A Different Way to Think about Innovation

I've been thinking about the topic of innovation lately.

In particular I've been reading "Creativity, Inc" by the president of Pixar and Disney Animation, Ed Catmull. Catmull tells the story of how Pixar struggled to cultivate creativity, originality and innovation in it's films, and manage change as a business organization. It's amazing hearing how Pixar had to literally invent the technology required to create Toy Story (the first ever computer-animated feature-length film) while simultaneously learning how to make a movie, period.

To me, this is the standard way to think about innovation; somebody combines a new technology with an existing industry to create a brand new, or more efficient, way of doing something.

If you're looking to use technology to innovate your business in 2019, you might look to cutting edge tech like Artificial Intelligence, the Blockchain or the Internet of Things.

Unfortunately, those are all deep and relatively difficult to grasp technologies for the average person. Unless you have a deep understanding of algorithms, contracts or data processing, it's tough to jump in and get started.

So, is there any other way to innovate besides bleeding-edge technology?

Enter Mokhtar Alkhanshali, the subject of the book "The Monk of Mokha" by Dave Eggers.

Mokhtar learned that coffee originated in Yemen during the 15th century. Yet in 2013, next to no coffee (and none of any consistent or high quality) was being grown in Yemen. He discovered that this was due to the country's political instability and due to it being more profitable for Yemeni farmers to grow a drug called Khat. So, he went about figuring out a way to get farmers to buy into growing coffee again and how to make it profitable (You can read about that journey

here). The end result was the highest rated coffee ever, or in other words, the best coffee in the world.

What's fascinating about this story is that Mokhtar was able find an opportunity to innovate an ancient industry, not through cutting edge technology, but by looking backwards in history.

So yes, there is another way to innovate.

What opportunities could modern technology and change have opened in your business or industry? It might be worth your while to take a look backwards into history to find a new, or forgotten, way forwards.