Page 130 - Free the Idea Monkey

HOW TO CAPITALIZE ON HARD TIMES
Your competitors are likely to become much more conservative

when times are tough. They’ll cut budgets and limit (or eliminate)
their innovation efforts to save cash.

In other words, they’ll go out of their way to help you. It’s like
they are erecting a big flashing sign saying, “Please come and take
some of our market share.” Let us give you two ideas to help you
capitalize on their weakness.

INNOVATION STRATEGY #1:
WIN IT NOW, EXPAND IT LATER

This is for the bravest among you. It gives you a chance to gain
substantial market share. It works best if you are not under pressure
to meet short-term financial hurdles.

If you are a privately held firm,
your ears should have just perked
up. And if you are part of a big,
publicly traded firm, you should
be very afraid. (As we will talk
about later in Chapter 13, when it
comes to innovation, David almost
always beats Goliath. I know those of you
who work for large firms don’t want to hear
it, but it is true.)

The win now, grow later strategy has little to do with short-
term profit and everything to do with long-term growth. As we have
seen, it has been well documented that maintaining marketing and
innovation spending during market disruptions (recessions and the
like) creates a major bounce once the market stabilizes, so if you gain
market share during a downturn—even if it costs you money—your
growth will be exponentially larger when the market recovers.

“My lemon is .”

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