Originally published here through the Chicago Tribune's Blue Sky Innovation
Chicago's Innovators Reflect the Olympic Spirit
By Thomas D. Kuczmarski, Chicago Innovation Awards
Feb. 14, 2014, 11:30 a.m.
It’s not likely that anyone was putting big dollars on snowboarder Sage Kotsenburg to win the first U.S. gold medal of this year’s Winter Olympics. He possesses rare skill, no doubt, but so did the athletes he was up against. Kotsenburg won the medal by doing something totally different.
He was an innovator.
If you watched, you know what I mean. All the tiny differences between moves that the judges look for — moves that I can barely identify in slow-motion replay — went out the window. His gold medal run was unique; it had the ‘wow’ factor.
Germany’s Natalie Geisenberger beat the rest of the field in luge by more than half a second, an eternity in that event. Immediate reactions from NBC commentators were directed at the design of her luge, which makes an odd rattling sound as it blazes down the track. This can change your perception of the other contests as well – are you going to make your bobsled predictions based on reputation, or will you be on the look-out for teams using the BMW-designed sled with racecar technology that can be steered in four dimensions rather than two?
Or, looking back to the slopes, you may find yourself wondering what skiers took advantage of a $5 iPad app that allowed them to view real-time performance metrics during training.
The Olympians know to use not just the body, but the mind and technology to their advantage. The Olympic spirit is a combination of competition, national pride – and the constant search for an edge. That edge is where innovation comes in.
The Sochi Olympics remind me of ways in which Chicago's entrepreneurs share the Olympic spirit. They know that innovation can provide the critical edge between a market winner and a market bronze medalist; that a slight adjustment in their approach can yield huge returns.
Take 2013 Chicago Innovation Awards winner, Anova Technologies, which developed a laser-based wireless network that connects investors to stock exchanges at breakneck speeds on a system with virtually no lag or downtime.
A decade of focused research went into this product – Anova developers, like Olympians, understand that in an industry where time is money, converting even a tiny fraction of time into an advantage is worth spending years to achieve. It was this slight edge in speed that turned Anova from a small Chicago startup to a business with international reach, one that other companies may begin looking to as an example.
Just as there are big nations and small in the Olympic games, each in their own way looking for an edge, the spirit of innovation in the Chicago region is found in organizations of all types and sizes. If the start-ups are reaching for their first gold, the more established companies are looking to remain trailblazers.
A standout is Molex. This multi-billion dollar global firm, headquartered in suburban Lisle, is relentless in its search for new products. At its core is the idea of connectors. When you think of all the products that need connectors of one sort or another—from enormous to microscopic in scale, from heavy manufacturing to sterile medical environments—it is easy to see how a firm like Molex, which has the spirit of innovation as a core value, is such a consistent winner in the marketplace.
An Olympian-sized spirit of innovation is found in the non-profit sector as well. Consider the Center for Neighborhood Technology, which brought the idea of car rental by-the-hour to Chicago through I-GO Car Sharing, later selling the franchise to Enterprise Rent-A-Car. Chicago Innovation Awards have gone to nonprofits that include PAWS, Feeding America, and other organizations that understand how finding ways to be unique can lead to breakthroughs in social service programs.
The Winter Olympics are fascinating to watch. Winners take home the gold, with the difference between winning and losing often a question of the margin that innovation brings to their sport, whether in performance style or a luge that rattles as it races down the track.
The same spirit of innovation is found year round in organizations of all sizes throughout the Chicago region.
Thomas D. Kuczmarski, president of Kuczmarski Innovation, an international innovation consultancy based in Chicago, is founder, with Dan Miller, of the Chicago Innovation Awards. The author of six books on leadership and innovation, Kuczmarski teaches product and service innovation at Northwestern University's Kellogg Graduate School of Management.
