Incongruity: Symptom for Innovation Opportunity

By Clifford Cui

It is important that you look for symptom for innovation opportunity before making new effort in fighting a head-to-head battle to take back customers from your competitor(s), or blaming your clients for their irrationality and unfaithfulness. This symptom could very well be incongruity.

In theatrical work, incongruity is a discrepancy, or a dissonance between what is expected and what occurs depending on the structure of a play, and it is often created by the audience’s awareness of a fate in store for the characters that they themselves do not suspect. This scenario has similarities in business. But, here the characters are played by managers, and the audiences are customers. Consumer’s perception of your product is affected by advances in technology, changes in offerings of substitutes to your products, income level, lifestyle, and fad. As the perception shifts, the position of your offerings may not be worth as much to your clients as it was. Reality changed. Customers are aware of it, and they buy less; market reflects it, and it sends out an incongruous signal: a disconnection between what your performance is and what you assume it to be. Sadly, some managers neglect this signal, and keep doing the no-result tasks, and try hard to make things right. However, in theatrical work, incongruity makes audience happy and laugh while in business the negligence of it generates disastrous ending. Indeed, this is the very reason for the failures of many mighty businesses.

Luckily, incongruity also has a positive role: a symptom of opportunity to innovate. Many entrepreneurs seize the opportunity, and take timely measures to turn the slum in sales around, create lucrative new market space, and launch winning new products. In his book “Innovation and Entrepreneurship,” Peter Drucker classifies the incongruity in business as four types. In order to better understand the concept, let’s take a closer look at what the types are, and how we can innovate under each circumstance:

• An incongruity between the economic realities of an industry. For instance, early last century, health care expenses was about 1% of GDP for many countries, and nowadays, it counts about 7 – 11% for GDP for many developed countries; however, the services haven’t improved much, and many people still remain uninsured. The following example is very close to my life. Contrary to high speed data transfer on the Internet, the Internet connection at our neighborhood is slow. Then, RCN comes with a faster and cheaper Internet connection package with cable and telephone service. Families who subscribed told those who did not. RCN becomes the dominant carrier in our neighborhood within a matte of three months.
• An incongruity between the reality of an industry and the assumptions about it. Producers or manager could misconceive the reality, make erroneous assumptions about the market, and direct their efforts to area where results do not exist. During the Second World War, the enormous war time demand helped created large still mills in the United States. When the war is over, the abnormal demand disappears. Industry’s need for steel products is still growing, but the growth incremental. Many managers firmly believes in the size is important in steel making, and cling to the large mill operation. Entrepreneurs in the industry invented mini steel mill which requires less capital to build, cheaper to operate, and more flexible in meeting the incremental demands and the need for various types of steel products. It is the mini steel mills that bring new life to America’s steel industry.
• An incongruity between the efforts of an industry and the values and expectations of its customers. Engineers like the technology they developed. Most people love what they do. However, they must make sure customers also like what they do, and are willing to pay for the features and quality of their products. The rise and decline of Japanese and Swiss watch makers is a typical example of this scenario.
• An internal incongruity within the rhythm or the logic of a process. Some procedures are established. You may have practiced them for decades. However, some procedures, or part(s) of the operation still make you uneasy each time, and the need to improve the process also offers you good opportunity for innovation.

Incongruity is a symptom of changed reality, and the innovation is to discover new approaches to meet with the needs of these changes. But, the innovative solution has to be clearly definable, and feasible with the existing, known technology, and with easily available resources. It must be simple rather than complicated, and practical rather than grandiose. Doing the right things is more important than doing things right.

The author: Clifford Cui, can be reached at cliffordcui@yahoo.com