How To Breed An Innovative Business Idea — #18 of 31 Proven Skills [Research]
Skill #18: Limit the Available Resources to Deliver a Better Result
Contrary to what you might think, both ancient history and modern times prove that innovative thinking is unleashed when you deliberately limit your choices rather than opening up your mind to endless possibilities
Whenever people want an idea to solve a specific problem that is blocking some goal, they often fall back on brainstorming, probably the most common group technique that is practiced. Essentially, the rationale is that a team of people spontaneously throwing up potential solutions has a chance of discovering a workable one from the sheer number that is generated.
Without getting too technical, group techniques such as brainstorming that seek to generate creative ideas in an unconstrained manner are examples of Divergent Thinking, a term first coined by psychologist Joy Paul Guilford in 1956. However, Guilford, almost inevitably, also identified an opposite approach to divergent thinking which he described as Convergent Thinking. Convergent thinking follows a process that zeros in on just one workable solution.
Skill #18: Limit the Available Resources to Deliver a Better Result is convergent thinking. The latter is one of the 31 innovative skills that I have discovered in researching the formulation of thousands of successful business ideas. Skill #18 seeks to limit the possibilities for potential solutions rather than multiplying them.
Although the identification of convergent thinking is relatively recent, its practice is not.
Sink the Boats!
General Xiang Yu, who lived in China from 232 BC to 202 BC, was a brutal warlord whose victories in many battles won him power over large tracts of China. His penchant for convergent thinking was no more evident than in the Battle of Julu (209BC) when he took on the Qin Dynasty. Because they were significantly outnumbered, victory was far from certain for Xiang Yu and his army, and he required his troops to do whatever it took to win.
However, he did not conduct a brainstorming session to exhaust his military options. After crossing the Yangtze River, while his troops slept, Xiang Yu ordered all their boats to be sunk. He told his men the next day that their choice was to fight to win quickly against overwhelming odds or die without hope of escape. Faced with that immoveable constraint, Xiang Yu’s army was spurred to go on and win the battle.
Examples of such thinking abound in more genteel pursuits as well.
Commentators on the art of the early Renaissance period have observed that artwork did not normally originate in the creative urge, self-expression, and spontaneous inspiration of the artist, but in the task set by the patron of the proposed creation. In addition to general direction, patrons specified the size of the canvas, the number and kind of figures, the amount of expensive pigment to be used, the weight of gold foil in the frame, and other details. Artists were then free to exercise their creativity within those imposed boundaries. Such constraints did not hinder the magnificence of what was produced during the Renaissance. They contributed to it.
Modern Business Examples of Limiting the Available Resources*
So, what about today? Innovating with the liberty of constraint is now more prevalent than ever and nowhere is this more apparent than within the so-called “sharing economy”.
A smartphone has enabled the connecting of sellers and buyers without the usual constraints. This has enabled Uber to become the world’s largest car hire service but doesn’t own any cars. Previously anyone contemplating entering the people transportation business would have raised capital for the purchase of the necessary vehicles. By ruling out vehicle ownership as an option, Uber sidestepped the previously daunting capital challenge of vehicle self-ownership and pioneered an entirely new category of transportation for casual passengers.
Similarly, Airbnb is now one of the largest accommodation providers in the world and has resisted owning expensive real estate for its guests. By embracing the constraint of non-ownership, Airbnb then clearly saw a way forward that involved utilizing the accommodation facilities owned by others and designed its revolutionary new business model accordingly.
Airbnb and Uber have become two of the world’s largest companies in their markets by denying themselves the option of traditional asset ownership. This has enabled them to innovate entirely new industries into existence.
Innovating through constraint is not only the purview of a talented few. If you recently played Sudoku, you were consciously seeking a solution that constrained you to fill various grids and sub-grids so that each contained all the digits from 1 to 9. When you read or watch a detective story, you accompany the protagonist (Sherlock Holmes, Miss Marple, or one of their descendants) as they unravel their cases by treating each clue they discover as a constraint. Ultimately, they solve their case in a way that satisfies all the constraints they ferret out.
Whether playing Sudoku or vicariously playing detective, we willingly accept necessary constraints — which are really problems — in the pursuit of a satisfying goal. It’s just that we’ve never thought of problems that way.
It is natural to see success in generating innovative ideas as more likely if there are many possible ideas to choose from. However, this approach is not only inefficient, but it also often leads to solutions that are impractical and therefore worthless. A proven alternative is to deliberately restrict the available options, particularly ones that are obvious. Restricting your choices will not stifle your personal innovative capabilities, rather the heightened concentration that results will nourish them.
Takeaway
*More than 1 million categorized, innovative business ideas can be searched on Sebir.com
