HP Innovation Journal Issue 12: Summer 2019 | Page 42

FUTURE-PROOF
Look from the outside in. You can is now considered by many to be the process where the team meets and
identify trends by looking at the out- future of the film industry. reflects on the learnings from the
side world first. Keep your eye on your
customers instead of internal organiza-
tional structure and processes. Broaden
your depth of field and look at the
world and its future through their eyes.
So how do you step outside of the
box? Your trend research should go
beyond social media, TED talks, and
reports. Push yourself outside of your
inner circle and speak to others in your
most undesirable events. They include
a written record for what happened,
why, its impact, how the issue was
resolved, and what they’ll do to pre-
vent it from happening in the future.
This is exactly what happens at HP’s industry, cross industry, government, In the end, it’s not about pointing
Security Lab. The cybersecurity land- education, and more to gather differ- fingers—it’s about understanding how
scape rests on ever-shifting ground. ent perspectives and common threads we avoid the same failures in the future
As users integrate new connected between them. A great way to practice and building resilience as a team.
products and services into their lives, this is to have lunch every week with
HP’s Security Lab is looking holisti- someone outside of your team. Talk
cally at emerging security concerns. to them about what they do and how
Without their attention to external they do it. Innovating and predicting
trends and signals, their innovation in the future is about leveraging diversity,
security would not be possible. Team and the more you know about more
members ensure that connected things, the better off you will be.
devices—PCs, smartphones, printers,
home appliances, and emerging tech-
nologies that blend the physical and
digital worlds—remain trustworthy
and resilient in an ever-changing
threat environment.
Step outside the box. Consider how
Netflix has disrupted the film indus-
try. What started out as a DVD rental
company in 1997 is now a global
media services provider offering
online streaming of films and television
programs, including those produced
device at the University of Buffalo. At
the time, he pulled out a resistor of
the wrong size and plugged it into the
circuit. When he installed it, he imme-
Fail and fail fast. If we aren’t making diately recognized the rhythmic sound
of the human heart. Before that time,
outside of our comfort zones, and that pacemakers were the size of televi-
is the biggest mistake of all. As one of sions. Greatbatch’s implantable device
the greatest innovators, Thomas Edison, of 2 cubic inches forever changed
once said, “I have not failed. I’ve just human life expectancy in the world.
found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”
Don’t confuse failure with bad work.
Expect the unexpected. Now you are
better equipped to start predicting
If you are doing good work, inno- the future, but you need to be prepared
vating, and still failing, you’re still for wild cards. Pay attention to geopo-
learning. It’s essential to encourage litical landscape changes, government
and embrace failure. regulations, and new disruptive technol-
Last year, Google shared their
an Academy Award for Best Foreign process for learning from failure.
Language Film for their original film They use postmortems to capture
Roma. Netflix stepped outside of their and share the lessons they learned
box (or envelope, you might say) and through failure. A postmortem is a
HP Innovation Journal Issue 12
on building a heart rhythm recording
mistakes, we likely aren’t reaching in-house. In fact, Netflix recently won
40
Failure isn’t always a bad thing. In
1956, Wilson Greatbatch was working
ogies emerging. Take into account all
possibilities and extremes. With those
in mind, you can prepare for a range of
different outcomes.