I completely agree with this article, “The ‘Stock Phrase That Stifles Innovation’—Unnoticed Even by the Person Saying It” (Hiroshi Menjo)1. This happens all the time.
The president said, “I too want new businesses to get off the ground. So I want you to convince me how certain it is that your proposal will become a viable business.”
In fact, this is precisely the stock phrase that stifles innovation. Even the person saying it does not realize that it is killing innovation in the bud.
It is impossible from the outset to convince “smart adults” bound by their past successes. Conversely, if a proposal can convince them, it should probably be considered far removed from innovation. The full picture of the future is not visible from the beginning. As Zuckerberg says, the only option is to act and repeatedly cycle through failure and success.
(Source) Hiroshi Menjo, “The ‘Stock Phrase That Stifles Innovation’—Unnoticed Even by the Person Saying It,” DIAMOND.JP
I recall that either Sony’s Mr. Ibuka or Mr. Morita said something to the effect that
it is just right when 8 tenths of the directors oppose it.
A business whose success can be explained through a desk analysis has already lost. Thinking that only your team has conceived the idea is arrogant; multiple people somewhere are sure to be thinking the same thing. If it will logically succeed, they will surely enter the market. Competition then intensifies, leaving zero profit in a diminishing-returns market and ending in losses in an increasing-returns market. Successful businesses arise by chance while pursuing many businesses that do not look profitable—in other words, businesses that other companies do not enter.
Both Sony’s Walkman and Apple’s iPhone appeared to be products “guaranteed to fail” when they emerged. Do you remember? People said of the Walkman, “No one listens to music around town,” and of the iPhone, “A phone without a keyboard is unusable.” Both were products that consumers would surely have rejected if asked whether they needed them.
In truth, “smart adults” ought to be able to understand logically that “a business whose success is logically guaranteed will always fail,” yet for some reason they seem not to understand. Why is that? What, you do not know? Seriously? Let us start over with introductory economics.
The “Stock Phrase That Stifles Innovation”—Unnoticed Even by the Person Saying It
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DIAMOND.JP