Enable Leaders: What would you do?

Imagine this...

You're looking for the next big thing: only, you're a fish merchant. Ready to go fishing?

You would think in the thousands of years we have been fishing that we would have identified everything interesting to eaters all over the world, and yet, that was not the case for Lee Lantz.

Lee who?

Lee Lantz was a fish broker who was searching for new products for the American market in Chile in the 1970s, when he happened upon a toothfish (which we now know as the Chilean Sea Bass), which even the locals did not recognize.

Yet, as with many great opportunities (like Sticky Notes), Lantz - by accident - discovered a WONDERFUL fish.

It's exotic, non?

Much like other marketing exercises of the past, this "Chilean" sea bass (also called Patagonian Toothfish (Dissostichus eleginoides), which isn't necessarily caught in Chile, is immensely popular, to the point of overfishing, according to the FAO.

Because the fish provides a neutral opportunity to infuse a variety of flavours, it is immensely popular with chefs (and eaters) around the world.

This paradigm of finding something "new" and getting market adoption can be about either the marketing, or, creating demand. Some great examples?

• De Beers and diamonds

• Ocean Nutrition Canada and its work to bring forward Omega-3 from fish oil into many consumer products

Another that might surprise you? Lobster.

I grew up in Atlantic Canada, and I can tell you, lobster was long viewed as food of those who did not have much in terms of resources: lobster was very, very cheap and was seen as undesirable for those growing up in the mid 20th century. Interestingly, that may not have been the case globally, of course, but it is interesting how lobster demand continues to be strong, especially in China: it's worth about $450M for Canada.

How you can use this

While Lee may not have been doing market research with his customers to say, "What kind of fish would you like?", he evidently knew the value of what he had: now, given the history and the work it took to get market adoption, clearly, it could have been a dud.

Why do some things catch on versus those that do not? A few possibilities:

1. Timing. Online grocery shopping didn't work in the early 2000s because we had inadequate infrastructure, technology and processes to get it done. I had an idea for this in 1999, but the timing obviously was off.

2. Benefits overcome friction. When the car was rolled out, people understood that the car didn't require rest and fueling was different. Sorry, Harry The Horse: we'll hold you in reserve for other things.

Arguably, Lee knew that he had something: much like the story of Ocean Nutrition, while you had to convince people that this is something that has benefit (education can require a lot of work and doesn't always speak for itself), knowing your industry deeply can be such an opportunity for innovation. Conversely, people that don't know an industry can also spot opportunities for innovation as well: why else do we have so many innovations used that bring in the concept of biomimicry, after all? From swimsuits to paint to jets, these have all been applications of the concept.

To spot opportunities:

1. Know your industry. If you do, you know what has been tried, when, and why it failed or succeeded. Patterns can emerge, and understanding the downstream market (especially) is a superpower.

2. Use fresh eyes. When we don't know an industry, we can ask "dumb" questions. You can use this to your advantage. Bring in others to test your assumptions: just like Elon Musk did when he made a significant change to SpaceX's rocket design following a question from a YouTuber.

3. And open your ears... Had Elon outright dismissed the question above, what would the end result have been? Or, the train conductor hadn't listened to Vince Coleman during the Halifax Explosion? Not every dismissed question will avoid significant disaster, but of course, it's an opportunity to gain new perspectives and potentially new insights.

Tools to Help You

Be sure to check out this post from Visual Capitalist: 10 Types of Innovation: The Art of Discovering a Breakthrough Product 

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Go be a great leader today! See you next time.

Jonathan [email protected] CEOEnable Leaders Inc.www.enableleaders.com