Peter Drucker’s Seven Sources of Innovation

April 30, 2006 at 10:45 am · Filed under Design, Human Insights, Innovation

Peter Drucker wrote that there are seven sources of innovation. Here they are, in reverse order of importance.
7. New technology and scientific findings
6. Changes in public perception
5. Demographic changes
4. Industry market and structures
3. Process needs
2. Incongruities
1. The unexpected

One of the most successful innovations -the Sony Walkman demonstrates several of these principles.

walkman-tps-l2.jpg

The Sony Walkman was originally designed as a music player for couples, based on Akio Morita's observation of teenagers lugging their radios with them on vacations (an incongruity) and came equipped with two headphone jacks and a recording facility. It even had a "hotline" button, partially overriding the sound from the cassette and allowing one user to talk to the other over the music.

Of course, nobody really used it like that and Sony was quick to see that most people used it as a personal, portable music player (unexpected) and redesigned it accordingly.

What are the incongruous and unexpected events and behaviours in your market? And what are the tools you can use to find and use them?

Thanks to Antonella Pavese for writing about Drucker's seven sources in her excellent blog on women, technology and happiness.

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5 Comments »

  1. farrukh said,

    April 30, 2006 @ 2:09 pm

    Washing machine sales soared in a particular market which was rural. Marketers were surprised to find that the buyers were crazy about milkshakes. And lived in joint family set-ups. And bought washing machines - guess for what purpose.

    Have heard this but am not sure of authenticity. Highly likely, becuase I know how creative people of that market are.

  2. Reynold said,

    May 1, 2006 @ 7:32 pm

    Another unexpected innovation from the same market - the use of Coke and Pepsi by farmers as… pesticide. Although I don’t think either of those firms would like this to become widely known!

  3. Milo said,

    May 2, 2006 @ 5:58 pm

    9) A synergistic and candid team.

    -Milo

  4. Snake Coffee » Segmentation in the Toy market (from BBC) said,

    May 2, 2006 @ 11:36 pm

    [...] While there isn't any information about how Tomy developed this innovation, I'd bet a large sum that it comes down to observing what Peter Drucker called the "unexpected" source of innovation. [...]

  5. kempton said,

    September 21, 2006 @ 10:37 pm

    Hi Reynold,
    Interesting stuff about Peter Drucker here.
    I have a recent post about some Peter Drucker insight that you may find interesting.
    Cheers,
    Kempton

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