Innovation Lessons From The Covid-19 Pandemic

The pandemic forced everyone to innovate; here are some of the enduring lessons about innovation for corporates.

INNOVATION BUILDS ON EXISTING STRUCTURES

“Innovation played a role in vaccine development; but even though some vaccines utilize new technology such as mRNA, they didn’t come out of nowhere,” says SUNY’s Russell. “They depend on decades of public investment, standardized trial structures, existing vaccine manufacturing capabilities and established cold-storage supply chains. Adaptations were necessary, given the volume required and urgency of the task; but much of what was needed was already there.”

SUCCESS DEPENDS ON THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX

“The pandemic has shown that companies are more innovative than they thought. They can act quickly, in fundamentally new ways, in uncertain environments and with true decisiveness,” says New Markets’ Wunker. “During the pandemic, there was not time for most companies to innovate the product. Instead, they had to focus on the business system and the services that surround the product, such as channels or customer experience. Restaurants, for instance, did this effectively by creating remote experiences, such as [delivery of] frozen cocktails, that reflected the new environment. Thinking beyond the product opens up new avenues of innovation and creates flexibility at a low cost, because nonproduct offerings are easier to adjust.”

EMBRACE UNCERTAINTY: NO ONE KNOWS EVERYTHING

“Despite scientists warning for years about the risk of a pandemic, very few companies had it on their list of risks at the end of 2019. Predicting Covid-19 was tricky, but other future disruptions seem highly probable,” says Wunker. “Covid-19 taught firms that they need to embrace uncertainty and think through the implications of potential actions. This takes rigor and humility but opens up a realm of possibilities that you foreclose if you presume omniscience.”

DON’T JUMP TO CONCLUSIONS ABOUT THE ROLE OF GOVERNMENT

“Covid-19 showed that government support can be critical, especially in commercially unattractive markets such as vaccines,” says How Innovation Works author Ridley. “But we should not infer that mission-oriented funding is the right choice: It prevents the trial and error and serendipity that are a crucial part of innovation. There are ways of publicly funding the private sector to achieve public goals, such as prizes, that don’t require the state to pick winners in advance.”

BE ATTENTIVE TO COUNTERVAILING INFLUENCES

“Covid-19 has [highlighted] the importance of the distinction between simple and complex contagions,” says U Penn’s Centola. “While Covid-19 is a simple contagion—one sick person can transmit the disease to many—prevention measures like wearing a face mask are complex contagions. If your friends are not wearing face masks, you are unlikely to be the only one who does. When it comes to spreading public health behaviors, nonadopters exert countervailing influences that increase a person’s resistance to behavior change. Leaders need to be attentive to countervailing influences. They challenge the legitimacy of an innovation and prevent people from accepting it.”

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