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.He could tell that the customers were regulars and that theespresso bar offered comfort, community, and a sense of extendedfamily. As Schultz continued visiting Italian espresso bars, he hada revelation. This is so powerful! I thought.What we had to dowas unlock the romance and mystery of coffee, firsthand, in cof-fee bars.It was like an epiphany.It seemed so obvious, recalledSchultz. If we could recreate in America the authentic Italian cof-fee bar culture, it might resonate with other Americans the way itdid with me. 4 100092 04 089-112 r1 go.qxp 5/13/11 9:59 AM Page 107107ObservingSchultz stayed in Milan for about a week, visiting espresso barsjust to observe.He then visited Verona where, losing himself in thestreets of the city, he tasted café latte for the first time (he observeda customer order a café latte and, having never before heard of thedrink, imitated the customer to see what it was). Of all the coffeeexperts I had met, none had ever mentioned this drink.No one inAmerica knows about this, I thought.I ve got to take it back withme, he recalls.How many executives are willing, on a whim, to just take aweek getting lost every day in an exploratory journey to observesomething of interest and to see where the journey takes them?Without a willingness to actively observe in a new environment,Schultz would never have come up with the ideas that led to Star-bucks s innovative coffee-retailing experience.Not surprisingly, our research found that innovators were morelikely to visit new environments, including traveling to new coun-tries, visiting different companies, attending unusual conferences,or just visiting museums or other interesting places.A.G.Lafley,for example, told us what he learned from his regional assignmentin Asia long before becoming CEO of P&G:Every time I traveled to China, I always went to stores towatch people purchasing our products.Then I went intohomes.I always went in the evening because the womanalmost always works outside the home.My routine wasstores, homes, then the office.It gave me a current snap-shot of what was going on.Of course, you can t generalizefrom a single qualitative experience, but over five years ofdoing this regularly, those experiences add up, combinedwith reading whatever you have access to, as well as the harder data.You develop a feel.You become more of ananthropologist because you can t understand the lan-guage.Your power is observation, your listening skills; 100092 04 089-112 r1 go.qxp 5/13/11 9:59 AM Page 108108DISRUPTIVE INNOVATION STARTS WITH YOUyour ability to read nonverbal cues gets a lot better.Yourability to observe increases.There are so many subtlethings to read, understand, react to in a foreign country.After returning to the U.S.P&G headquarters, he noticed how easyit was to get lazy because everyone speaks English you knowwhat they re going to say and do next. Innovators don t have to go to foreign countries for an im-mersion experience in a new environment.There is much to belearned by exploring exhibits, museums, zoos, aquariums, and na-ture.At Daimler, Dieter Gürtler, one of the company s top engi-neers, directed a team that focused on building a new aerodynamicconcept car.To generate new ideas, he took the team members toa local museum of natural history to watch fish for a day.Theywere in search of insights that could break the automobile indus-try s assumptions about aerodynamics and found a surprising so-lution in the boxfish.Through direct observation of the fish, aswell as conversation with the fish experts, his team worked onmimicking the size and skeletal structure of the boxfish.Ulti-mately, they produced a concept car that delivered unexpected re-ductions in weight as well as significant reductions in air drag.AsGürtler put it, By looking at nature, you come up with ideas youcould never have thought of on your own. 5Of course, it isn t always possible to put yourself in a new en-vironment.Fortunately, a rich source for new ideas often residesright around us in the familiar world of people and places that wethink we know well.The problem is that we sometimes miss theobvious new idea in the most obvious of places because we takethings for granted and, as a result, we miss opportunities for in-novation.As book and New York Times writer Peter Leschak haslamented, All of us are watchers of television, of time clocks, oftraffic on the freeway but few are observers.Everyone is looking, 100092 04 089-112 r1 go.qxp 5/13/11 9:59 AM Page 109109Observingnot many are seeing. 6 Acting on autopilot in everyday life auto-matically starves the brain s creative capacity.Observation has the power to transform companies and indus-tries.As Cook told us, Basic observation is the big game changer inour company. Effective observation requires putting yourself in newenvironments.It involves watching customers to see what productsand services they hire to help them do their jobs.It involves lookingfor workarounds partial or incomplete solutions that customersuse to do those jobs.And it involves looking for surprises or anom-alies that might provide surprising insights.As observers identifyworkarounds and anomalies, and dig deep to understand them, theyincrease their odds of uncovering an innovative solution to the prob-lems they observe.We encourage you to develop and hone your ob-servation skills and, in so doing, discover how they can be a gamechanger for you and your company.Tips for Developing Observation SkillsTip #1: Observe customersHone and sharpen your observing skills by scheduling regularobservation excursions to carefully watch how certain customersexperience your product or service.(This could be done in fifteen-to thirty-minute increments).Observe real people in real-life sit-uations.Try to grasp what they like and hate.Search for things thatmake life easier or more difficult for them.What job are they try-ing to get done? Which of their functional, social, or emotionalneeds is your product or service not meeting? What is surprisingabout their behavior and different than expected? Ask the tenquestions we suggested earlier in the chapter.In short, become ananthropologist and intensely observe a customer or a potentialcustomer to experience an entire product or service life cycle. 100092 04 089-112 r1 go.qxp 5/13/11 9:59 AM Page 110110DISRUPTIVE INNOVATION STARTS WITH YOUTip #2: Observe companiesPick a company to observe and follow.Maybe it is a companyyou admire such as Apple, Google, or Virgin.It could be a start-upwith an innovative business model or disruptive technology.Or itcould be a particularly tough, innovative competitor.Treat thecompany as you would a business school case.Find out everythingyou can about what the company does and how it does it.If pos-sible, figure out a way to schedule a visit to the company andexamine firsthand its strategy, operations, and products to lookfor cross-pollination opportunities.As you learn new things aboutit, ask: Are there any ideas that could be transferred, with someadaptation, to our company or industry? How is this strategy, tac-tic, or activity relevant to my job, my company, my life? Are thereideas here for a new who, what, or how in my industry? Tip #3: Observe whatever strikes your fancySet aside ten minutes each day to simply observe something in-tensively.Take careful notes about your observations.Then try tofigure out how what you are seeing might lead to a new strategy,product, service, or production process.When you are out andabout watching the world, jot down your key observations andthoughts on a notepad, and review your notes later, after a littletime has passed
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