“Innovation” does not always mean “new technology”
There’s almost nothing better on a hot summer day, especially at a picnic, than a nice, cold, juicy watermelon. The problem with watermelons, however, is that they are big, oblong objects that usually don’t fit in the fridge and often take up the whole ice chest (occasionally, you can find a smaller, volleyball-shaped melon, but even those take up a bunch of space).
In Japan, a relatively small country with lots of people, grocery stores are typically much smaller than those in the US, and shelf space is at a premium. Because of the volume of shelf space that watermelons take for display, Japanese stores could typically only stock a very limited number of watermelons. Farmers were therefore limited in how many melons they could sell. The Japanese supermarkets began asking the farmers to produce square watermelons that could be stacked for easier display and storage. Given that watermelons naturally grow round or oblong, there didn’t seem to be much hope for a solution.
A group of Japanese farmers got together to find a solution to this problem. In these modern times, immediate ideas might well have included genetic manipulation and reengineering of the watermelon. However, these Japanese farmers came up with a low cost, low technology innovation. They asked a very simple question:
“How can we make round melons take the shape of a square?”
The answer was to grow the watermelons in a box, forcing the melons to assume the shape of the box.
The melons produced by this innovative, cost-effective approach delivered exactly what the supermarkets needed: a stackable watermelon. These melons were easier to ship, store and stack on grocery store shelves. They had the additional benefit of fitting better in refrigerators and ice chests, making the melons more marketable. In fact, the square melons became so popular that they could be sold at a premium price. Here a seemingly insurmountable problem was resolved quickly and simply with a low-tech solution.
The simple lesson to be taken from this example is that innovation is not always about new technology or new applications. Innovation is about solving problems. Solving those problems can often be done by simply modifying existing processes, or using an existing technology in a unique or different way.
Business Architecture is not just about new applications either. Business Architecture is about asking what the problems are, and asking the right questions to allow innovative ideas to surface. Don’t begin by making broad assumptions about what can and can’t be done. Actively seek out and probe for better ways of doing what is already being done.
Be open to new ideas, even ideas that, at first, might seem radical or a little bit crazy. With enough thought, even seemingly impossible problems may reveal innovative solutions.
When using business architecture to innovate and solve complex problems, remember the lesson of the square watermelons, and always be open to low-tech, innovative “watermelon box” solutions.
