After reading "Where to Look for Insight" from the
Harvard Business Review, some ideas became evident. The article states,
"We recognize that many people arrive at great ideas more or less
serendipitously, but we nevertheless believe that it’s possible for individuals
to approach innovation in a more systematic way." I would have to disagree
with that statement. I believe more times than not, people do not arrive at
ideas "serendipitously.” I believe people do have insight coupled with
intuition.
That intuition leads them to analyze what consumers are looking for
and create whatever meets those wants and/ or needs.
For example, in #Girlboss
by Sophia Amoruso, Sophia makes an extremely successful business through her
idea to sell vintage clothes on eBay. She
started it to make ends meet. Sophia knew that the revenue from her sales would
cover her costs because there was a need for what she was selling. She also had
the right intuition to know what her customer would want and how to market it
in a way to attract customers. In the article, confluence is one of the seven
insight channels. Sophia saw the online shopping trend and need for vintage
clothes, and combined that into a good business. She knew her consumer and knew
how to make herself different from her competitors. Customers could relate to
the model because they were not real models, Sophia would dress the models head
to toe so the customer could see how to style the outfit, and she edited the
image in order for them to gain attention from consumers out of the plethora of
other image that are out there. There was no luck involved, she simply made
smart business decisions.
I think people are caught up with
"serendipitously" when they see how successful something has grown to
be when that was not the original intent. Sophia had the insight on how to
innovate vintage clothing sales, which is why she became so successful years
later. She never intended to have that success, but she was smart enough to
know how to create it.
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