Sur/petition

1. Competition is necessary but not sufficient; sur|petition is key to business success

"Competition is for survival. Sur|petition is for success."

Sur|petition defined. Sur|petition goes beyond traditional competition by creating value monopolies and focusing on integrated values. While competition is about running in the same race as others, sur|petition involves creating your own race and seeking value "above" competitors.

Value monopolies. These can be achieved through various means such as physical uniqueness, technological innovation, brand recognition, or dominant market position. However, the most powerful value monopolies come from integrated values – products or services that seamlessly fit into customers' complex value systems.

Beyond housekeeping. Competition is part of business housekeeping, ensuring baseline survival. Sur|petition, on the other hand, is about moving upwards from that baseline, creating unique value propositions that set a business apart from its competitors.

2. The three stages of business: product values, competitive values, and integrated values

"In the first stage, attention is on the product and on production. Getting the product out there is all-important."

Stage 1: Product Values. This stage focuses on simply producing a product or offering a service. The intrinsic value of the product is sufficient, and the market is often growing enough to absorb all that can be produced.

Stage 2: Competitive Values. As markets become saturated, businesses start competing on price, quality, and product differentiation. Values are determined largely by what competitors are doing.

Stage 3: Integrated Values. This stage involves integrating products or services into the complex value systems of customers. It's not just about the product itself, but how it fits into and enhances the customer's lifestyle or business operations.

• Examples: Club Méditerranée integrating into French travel preferences
• Stainmaster carpets integrating into lifestyle concerns about stains

3. Valufacture: The deliberate creation of value through innovative concepts

"Valufacture is the deliberate process of creating values."

Types of value. De Bono identifies several types of value, including:

• Perceived value
• Real value
• Gateway value
• Context value
• Synergy value
• Security value
• Appeal value
• Fashion value
• Function value
• Convenience value

Value drivers. Four powerful value drivers for the future:

1. Convenience
2. Quality of life
3. Self-importance
4. Distraction

Focusing on benefits. Valufacture requires a combination of information gathering (white hat thinking), creativity (green hat thinking), and benefit identification (yellow hat thinking). It's crucial to constantly ask who benefits and how from any new concept or idea.

4. Serious creativity is essential for generating new ideas and concepts

"Creativity is a logical process, but it is the logic of self-organizing systems, not the traditional logic of passive systems."

Beyond brainstorming. De Bono argues that traditional approaches to creativity, like brainstorming, are too weak. Serious creativity involves understanding how the brain works as a self-organizing system and using specific techniques to generate new ideas.

Techniques for serious creativity:

• Random word technique
• Provocation (Po)
• Movement
• Concept extraction

Importance of motivation. The main difference between creative and non-creative people is motivation. Organizations need to cultivate a culture that values and encourages creative thinking at all levels.

5. Concept design and development are crucial for business innovation

"A concept is a way of doing something which achieves a purpose and provides values."

Levels of concept. Concepts can be described at various levels, from very general to highly specific. The most useful level for innovation often lies in the middle, providing enough detail to be actionable but remaining broad enough to allow for multiple implementations.

Concept extraction. Any existing idea has a concept behind it, which can be extracted and potentially applied in new ways. This process involves identifying the core principles or values that make an idea successful.

Improving concepts. Rather than trying to fix flaws in a concept, it's often more effective to develop parallel concepts. This approach allows for more diverse and potentially innovative solutions.

6. Integrated values are the future of business success

"Integrated values are not simple product values or competitive values; they are values that integrate into the complex values of a customer."

Beyond product features. Integrated values go beyond the intrinsic qualities of a product or service, considering how it fits into the customer's life, work, or broader value system.

Examples of integrated values:

• Domino's Pizza delivery integrating into the desire for convenient meals
• Perrier water integrating into the need for a sophisticated non-alcoholic drink option
• AT&T charge card integrating phone service with financial benefits

Designing for integration. Businesses need to think beyond their immediate product or service and consider the broader context in which it will be used. This requires a deep understanding of customer needs, habits, and values.

7. Concept R&D should be as important as technical R&D

"In the future, concept development is going to be every bit as important as technical development."

Four main functions of Concept R&D:

1. Cataloguing existing and emerging concepts
2. Generating new concepts
3. Developing promising concepts
4. Testing concepts

Importance of concept development. As technology becomes more of a commodity, the ability to develop innovative concepts for applying that technology becomes crucial for business success.

Structure of Concept R&D. This should not be a small, isolated group but rather a function that facilitates and coordinates concept development throughout the organization. It should work closely with other departments like technical R&D, marketing, and corporate strategy.

8. The power of provocation and movement in creative thinking

"There may not be a reason for saying something until after it has been said."

Provocation defined. Provocation (Po) is a deliberate mental operation that allows us to say things that may seem nonsensical at first but can lead to new insights and ideas.

Movement vs. judgment. Instead of immediately judging an idea, the concept of movement encourages us to explore where an idea might lead. This is based on the "water logic" of patterning systems rather than traditional "rock logic" of judgment.

Examples of provocation leading to innovation:

• "Po, police officers have six eyes" leading to the concept of neighborhood watch programs
• "Po, taxi drivers do not know their way about" leading to the idea of a two-tier taxi system

9. Effective business thinking requires four elements: procedures, information, analysis, and creativity

"The brain is designed to allow incoming information to organize itself into patterns and then to use these patterns."

1. Procedures and routines. These are essential for efficiency but can also trap us in familiar patterns of thinking.

2. Information. While crucial, more information doesn't always lead to better decisions. We need concepts to make sense of information.

3. Analysis and logic. Important tools, but they have limitations, especially when dealing with complex systems.

4. Creativity. Essential for generating new concepts and seeing beyond existing patterns. It's not just for artists or advertisers but crucial in all aspects of business.

10. The importance of focusing on non-problem areas for innovation

"There is a high value in focusing from time to time on existing concepts or existing areas. This is not necessarily because the areas are problems or high-cost areas."

Beyond problem-solving. While addressing problems is important, focusing only on problem areas can limit innovation. Non-problem areas often have great potential for improvement precisely because they haven't been examined in a while.

Concept review. Regularly reviewing existing concepts, even successful ones, can lead to breakthroughs. This process should be part of the Concept R&D function.

Fresh perspectives. Looking at non-problem areas with fresh eyes can reveal opportunities for innovation that might be missed when focusing solely on obvious issues or competitive pressures.

Last updated: July 25, 2024