What Apple can teach us about gambling on innovation | GreenBiz ...

When Steve Jobs first described his vision of the iPhone, he likely encountered incredulous looks and critical commentary along the lines of, "Sounds great, but no way can we do it and sell it."

Just because the iPhone technology did not exist at the time did not mean that it could not be imagined and ultimately invented. Just because Jobs did not have a case study of technical specifications and sales of such modules in particular markets did not mean that consumers would not like ? or even love -- the iPhone.

Yet, when presented with a new idea, most of us enjoy being critics. Perhaps we think that it makes us appear serious-minded and pragmatic. Perhaps it is a reflex, just as when the doctor hits our knee with the little rubber hammer.

We also love innovation. And so we try to balance these two often competing approaches -- the critic and the supporter of innovation -- in our daily lives.

Unfortunately, when it comes to truly considering and advocating for sustainable business (not just eco-efficiency as John Ehrenfield recently described), most of us tend to veer in the direction of critic, rather than become the voice of the avid supporter of innovation. This dynamic is a problem. At best it is a speed bump, slowing down support for innovation. At worst, it is stalling desperately needed leapfrog thinking about reinventing business enterprises, products, services and even economies so that they are not depleting essential "green infrastructure" on which they rely, but do not (yet) recognize.

Most troubling for me, though, is the daily experience of others within sustainability organizations, who are also working to affect change in the private sector, who assert: "Where are the case examples? If companies in the industries that I work with have not done it, then I just can't sell it."

I have a moment of quiet when the conversation takes this turn. What is going on here? Have we become so focused on being taken seriously by mainstream business (which we are actually trying to influence to transform around sustainability thinking) that saying the audacious (but necessary) is no longer feasible? Companies are used to aspirational goals, as laid out in management cornerstone books such as "Built to Last." Why don't we leverage this common idea that "stretch goals" are good for our thinking and our work?

For me, the demands for case studies are particularly acute, as I work on strategies and approaches for companies to identify, avoid, mitigate and ideally eliminate impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services. This focus is so far from current reality that I fully understand why people need to re-gain their grounding in conversations by asking: "Where are your case studies?"

Next page: New issues

Source: http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2013/04/23/what-apple-teach-gambling-innovation

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