Technically speaking, we are still in the pre-launch phase. However, Innoventures is marching forward in full swing. We are engaged with Softtek associates – also our customers, we are building our community – connecting our sales proposition directly with customers and stakeholders, fostering innovation – generating a rolling business plan for Innoventures - it seems that we are on a roll!
While our initiatives or ventures we invest in will follow the lean startup model, we also subscribe to the same principles ourselves. We are experimenting – we are figuring out what will work and what will perhaps not be so great. We are engaged with our customers – Softtek associates - and in real time, we are creating our evolving business model.
The lean method, first presented by Eric Ries, begins with the premise that a young company should quickly realize the value and monetizing capacity of an idea. While old fashioned businesses typically started with a business plan, that was written and re-written with the help of mentors, advisors, funding sources, and entrepreneurs themselves, the lean method subscribes to the notion that the market should dictate how a business should form.
The idea is rather simple. As Eric Reis best said it himself, “if you don’t have a discrete hypothesis you are incapable of failing.” Another result of the Lean Movement is the need to ‘fail fast’ – if a business is not meant to be, the sooner it pivots or re-channels efforts, the higher the chances of eventual success.
A young initiative starts with an idea. The company tests the idea with customers through a clear customer acquisition strategy. Instead of using surveys, which often yield in incorrect results, the business is ‘delivered’ directly to paying customers. A prototype is developed, again based on customer feedback, and perfected through customers. The process of experimenting with customers results in a business that lasts.
Innoventures started with the same notion. Instead of creating a long drawn business plan, that may or may not succeed in the Softtek environment, we drew up some basic premises and threw ourselves in action. We have internal and external websites, a Softtek community group on Yammer, and of course, the usual social media sites. We also connect with Gust, which helps us with managing initiative ideas. Right from the start, we are eager to deliver our value through morphing and maturing our basic concepts on how Innoventures should be set up.
Marching forward, we will remain lean and agile. We will also be unrelentingly mean in our pursuit of innovation. Our journey at Softtek will be an experiment, where we transfigure ourselves over and over again only to deliver on the intent of our existence – innovation and execution.
