In this episode of the "Chronicles from a Caribbean Cubicle" podcast, Francis Wade reads his Jamaica Gleaner article "What Happened to Your Innovation Budget?" He argues that limited R&D budgets should not prevent Caribbean firms from innovating. Wade reframes R&D as essential, not a luxury, and warns that failure to adapt leads to obsolescence, citing Blockbuster vs. Netflix, Kodak vs. Fujifilm, and BlackBerry vs. iPhone. He offers three concrete steps: (1) be hyper‑curious about the end by setting exit deadlines for each major line of business and planning new product categories; (2) allow competing alternative futures in strategic planning, ensuring diverse viewpoints and scenario advocates; and (3) decide on a single path, allocate resources, and be prepared to kill off alternatives, revisiting only if core assumptions change. The episode closes with a call to visit his blog for further articles and to seek help with Caribbean business challenges.
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Hello and welcome back to Chronicles from a Caribbean Cubicle Podcast. This is Francis Wade, and here's an article I wrote for the Jamaica Gleaner. It's titled, "What Happened to Your Innovation Budget?" You agree with the general concept of having new products and services to offer your customers. After all, a company that relies on stale stuff is likely to fail. But how do you put together an effective R&D plan when budgets are limited? It sounds like something only the biggest companies overseas do. Most think that research and development are two luxury items to be indulged in when times are good, and Jamaica's economy has not shown sustained GDP growth in years. But what if R&D is just a fancy name for innovations you cannot afford to delay? Sadly, some only realize this in retrospect. Today they are out of business because they failed to abandon old, tired thinking. How can your firm ensure that it doesn't destroy value because it's too slow to learn? Number 1: Be hyper-curious about the end. Most of us remember when videotape rental companies did a booming business. To most, this appeared to be a great niche. With guaranteed traffic every weekend. I happened to live in the US when Netflix arrived, offering the chance to rent a DVD by mail. Initially, it was inconvenient to send items through the post. Compared to renting a video from Blockbuster, it took longer and stuff could get lost. Apparently, Netflix agreed and tried to sell itself to Blockbuster, who literally laughed as they left in embarrassment. A few years later, after they closed 9,000 stores, the smiles were replaced by tears. In retrospect, it was all very obvious to see what was happening. Today we shake our heads at their arrogance in disbelief, but are you committing the same mistake in your organization? If you accept the fact that it's just a matter of time before your industry is disrupted, congratulations, you're ahead of the game. Consider that in your company, a short-term plan by itself may not go far enough to show that the clock is ticking. If you're really curious, you should have a plan for exiting each major line of business. Create a deadline date, the moment when you intend to learn your last dollar from the pertinent product or service. Alongside this doomsday prediction should be a plan to launch a new category of product or service. Where should these timelines come from? Your long-term R&D plan, of course. For example, Immediately after making a record year of profits in 2000, Fujifilm's research showed it had a 10 to 15 year endgame. Kodak also had fantastic sales but was never curious enough about the future to take the right actions. Consequently, Fuji thrives in a whole different industry. Kogak is just a single tiny business having destroyed an an estimated $9 billion of value. Number 2: Allowing competing alternatives in your planning. How should your company determine these choices? In your next strategic planning session, ensure that you permit attendees to propose various visions of the future. If team members share the same age, gender, and background, consider that to be an impediment. You want different points of view to emerge for your Vision 2040, for example. First, make sure you are all starting with the same facts. Then invite advocates to describe their preferred future, even if it makes others uncomfortable. Get them to share details as they paint a vivid picture and draw others in to expand it. Do not squelch your colleagues. When you have a number of candidate futures, stand back collectively and assess them because it's time to choose which ones to pursue. In this moment of truth, you should be scared witless. Why? You could easily and unwittingly fall into the path of more videotapes or film. In other words, you could doom your company or save it. Agonize if you will, but understand that your decision cannot be easily reversed. It's just not the kind of choice that can be revisited whenever the breeze changes direction. Number 3: Decide and kill off alternatives. Instead, treat this moment of selection as a final verdict which will assign time, money, manpower, and other corporate resources. You're making a bet which has an unsure outcome, but understand that the team must be willing to stand by its selection. However, this means that if major assumptions change, then it's your duty to revisit the plan, but this should be rare. BlackBerry needed to do this when the iPhone turned out to be a serious threat, for example. Only a dose of humility would have saved them from obsolescence. Unfortunately, this advice isn't easy to take. Most shy away from the kind of hard conversations required until it's too late. Don't disappoint your shareholders, employers, suppliers, pensioners, and other stakeholders by being slow or cowardly. Instead, make the difference by investing in your organization's future. Thanks for listening. Do you have an unsolved problem in your Caribbean company related to strategy, productivity, engagement, or business process improvement? Just visit a searchable listing of all my prior articles and you may be able to help yourself to a fresh line of thinking. Go to blog.fwconsulting.com or see the show notes.
