How We Think About Innovation at Cisco

No one doubts that the future belongs to the Internet of Things. Drones for refrigerators, widely planted, small medical devices, industrial robots, machines now with other devices, exchange data and communicate without human guidance, perform increasingly complex tasks. Gartner predicts there will be more connected than 6.4 million "everything" in use this year, and forecasts cover everything IO 21 billion in 2020 - nearly three for every human on the planet. In the manufacturing sector alone, IDC intelligence firm expects the market to grow to about 100 billion $ for IO in 2018, five years annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18% combined.

All these changes are new technologies that enable faster, safer, need for machines to share data and processing the way. To keep the new standards, architecture and infrastructure will have to develop at the same speed. The question is how to cope with Cisco and other companies to do this - how to speed up the process of innovation, especially technological change threatens to upend our current business model.

At Cisco, we are learning to answer these questions through three initiatives to expand our base of knowledge bringing together multiple perspectives: embracing diversity within our walls; reach across industries; and creating alliances with former (and current) competitors.

Internal diversity

A study of 2013 found that companies with a diverse workforce - both culturally and in terms of professional experience -. "Out innovate and outperform other employees of these companies are 45% more likely to report that the quota market business grew over the previous year and 70% more likely to report that the company captured a new market. "This makes intuitive sense (new ideas come from fresh faces), so in Cisco, have tried to bring together people from different backgrounds, education and geographic origins of new avenues of opportunity.

We find that innovation is derived from the dynamic created by putting people with different backgrounds together; that arises naturally from the tensions that exist between the opposing needs. For example, if some players within a team tend to be risk averse (ie managers of corporate risks) and others not (a group of innovation), incorporating input from risk managers' produce more innovative and viable ideas if the group had not had to synthesize opposing views.

Experts from outside industries

Including experts from other industries - especially the most different - can offer the same benefits to solve problems. For example, we recently hired a high-end watchmaking industry experts to help us develop a program for customers in emerging markets. We had some of the new generation as it would be to improve some of the markets that have long desired products, but we believe our latest products too expensive. Development of new markets for the inventory of unsold and become a specialty at many luxury goods business, so it was natural for us to be in this section for its expertise in the area.

In this case, an adaptation of solutions for customers in specific geographic areas Cisco was new. If you do, - even the concept of do - need to think outside of our walls.

Partnerships with outside organizations

We believe that cooperation is one of the best ways to spread the knowledge of a company. To advance the development of computer technology in May and architecture, Cisco, Microsoft, Ericsson and other major players cooperate, fog consortium.

In this project Ledger, IBM, Intel, Cisco, and others have come together to explore new business opportunities for Blockchain - A dynamic transactions executed first transfer of the Bitcoin development and registration of credit bureau - which can allowing anyone to share anything that carries value (stocks, bonds, mortgages, as the car) safe, reliable, transparent and automatic. This technology can be costly intermediaries, and close loopholes that allow gambling operator systems eliminate.

Associated with bringing many minds to the table, opening up new sources of investment partnerships. A company does not have to pour resources into creating a new idea (while diverting capital and the core revenue generator). Investment that can be used for prototyping, pilot, and building preservation, while the initial investment in the idea or technology to be shared. In fact, for some partners to provide some resources are less expensive than others. Hardware manufacturer can provide computing power easier than others, and a bank can actual data (anonymous) deal to "Sandbox" provide for development. Even companies such as brokerage and financial services institutions Blockchain can be disrupted, you may want to ensure your communication partner for the future.

As business continues to disrupt industrial digitization on many fronts, a separate internal approach to innovation is increasingly sub-optimal and impractical. At the same time, the opportunities presented by new technologies such as the Internet of Things are huge - if the development strategy that embraces diversity, industrial crossing in foreign expertise and experience, and recruiting new partners close .