》(Become 2020)。報告中還提出了新的商業(yè)創(chuàng)新者指數(shù)(Business Innovators Index),該指數(shù)探索了創(chuàng)新領袖與同行之間的關鍵區(qū)別。 我們發(fā)現(xiàn)了什么?首先,大多數(shù)組織都明白創(chuàng)新對于經濟成功至關重要。更重要的是,近一半的消費者認為這是他們作出購買決定時優(yōu)先考慮的事項。 然而,根據(jù)我們的研究,只有17%的組織有資格稱為創(chuàng)新領袖。 我們發(fā)現(xiàn),脫穎而出的創(chuàng)新領袖有五個普遍特征:行動速度、數(shù)據(jù)驅動型決策、領導層對創(chuàng)新的重視、創(chuàng)業(yè)文化以及對客戶的持續(xù)關注。 這里的關鍵詞是普遍——不僅因為這些特征是創(chuàng)新領袖最突出的特征,而且因為這些特征是常識。問問你最喜歡的企業(yè)高管或天真的實習生,什么對一家成功的企業(yè)最重要,他們可能會給出同樣的答案。 那為什么只有17%呢?因為這些知識并不總是能轉化為行動。創(chuàng)新領袖之所以罕見,因為執(zhí)行起來很困難。顧客對創(chuàng)新的期待度與日俱增。正如加拿大國家銀行(National Bank of Canada)的信用卡和支付解決方案副總裁加布里埃爾?庫諾耶爾在研究中告訴我們的那樣:“掌握節(jié)奏的不再是我們,而是我們的消費者。” 接受調查的高管中有三分之二都認為客戶對新技術的期待值增加是最重要的趨勢,對他們的客戶體驗策略產生影響。 創(chuàng)新領袖的工作重點不在于推出他們認為消費者想要的產品,而是滿足消費者未被滿足的需求。在我們的調查中,72%的高管強烈同意消費者內在需求是創(chuàng)新的載體。這意味著公司需要更好的方法、工具和數(shù)據(jù)來定量、定性地了解消費者。 我們的報告揭示了一個問題,發(fā)現(xiàn)了某種“脫節(jié)”:認為創(chuàng)新是他們購買產品和服務首要指標的消費者人數(shù)是符合創(chuàng)新領袖標準的公司的兩倍。 當然,創(chuàng)新復雜、昂貴、有風險,而且牽涉到大量的利益相關者。但我們發(fā)現(xiàn),創(chuàng)新領袖采用了多種方式戰(zhàn)勝了這些挑戰(zhàn)。他們不依賴直覺或零零碎碎的改進。他們野心勃勃,敢于冒險——我們發(fā)現(xiàn),超過40%的創(chuàng)新領袖優(yōu)先考慮那些雄心勃勃、具有探索性和開創(chuàng)性的項目,即所謂的“登月計劃”。但他們同時又深思熟慮,有條不紊。 這類公司還支持這樣一種文化:通過對一系列的想法進行廣泛嘗試來擁抱失敗,衡量哪些是可行的,消滅那些不可行的,獎勵那些敢于冒險的人。 那么我長大后想當什么呢?作為一個成年人,我意識到這個問題并不是最吸引我的。令人激動的是旅途本身以及你在旅途中所做的選擇。你準備開多快?去往哪個方向?當生活拋給你一個難題時,你將如何應對?商業(yè)創(chuàng)新就和生活一樣,相比起目的地,旅程本身給人帶來的興奮感要強烈得多。(財富中文網(wǎng)) 邁克爾·米巴赫是萬事達卡(Mastercard)的首席產品和創(chuàng)新官。 譯者:Agatha |
What do you want to become when you grow up? Someone asked me this question recently and it was harder to answer than I expected. It’s easy to think of a response when you’re seven years old—when the world is your neighborhood and the sidewalk is your only highway. But as an adult? A different story. When I was a kid growing up in Germany, I wanted to become a pilot and explore life beyond the Alps. But as we grow up and the horizon seems closer, our options seem less clear. Our answers become, for lack of a better word, blurry. So many companies face these same struggles. How do you define what you want to become in a world that’s changing so rapidly, with competition ever fiercer? And then: How do you actually become it? The simple answer is innovation. But what does that even mean, and does it mean the same thing inside the C-suite as it does to the customers their businesses serve? My company, Mastercard, wanted answers. So we partnered with the Harvard Business Review to ask leading executives what they thought and compiled them in a report published on November 5, called “Become 2020.” In it, you’ll also find our new Business Innovators Index, which explores key differentiators that separate leading innovators from their peers. What did we find? First, that most organizations understand the importance of innovation for financial success. What’s more, nearly half of consumers consider it a high priority in their purchasing decisions. Yet only 17% of organizations qualify as innovation leaders, according to our research. We found that there are five common traits that distinguish innovation leaders from everyone else: speed to action, data-driven decision making, a commitment to innovation by leadership, an entrepreneurial culture, and a relentless focus on the customer. The key word here is common—not just because the traits were the most prominent among innovation leaders, but also because these attributes are common knowledge. Ask your favorite business executive or wide-eyed intern what’s most important for a successful business and they’ll likely respond the same way. Why 17% then? Because that knowledge doesn’t always translate to action. Innovation leaders are rare because execution is difficult. Customers increasingly expect it. As Gabrielle Cournoyer, vice president of cards and payment solutions for National Bank of Canada, told us in the study: “We don’t set the pace anymore. Our consumers set the pace.” Two-thirds of the business executives we surveyed see increased customer expectations for new technologies as the top trend impacting their customer experience strategies. Innovation leaders focus less on releasing products they think consumers want and more on meeting unmet consumer needs. Most of the executives in our survey—72%—strongly agree that consumer insight is a vehicle for innovation. That means companies need better methods, tools, and data to understand consumers in quantitative and qualitative ways. Our report reveals a problematic disconnect: There are twice as many consumers who say innovation is a top indicator for products and services they purchase as there are companies that qualify as innovation leaders. Sure, innovation is complicated, costly, risky, and laden with stakeholders. But we found that leaders blow past these challenges in many ways. They don’t rely on hunches or piecemeal improvements. They think big and they take risks—more than 40% of innovation leaders prioritize the ambitious, exploratory, groundbreaking projects known as “moonshots,” we found. But they are thoughtful and methodical about both. They also support a culture that embraces failure in practice by testing a broad pipeline of ideas: scaling what works, killing what doesn’t, and rewarding those who take risks. So what do I want to become when I grow up? As an adult, I realize that question isn't what intrigues me most. The thrill is in the journey and the choices you make along the way. How fast will you go? In which direction? How will you respond when life throws you a curveball? In business innovation as in life, the destination isn’t nearly as exciting as the trip to get there. Michael Miebach is the chief product and innovation officer of Mastercard. |