Lessons from Scott Anthony

Scott D. Anthony, a senior partner at Innosight and a prominent author and speaker on innovation and growth strategy, has offered a wealth of insights for individuals and organizations looking to navigate the complexities of change and creativity. His work, deeply rooted in the theories of disruptive innovation pioneered by his mentor Clayton Christensen, provides practical guidance for building a sustainable culture of innovation.

On the Nature of Innovation

"Innovation: Something different that has impact." [1] This simple yet powerful definition emphasizes that true innovation must create value.
"It is always important to separate creativity and invention from innovation. Remember — no impact, no innovation." [1]
"Innovation is a process that combines discovering an opportunity, blueprinting an idea to seize that opportunity, and implementing that idea to achieve results." [1]
"Our formal definition of innovation has five simple words: 'Something different that creates value.' … We use the word different in our definition over more dramatic words, like breakthrough, because it reminds us that the highest-impact path to innovation is paved by making the complicated simple and the expensive affordable…" [2]
"Innovation is distinct from creativity, is distinct from invention. Those are inputs into it, but until you translate that spark into the creation of value, revenue, profits, whatever you're measuring in your eyes, you have not innovated." [3]
"Innovation is a discipline. Individuals can get better at it. Corporations can systematize it." [1][4]
"Innovation is a skill. And like all skills, the more you practice, the sharper the skill." [1]
"Innovation is a human-driven, social activity. Good innovators realize this and seek to make as many connections as they possibly can." [1]
"I've come to the conclusion that the core characteristic that separates companies that get innovation from those that don't is a simple word: curiosity." [5]
"In my mind, so-called 'cultures of innovation' really boil down to one word: curiosity." [5]

On the Innovation Process

"To do something different, you have to do something different." [6]
"Go to where the person is doing the task, and watch them do it then do it with them. You have no conscious memory of how you do routine tasks." [1]
"The most important thing here is to largely ignore what customers say, and instead watch what they do or track where they spend money." [5]
"If you invest the time to understand the customer better than they know themselves, if you know the things they want or need even if they can't articulate it, you can begin to develop a good sense as to where there really are unmet needs in the market." [5]
"Every great idea emerges out of a process of trial-and-error experimentation." [5]
"In the early stages of innovation, your goal is to learn as much as you can as quickly as you can." [5]
"Anytime you see a constrained market, where consumption is limited to those who have special skills or are wealthy, that signals an opportunity for innovation." [5]
"Almost every disruption starts at the perceived fringes of today's market." [5]
"Recognize that your first idea is wrong." [7]
"You have to chip away at it and shape it to let the winning idea emerge." [8]

On Leadership and Culture

"Any leader has two jobs to do. To do what they are currently doing better and more efficiently (call this strengthening the core), and to do what they are not currently doing but will need to do in the future (call this creating the new)." [5]
"The hastening pace of disruptive change means leaders have precious little time to respond. In fact, the time when leaders need to be most prepared for a change is right at the moment when they feel they're at the very top of their game." [6][9]
"When you are motivating people to do amazing things, you have to win over both their rational side and their emotive side." [8]
"I've never seen impeccable logic be sufficient to win both the heart and the mind." [8]
"Corporate innovation leaders need courage. Organisations need curiosity." [10]
"Having a story, a vision or a narrative is absolutely key — proof points and leading indicators will get you buy-in and patience. 'Trust me' simply isn't enough." [10]
"It's one of the underappreciated skills required by an innovator - they have to be able to convince lots of people to do things that might not be fully rational (invest in the company, join something that is likely to fail, try a product they've never seen before), and if you can't tell a good story it is just very hard to make that happen." [5]
"Companies get into grooves and they keep sharpening what they are doing, when in fact what they really need to do sometimes is to stop and do something completely differently." [5]
"The shadow strategy quietly tugs and budges a company down a path of perpetuation, even if circumstances demand something drastically different." [11]
"Dual transformation is ‘the process by which a company becomes the next version of itself’." [12]

On Failure and Learning

"When it comes to innovation, perceived failure is often an important step towards ultimate success." [1][6]
"The inherently risky nature of innovation means that companies can't reward innovation efforts the way they reward core activities: an innovation team can do the exact right things and still fail, or succeed in spite of doing the exact wrong things." [6]
"Fail quickly, fail cheaply. If it's a small failure and you learned something valuable then that's a good thing." [10]
"A small but growing number of companies visibly celebrate failure to destigmatize it." [2]
"In the early stages, prioritise learning not earning metrics because results still matter even on innovation projects, particularly because there is so much institutional pessimism — be modest in the expectations you set then overdeliver!" [10]

On Teams and Talent

"Teams working on disruptive ideas need to be small enough that they can be fed by no more than two pizzas." [5]
"Small teams move faster than big teams." [5]
"One of the biggest mistakes large companies make is creating innovation teams that mirror all the functions of the core business. Those teams make no progress because they spent forever updating each other on what they are doing versus really crushing the most critical problems they need to address." [5]
"Never be the smartest person in the room — humbly search out expertise to understand as much as possible about the areas you hope to explore, and most importantly, figure out the things you don't know." [1]
"I have a fear right now that what I call the advertising-narcissism complex is sucking up way too much top talent." [13]

On Mindset and Personal Growth

"So many people tell me that they aren't creative or they aren't innovative, and it's just not true." [5]
"We are all human beings, ergo we are all curious and creative. It's inside everybody but it's constrained by context and it can be unleashed by giving people space, tools, training and practice." [10]
"Integrate your professional life and personal life. Children can be a great source of learning and push your frontiers of thinking." [10]
"Practice 'strong opinions, weakly held'. There is no truth, there is only more right based on the evidence we have." [10]
"I've always found that working through ideas in written form really changes the thinking." [5]

On Overcoming Challenges

"Too many would-be beautiful businesses that could reinvent markets and create substantial value live only in PowerPoint documents, never to be launched." [6][14]
"Blind innovation occurs when innovators fall into the trap of believing that their sheer brilliance has allowed them to spot an opportunity that 'lesser minds' have missed." [1]
"The problem is a human one – and it is solvable." [4]
"Transformation induces discomfort that is the only way you change you can only change when you're going through a period where you're uncomfortable." [15]
"By the time the data are clear about what to do it's too late to take action based on that data. so you have a paradox the information that you need you don't have when you need to make a decision." [15]

Sources and Further Reading:

The Little Black Book of Innovation: Goodreads
Dual Transformation: Goodreads
Eat, Sleep, Innovate: Goodreads
Innosight: Official Website
A-Z Quotes: Scott D. Anthony Quotes
Interviews and Articles: Various articles from sources like Medium [1][10], 3Pillar Global [3], and Leadership Now [11] have been referenced.

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