Social mores dictate consumerism. An organisation not relating to social trends becomes laidback; consequently,business can shrink. The whole organisation needs to feel a certain discomfort to set innovation in motion. Keeping the antenna up for the not-so-obvious is the only way to win the business game.
Organisational discomfort means pushing the whole organisation towards change that leads to strategic innovation which differentiates,sells better and raises profit. Western societies have implicitly mastered discomfort in their hunger to discover the new and for better living. Stretching thought into lateral areas,they have gone beyond the obvious. Lets look at the way we individually shock-absorb discomfort.
Of the innumerable activities outside your workplace or in social gatherings,something suddenly can disturb you. Your personal life has many surprises you absorb as part of the trend. You may not even notice it,as it becomes implicit; you expect it. In time,such social discomfort can even convince you that you enjoy it.
Look at your 17-year-old daughters low-cut trousers. Theyre precariously hugging her hips,the T-shirt is barely covering her belly. To establish a trend,shes creating discomfort in the parent in you,and in the social environment. Fifteen years ago,a middle class Indian girl would think this to be immodest dressing. Will you admonish your childs new style? Wouldnt you rather understand her new ways and become a liberal parent?
If youre over 40,youll remember your young life with stringent timings by which you were supposed to return home. It was an adventure escaping parents and neighbourhood spies for that secret love affair,or even to converse with the opposite sex. A 25-year-old today easily introduces romantic,even live-in,relationships to parents who may feel discomfited but accept the change as the contemporary way to be.
In contrast,when it comes to the workplace,predictable routine reigns supreme,keeping the employee in total comfort zone. The conventional workplace has imposing dogma that employees easily distance themselves from. They dont expect flexibility from The Company. They resist change,become risk-averse,and refuse to go along with any discomfort in the working system.
Discomfort propels you to know that your achievement to date is not a throne to sit pretty upon,or to command the market from. Being self-righteous in business can jeopardise your long-term business existence. When know-how is easily accessible in every domain nowadays,an unexpected challenger can shake up the traditional market at any time. Apples iPod did just this,disrupting Sonys undisputed leadership in the audio-video player market.
Sony may never have imagined that Apple could cross its threshold to get into the music territory. Having flooded the mass consumption electronic market with trendy musical products these last 50 years,Sony may have overlooked creating discomfort for itself. iPod is no rocket science,just extreme consumer sensitivity in managing music. iPods outstanding concept of being a trendy pocket music dictionary has made it an addiction.
Following World War II,Japans strategic business step was very clear: The war has broken us,lets not waste initial reconstruction time with fundamental innovation the West has already done. Japanese products in the 1960s were perceived to be of very low quality. When they improved in the 1970s,Europeans would caricature them as copy masters. The West failed to beware of the fact that the Japanese imitated to better the original. The Japanese innovated by establishing a marketing approach to product design. They minutely studied Western innovation,sociology and psychology,concentrating on how consumers approached and used products. Then they zeroed in on the concept of miniaturisation as the key to gaining consumer proximity.
Europeans paid no heed to this marketing of design,but consumers were clearly endeared to innovative smallness in product design. French automobile companies did attempt marketing a small car to change the American culture of bigness,but it was the Japanese who succeeded in indulging Americans with small cars,compact motorbikes and electronic gadgets.
Miniaturisation evolved from the Japanese tradition of minimalism,the religious Buddhist way of life,the symbolic form of bonsai art. A bonsai plant is genetically pure; in miniature format,its authenticity remains intact.
To mime Japanese miniaturisation,lets take European perfection to be akin to the palms of both hands joining,finger on outstretched finger. If this symbolises a perfect unbreakable joint in a manufacturing process,what the Japanese have done is slightly twisted the two joined palms. So the outstretched fingers from one hand now touch the edges of the fingers of the other,enabling the fingers to fold on the back of the palm. This allows a snug hug of the two hands. This cosiness is miniaturisation. The Japanese have applied this principle in every Western-origin product that they have miniaturised.
With spectacular renovation of Western innovation,the Japanese have now achieved global leadership in many European businesses such as cameras,motorbikes,automobiles and electronic entertainment systems,among others. As Europeans busied themselves conducting analysis after laboratory analysis,the Japanese concentrated on surprising the global consumer by breaking local tradition. It was as though Philips invented,and Sony marketed. Caught unawares by the iPod in this century,Sony may surely be working in intense discomfort now for another breakthrough marketing innovation to regain their market.
Enterprises and employees need to undergo a certain amount of discomfort in trying to connect to the latent perspective. Thats the only way to create business differentiation in the market. Your consumers may be similar to your 17-year-old belly-baring daughter. Why then must you oppose discomfort at work? Only if an organisation,whether its small,medium or big,continuously perpetuates discomfort within the workplace,can it meet success.
Shombit Sengupta is an international creative business strategy consultant to top management. Reach him at http://www.shiningconsulting.com
