By Stephan Monterde
NO one doubts that the future belongs to the “Internet of things.” From drones to refrigerators, from giant industrial robots to tiny implanted medical devices, machines are communicating with other machines and accomplishing ever more sophisticated tasks. The challenge for Cisco and other companies is how to speed the process of innovation, especially as technological change threatens to upend our business models.
At Cisco, we’re learning through three initiatives:
Internal diversity
A 2013 study found that companies with a diverse work force “out-innovate and outperform others.” This makes intuitive sense (fresh ideas come from fresh faces), so at Cisco we try to bring together people with different backgrounds to find new opportunities.
Innovation emerges naturally from the tensions that exist between opposite viewpoints. For example, if some players within a team are risk-averse (say, corporate risk managers) and others aren’t (an innovation group), bringing them together will produce more viable ideas than if the group doesn’t collaborated.
Outside experts
Including experts from other industries can offer similar problem-solving benefits. For example, we recently hired an expert from the high-end watch industry to help us develop a program for customers in emerging markets. Tailoring solutions for customers in specific geographies was new to Cisco. We needed thinking from outside our walls.
Partnerships
We believe partnering is one of the best ways to broaden our knowledge base. In the Open Ledger Project, IBM, Intel, Cisco and others have joined forces to explore new business possibilities for blockchain—a ledger developed to record and validate bitcoin transfers—that could allow anyone to exchange anything that carries value (stocks, bonds, mortgages, car titles) securely, transparently and automatically.
Along with bringing many minds to the table, partnerships open up new sources of investment. Companies can share the costs of creating a new idea.
Stephan Monterde is director of corporate development at Cisco Systems.