Peer to Peer Magazine

Summer 2019: Part 1

The quarterly publication of the International Legal Technology Association

Issue link: https://epubs.iltanet.org/i/1136335

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50 I founded my own business (a modern parenting community called Tantrum) that got tens of thousands of users, contracts with international FMCG and hospitality brands and coverage in national media. The business failed. This was perhaps a strange position to be in given my background. I'd invested in a portfolio of startups that multiplied my investment 18x. I'd been a director on the board of the most successful ones. I'd been involved with and mentored at accelerator programmes such as Y-Combinator and Techstars. I have a background in venture capital, private equity and engineering. The odds are of-course stacked heavily against new business initiatives but I'd hoped my background would tip the balance in my favour. It probably did a bit, just not enough. When the dust had settled I went back over my initial assumptions; the strategic choices I'd made; the steps I'd taken when executing the plans. What surprised me the most was that of the key errors I'd made - they were all things I'd been warned of, knew of or had read about in books and blogs. So why hadn't I heeded the warnings? - well in every case there had been a strong competing business reason to do otherwise. I had heard the warnings but hadn't understood their importance and had dismissed them too easily. Lessons From Failed Innovation Projects B Y B E N W Y N N E - S I M M O N S I now work with Fliplet as Head of Growth and find myself applying these lessons almost daily. Fliplet works with large enterprise clients, many of whom are innovation and IT teams at law firms. Fliplet's software helps them create and maintain apps. The apps created range hugely from event apps to key-client apps to training apps. While delivering an innovative technical solution is challenging we find that the way the solution is delivered can have as much if not greater impact on the success of the overall project. The following are some of the pitfalls we work hard to avoid with our clients. The business idea is good - just not good enough Ask any team member and they'll have a slew of good ideas of how to improve business efficiency. But these good ideas will meet a lot of friction. People are used to the old way of doing things, they're busy, they're not going to adopt new technologies unless it delivers clear business value. Good business ideas don't cut it. They need to be amazing to overcome the friction. A good yardstick is to assess how directly an idea grows revenue or reduces cost. If this is clear to everyone it'll get adopted quickly and flourish. Beware ideas that stray too far from this path. Incorrectly resourcing the team leading the innovation There's the obvious points that you need to have the right blend of skill sets, a keen understanding of the problem you're trying to solve and financial backing to deliver the project. The more subtle challenges occur when resources are 'borrowed' - e.g., IT staff are notionally assigned to the innovation team but their 'core' projects mean they're effectively unable to contribute to the 'sideline' innovation project or at least unable to do so in a timely manner - meaning progress grinds to a halt with long delays. If a team member is ultimately measured on their contribution to business-as-usual KPIs they will prioritise these over the more intangible benefits of innovation.

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