“Technological shifts cause problems and opportunities.
Where would the coatings industry be if EPA had not been
creating a ‘push’ for its change?”
• Effectively capturing the ideas and
communicating same and,
• Finding an effective Idea Champion.
We will address only the Idea
Champion in this article. What is an Idea
Champion? Why is the Idea Champion
important? Where can an Idea Champion
come from?
An Idea Champion is a person who,
once learning about the Idea, catches
the vision of its tangible and intangible
possibilities for the organization and
either has now or has been given, the
authority to proceed. An additional
key attribute the Idea Champion must
possess is an emotional attachment
to its theme. Ideas can be generated,
catalogued, prioritized and assigned
for promotional follow up, but without the Idea Champion who sees the
unique possibilities of the idea and
provides the initiative and emotional
promotion to fuel its flight, it many
times, will fall far short of its potential
even though the idea is in fact good for
the company.
Initiative to consider a broad ar-
ray of Ideas is usually aligned with a
disruptive change in the business envi-
ronment. We find this especially true
when our industry has faced techno-
logical shifts that are disruptive to
their normal way of doing business.
Although most times less dramatic
“shifts” occur that must be dealt with,
here are some major event examples in
the coatings industry:
• General metals segment rapid adop-
tion of dry powder coatings starting
in the early 1970s.
share from metal causing a coatings technology shift starting in the
mid-1970s.
• UV coatings replacing lacquers and
2K coatings for two-dimensional
plastic and wood substrates starting
in the early-1980s.
• EPA pushing for less solvent emis-
sions starting in the early – 1960s.
•Nano technologies changing (
dis-rupting*) coatings applications and
markets. - 2007
Technological Shifts Cause
Problems and Opportunities
Where would the coatings industry be
if EPA had not been creating a “push”
for change? Without this directive our
industry would certainly not have expended nearly the resources and converted to other coatings technologies
without a market to accept them . . . an
unmet need. The technology broadening we saw starting in the late 1960s
and early 70s ushering in new coating
systems such as, powder, UV/EB, e-coat, high solids and water-based were
a direct result of a technological disruptive shift need created by a “third
party” in the coating industries environment . . . EPA.
As suggested, these “shifts” are many
times subtle and much less obvious
than the ones thus far discussed. Subtle
shifts can produce some of the neatest
opportunities for those who both recognize them early as well as a willingness
to act quickly to establish a “
champion” to expedite its movement. Subtle
“shifts” can be advantaged and momentum gained without showing your hand
early, thus creating an opportunity for
successful pre-emptive strike position
prior to other suppliers getting their act
together to compete.
*A disruptive innovation is an
innovation that helps create a new market and value network, and eventually
goes on to disrupt an existing market
and value network (over a few years or
decades), displacing an earlier technology. The term is used in business and
technology literature to describe innovations that improve a product or service in ways that the market does not
expect, typically first by designing for
a different set of consumers in the new
market and later by lowering prices in
the existing market.
In contrast to disruptive innovation,
a sustaining innovation does not create new markets or value networks but
rather only evolves existing ones with
better value, allowing the firms within
to compete against each other’s sustaining improvements. Sustaining innovations may be either “discontinuous” (i.e.
“transformational” or “revolutionary”)
or “continuous” (i.e. “evolutionary”).
It has been our experience that when
projects fail it is usually characterized by
the absence of a volunteer champion.
Some companies sponsor “idea champions” by providing free time. 3M is an
example of this type management style.
Within large companies, “idea champions” go by various names and include,
but not limited to, advocate, change agent
or entrepreneur.
Within smaller companies an “idea
champion” could be the entrepreneur
owner, the founder, a consultant, the next
generation of family ownership, etc.
Ideas can be generated at anyplace
along the supply chain of a company,
both inside it as well as outside the
company proper. These ideas can be
captured and prioritized by members
along this supply chain. However, an
idea can only be “championed” effectively by someone within the organization itself. CW
