It's All Connected: How Unexpected Connections Drive Innovation

Whoever watches Manifest on Netflix knows the phrase "it's all connected", said everywhere in the show. And it really is true, because connections between things are what create new things. There's no shortage of products or services born from connections, from running groups that incorporate tourism, to a bag of Israeli snacks combining two flavors, to racing cars that use aircraft braking parachutes. One of the ways to generate innovation (which is really about creating value for your product) is to take a basic product that has a need, a market, and even lots of competitors, and find something that can connect to it to differentiate it from competitors and give value to users. For example: not everyone loves running. But if you take running and connect it to travel and vacations abroad, running becomes something else entirely. It's just the way to experience new places differently, but the real value is in tourism and travel, not just running. Apple Watch: the power of strategic connection Apple does this with its ecosystem in several places, but one of the most prominent is the Apple Watch. It's a successful watch not because it's the most technologically advanced (there are certainly more advanced ones), but because the value Apple embedded in it causes it to lead the competition. Apple took Nike as a strategic partner, a connection that somehow feels very natural. Through Nike, and then through its own Fitness service, Apple turned its watch into a mirror of the wearer's health: heart rate, step counter, mindfulness, hydration, handwashing reminders, and many more wellness-related services. All these connections created a new product: not a watch, but a health dashboard on your wrist. Nike itself started from a connection And Nike was the right partner to create connections, because Nike itself began from a connection between two completely unrelated things: track running and an American waffle iron. Bill Bowerman, one of Nike's founders, was a track coach at a college. One of the challenges he faced was that his runners didn't have shoes suitable for both the track and the road. He wanted them to train at home with the same shoes (track shoes had small spikes for grip). With that challenge sitting in his head, he was eating breakfast with his family when his wife made a waffle. Looking at the shape of the waffle iron mold, he realized the shape of the squares could replace the spikes in track shoes, and also allow running on the road. He used the waffle iron to create a mold, and that's how he made Nike's first running shoes, which are still produced inspired by the waffle device. Anyone who visits the Nike store on Barcelona's Rambla will see the track running shoe section's wall covered in waffle iron molds. So yes, it's all connected.