Innovation and the Coronavirus Pandemic

• August 17, 2020

Innovation and the Coronavirus Pandemic

The world-wide Coronavirus pandemic has changed or is about to change virtually everyone’s life.

As we deal with this is a terrible situation it is important to keep in mind that innovation can be used to address many of the challenges the world is now facing.

Just like President John F. Kennedy’s commitment in 1961 to “land a man on the Moon, and return him safely to the Earth” ushered in a decade of incredible innovations, so can the fight against the Coronavirus and the preparation for future pandemics, provide mankind with tremendous innovative advances.

To get some perspective of the possibilities of innovations that might be developed in our current Coronavirus pandemic just look at some of the innovations that resulted from an “all hands on deck” effort to try to land a man on the Moon:

1. Air purification technologies
2. Artificial limbs
3. Freeze-dried foods
4. Insulin pumps
5. Materials that improved radial tires
6. Memory foam
7. Polymers for heat resistance
8. Solar cells
9. Technologies required for CAT scans and MRI’s

• The technology necessary for LASIK surgery
• Water filtration technology
• Wireless headsets

But, keep in mind the goal for true innovation should not just be the acceleration of current trends like online operations, hosted-environments, and the gig-economy, but truly new innovations.

The overarching objective for innovations should not just be to ameliorate short-term difficulties, but ones that address long-term challenges that will exist after the Coronavirus crisis.

Three Foundations of Innovation

To foster innovation in each of our lives we need to focus on the three foundations of innovation, which are:

1. See every problem we incur in our daily lives as an opportunity for an innovation
2. Innovations are not limited to some magical new invention, but include a wide range of ideas that result in “doing something in a better way”
3. There are 9 different types of innovation, not just new products and services

What are these 9 different types of innovation?

1. New products and services—Using innovation to develop new products and services (e.g., new cell phone or cloud-based service).
2. Cost reductions and productivity gains—Applying innovation to lower operating expenses or to become more efficient (e.g., a process to reduce wasted material in manufacturing activity or using new software that enables field service personnel to be more productive).
3. Customer experience improvements—Separate from new products and services is coming up with ideas to improve your customers’ overall experience in interacting with you (e.g., giving customer support personnel greater latitude and power to solve customer problems during the first call).
4. Employee satisfaction and engagement increases—Using innovative thinking with regard to how employees are treated that enables you and your personnel to work as partners (e.g., developing a true team environment or implementation of an incentive compensation plan tied to customer satisfaction surveys).
5. Supply chain and vendor interaction enhancements—Working with suppliers and vendors to explore joint development of innovative initiatives so that you and they operate in concert (e.g., Wal-Mart’s joint development of RFID [Radio Frequency Identification] inventory tracking with its supply chain).
6. Market reorientations—Applying an existing product or service to new markets (e.g., Arm & Hammer utilizing their baking soda in laundry detergent, toothpaste, pet care, etc.).
7. Business organization restructurings—Using innovative thinking to establish new ways to organize and operate your company to provide competitive advantages (e.g., Hewlett Packard’s reorganization into Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Hewlett Packard, Inc.).
8. Environmental impact advances—Applying innovation to environmental issues (e.g., development of a system that provides real-time monitoring of specific smoke-stack pollutants that enables immediate adjustment of the equipment generating the pollutants).
9. Societal enrichments—Using innovation to improve a society (e.g., having prison inmates train service dogs who are provided to returning soldiers to help with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Two Related Coronavirus Crises

Health experts have stated that there a two separate, but related Coronavirus crises.

First, the Coronavirus health pandemic itself and second the epidemic of loneliness and isolation being felt by people as a result of the “shelter in place” and social distancing guidelines being practiced by so much of the world.

In this newsletter, I would like to look at how innovation can be used to address the seclusion and lack of companionship challenges that we will face as long as it remains unwise to gather together.

To address this isolation, we have to create a virtual environment that can emotionally sustain and support people.

To do this we will need to see an eruption of creativity and innovation as people use technology to create a nurturing virtual ecosystem.

This creativity can evidence itself in two basic ways.

First, improving existing technology, such as ways to improve video chats and push critical information to cell phones. As we use the current tools there will be plenty of opportunities for seeing ways to improve them

Second, developing entirely new innovations. This involves going about your day and when the thought “I wish…” or “Wouldn’t it be a great idea if…” comes to mind, then come up with a solution that will address the issue.

Examples of “Shelter in Place” Coronavirus Innovations

Let’s begin by looking at some of the things people are doing already to survive.

In addition to the expected things where people are using smartphones and various forms of video chats to stay in touch with those who are physically distant, we are now seeing virtual yoga classes, virtual dance lessons, virtual church services, virtual dinner parties, that are not just one way, but involve interactive, two-way communication.

People are using Facebook groups to share information that assists neighbors in dealing with the current pandemic situation. Also, a group of public-school teachers, created a Google Doc to share ideas regarding how to teach students during state-ordered school closure.

Users have added innovations to multi-player online gaming platforms and people that can’t party in person have created “cloud clubbing,” which is a virtual party in which D.J.s stream music sets on apps like TikTok and Douyin.

Related to the entire area of virtual human interaction, the prior innovation of Social Media was supposed to improve humanity, but unfortunately, it was used by some persons and organizations to sow distrust and discord. Hopefully, the coronavirus crisis will cause people to come together and break down barriers, rather than erecting them – and there are early indications this is occurring.

A positive outcome from this crisis of isolation would be that the internet would be used to connect with each other, share information and resources, and develop solutions to the challenges that we will face for a while.

The desired outcome from these innovations is we create a virtual environment with is interactive, not just a passive one in which people just read or watch media because research has shown that people who use social media actively by messaging, participating in chats, and making comments are happier than those who are passive consumers of information on the internet.

Where to Start

While you encounter a problem or difficulty as you are practicing “sheltering in place” and following social distancing guidelines and you say to yourself “I wish…” or “Wouldn’t it be a great idea if…” remember to:

1. See that problem as an opportunity for an innovation
2. Related to the difficulty, think of ideas that can solve the challenge and result in “doing something in a better way”
3. Keep in mind there are 9 different types of innovation, not just new products and services

Hopefully the innovations you come up with not only address the current situation of loneliness and isolation but one that solves or addresses a long-term or overall challenge.

Also, keep in mind that there are 100’s of millions, perhaps billions of people experiencing the exact same difficulty as you are, so there is a huge potential market for your innovation

If you could use assistance with developing innovations as we are practicing  “sheltering in place” and following social distancing guidelines, please contact us using the information below so we can be a resource to you in this important area.

Fountainhead Consulting Group, Inc. is an Innovation and Business Planning firm. During the past 17, years we have shown over 1,200 companies how to achieve their goals by using our unique, comprehensive, and systematic FastTrak Innovation Program™, Innovation Academy™, and  Structure of Success™ methodologies. Using the components in these methodologies, each month we examine an aspect of how to transform your business or organization into a true 21^st Century enterprise.

Office: (770) 642-4220

www.FountainheadConsultingGroup.com

George.Horrigan@FountainheadConsultingGroup.com