Mark is the co-founder of Wilson Fletcher, one of the world’s first digital service design studios. He has worked on pioneering digital design and innovation programmes for major organisations across the world over a 25-year career. Presenting at IE's Digital strategy innovation summit, Mark dispels many of the myths of digital disruption and shares insight on how to build a successful service strategy in the digital age. These range from why startups are terrible role models, why disruption should never be a strategic goal and why you should never let customers design your products.

1. Behave like an
Upstart, not a Startup.
MARK WILSON, FOUNDER PARTNER
_________
Digital strategy innovation summit
22nd October 2015

2. 2
Let me introduce myself - I run a digital service design company, and I’ve
been creating digital products and services for more than 25 years. Much
of my work is focused on service strategy - helping (usually established)
organisations innovate and compete in the digital age.
I’ve been privileged enough to work with organisations all over the
world, and I thought today I’d share some of the insights on – and dispel
a bunch of myths around – innovation that I’ve learned in this time.
Image: Athos de la Fère

3. PART ONE
It’s a tricky thing, innovation.
3

4. 4
The best metaphor I can think of for how innovation has been
approached by established organisations in recent years is the Hokey
Cokey (Pokey if you’re from the USA) - a dance usually conducted drunk
at weddings. It involves putting various parts of yourself in, then out, then
shaking them all about – before turning around and doing it all again…

5. ‘‘ Innovation remains a frustrating pursuit.
Failure rates are high and even successful
companies can’t sustain their performance.
The root cause is that companies fall into the
trap of adopting whatever best practices are
in vogue or aping the exemplar innovation
of the moment.
Gary P Pisano, Harvard Business Review, June 2015
5

6. Unlocking the formula for
sustainable innovation is the
defining challenge of our age.
6

7. But wait, startups already
have the answer, right?
7

8. 8
$1BN

9. 9
$19BN

10. 10
$120M$30M
(before they even launched)

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As a short interlude, I was lucky enough to see Jake Whiteside at the
WIRED 2015 conference last week and I suspect that his live Periscope
stream may have been very much like the demo that the Periscope
team gave to Twitter originally. The pace of the stream, and its global
reach, was extraordinary.

12. Startups must be the model
for successful innovation, right?
12

13. Wrong.
13

14. ESTABLISHED ORG’S
High
High
High
High
Low
High
High
High
High
14
ORGANISATIONAL
TRAITS
Volume of products
Scale
Reputation
Heritage/legacy
Digital leadership skills
MARKET
CONTEXT
Disruptive threats
Commercial risk
Customer expectations
Trend fragility

15. ESTABLISHED ORG’S
High
High
High
High
Low
High
High
High
High
15
ORGANISATIONAL
TRAITS
Volume of products
Scale
Reputation
Heritage/legacy
Digital leadership skills
MARKET
CONTEXT
Disruptive threats
Commercial risk
Customer expectations
Trend fragility
STARTUPS
Low
Low
Low
Low
High
Low
Low
Low
Low

16. Startups and
established
organisations are
biologically
incompatible.
16image: www.depping-foto.de

17. Startups are always a product
of innovation, not its engine.
17

18. Startups are, in fact, terrible […]
[insert: innovators/businesses/role-models/lovers].
18

19. 10x -100x
19

20. But wait! There are exceptions…
20

21. … and they start behaving a lot
like established organisations.
21

22. I mean, Facebook
is advertising!
To tell us what
friends are!
22

23. Alike, but not the same.
23

24. We call them Upstarts, and they’re
the real role model for success in
the digital age.
24

25. PART TWO
The nature of the Upstart.
25

26. To be a successful business in the
digital age, you need to behave like
an Upstart.
26

27. Upstarts are the Millennials
of the corporate world.
27

28. They are organisations
borne of the network.
28

29. Digitally-centred thinking is
at the core of their mindset.
29

30. They constantly leverage
what they stand for
to maximise their advantage.
30

31. They constantly leverage
how they behave
to maximise their advantage.
31

32. They constantly leverage
what they learn
to maximise their advantage.
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33. PART THREE
10 key lessons from Upstarts
33

34. 1. Imagine yourself as a platform.
Facebook. Amazon. Apple. Google. Uber…
All platform companies.
34

35. 2. Stimulate license, not methods.
Facebook. Google. Evernote. Dropbox.
Ideas can come from anywhere, and do.
35

36. 3. Think about what you have in
abundance and build with it.
Think of your legacy as a massive asset, not a
constraint.
36

37. 4. Think of your customers as
your Board, not your Board as
your customers.
Make customers your first approval gate, not
yourselves.
37

38. 5. Engineer your organisation
to support your services.
Services are your interface to customers. Focus on
them, and adapt the organisation to suit.
38

39. A few don’ts.
39

40. 6. Never set disruption as
an objective.
Disruption is a consequence of innovation.
Great ideas, well executed should be the focus.
40

41. 7. Never think about using
technology as a differentiator.
Facebook. Twitter. Uber. WhatsApp. Vine. Periscope.
Simple technologies, used intelligently.
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42. 8. Never assume you can get
it right alone.
Broad, multi-disciplinary thinking will lead to the
majority of the future’s biggest innovations.
42

43. 9. Never confuse strategy
and vision.
Strategy is a bridge between vision and execution.
No vision, no direction. No direction, no future.
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44. 10. Never try to innovate by being
someone else.
Apple is Apple. Get over it.
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45. PART THREE
A final word or two on
strategic innovation…
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46. ‘‘
46
It’s about discovering
what’s obviously Lego…
but has never been seen
before.
Jorgen Vig Knudstorp, Lego CEO.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/praiter_yed/6372205169/

47. Thank you
Mark Wilson, Founder Partner
mark@wilsonfletcher.com | @Wilsonfletcher
www.wilsonfletcher.com