Ninja Innovation

First Is Not Always Best

TECHNOLOGY, AND ESPECIALLY CONSUMER ELECTRONICS, IS A CURIOUS beast. Its primary purpose is to make our lives, our jobs, and our civilization perform more efficiently, with fewer delays from idea to execution. Technology like mobile phones, tablets, DVRs, and GPS navigation units have revolutionized our daily lives. Activities that once took a long time to do—talking on the phone, waiting for dial-up Internet, recording TV programs, or finding directions with a map—now take less time. In an ideal world, the time we save should enable us to do even more productive activities. Of course, the reality is something else entirely. As many employees have surely discovered, because information delivery and access is near instantaneous, more is expected of us than ever before. All that supposed free time is now consumed with even more work.

But that’s a discussion for another book.

The flip side to the instant-gratification nature of our gadgets is that every one of them took a long time to produce. Usually years, but sometimes decades. The ninja innovators credited with either their invention or their mass distribution (not always the same person or company) spent thousands of hours planning, strategizing about, and marketing a product so that it could pass the many hurdles to hit our homes or offices. In other words, the instant gratification these gadgets engender do not serve their creators well. A ninja innovator must be patient, deliberate, disciplined, and—perhaps most of all—fully prepared to meet the enemies that will surely array against him in the field of battle.

I’ve mentioned before that inventing a product or just being first to market does not guarantee success. In fact, that’s usually where your problems start. Take the first company to introduce a tablet PC—Microsoft. In 2000, Bill Gates personally introduced a tablet PC prototype, which relied heavily on handwriting-recognition software, even though he said the product would not be ready for market for another two years.1 At the time, we must remember, digital devices that used handwriting, such as the Palm personal digital assistant (PDA), were quite the rage. It made sense to create a hybrid Palm-PC that could perform a variety of functions.

As a source at Microsoft told PCWorld at the time: “We don’t believe users want another companion device. They want the same functionality as they get from a notebook computer.”2 A year later, Gates was even more bullish on the PC tablet: “The Tablet is a PC that is virtually without limits—and within five years I predict it will be the most popular form of PC sold in America.”3

Over the next few years, Microsoft would partner with PC makers—Compaq and Lenovo, specifically—trying to create demand for tablet PCs. But it wasn’t catching on. The devices that did come to market were expensive—upwards of $500—and with their focus on handwriting recognition and day-planning software, they were geared toward a business market. Mainstream consumers, who didn’t see the value of being able to handwrite on a screen electronically, opted to continue buying laptops that met both their portability and personal-computing needs much better that Microsoft’s various tablets.

Finally, in spring 2010, Microsoft canceled development on its latest tablet product, Courier, which was going to have two screens and open and close like a book. Not coincidentally, that was around the same time that Apple released the iPad, which sold more than three million units on its first day. Suddenly, it seemed that everyone was crazy about tablet PCs. So where did Microsoft go wrong?

It would take more time than we have to answer that question in full. Let me just posit that Microsoft, as ahead of its time as it was, missed the mark because the technology that consumers wanted just wasn’t there. Or, to put it another way, Microsoft’s tablets relied on handwriting-recognition software because that’s what the technology allowed, but it wasn’t what consumers wanted. Instead of learning what consumers wanted, which was an even smaller, sleeker, fully operational PC, Microsoft went ahead and guessed. It guessed wrong.

Apple, however, was prepared for battle. It saw Microsoft’s struggle with the tablet PC. It could have concluded that it would be a waste of time to try its hand at the market, given Microsoft’s problems. But Apple also saw the runaway success of its iPhone as a signal to what consumers really wanted. While Microsoft created a product that was more or less a glorified version of the Palm PDA, Apple decided to make an enhanced version of the iPhone—without the phone functionality of course.

The ninja lesson is simple: Forcing a product on the market is never a good idea. A ninja must understand the lay of the land completely if he hopes to achieve success. That takes meticulous upfront planning to understand: (1) what consumers want; (2) if the technology can meet that desire; and (3) that sometimes you just have to wait for 1 and 2 to come together. It’s that last point that trips up a lot of companies. If you have the idea, and if the technology is kind of there, why wait for a competitor to get there first? Microsoft’s adventure with the tablet PC is Exhibit A. Impatience is not a good attribute for the ninja innovator.

There Is No Quick and Easy Path

ONE OF THE UNFORTUNATE CONSEQUENCES OF OUR TECHNOLOGY revolution is that the concept of delayed gratification is ever more elusive, particularly among our children. Not so long ago children had to create their own imaginary worlds to act out. Nowadays, they simply plug in and, as the saying goes, tune out. Entertainment is no farther away than the television.

A now-famous study conducted in the late 1960s revealed the benefits of delayed gratification. In what became known as the “Stanford marshmallow experiment,” four-year-olds were each given one marshmallow but told that if they waited fifteen to twenty minutes to eat the first marshmallow, they would receive a second one as well. Follow-up research found that the children who were able to delay gratification scored better on the college-entry Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) than the children who had been unable to resist immediately eating the single treat.4

The children who were able to delay gratification would have grown up to make good ninjas. The ability to put off satisfaction, which can also be called patience, is key to a ninja’s success. Closely related to the discipline of patience is the maturity to use your time wisely to gather information about yourself and the world in which you’re operating. To succeed, you must mentally steel yourself for the trials ahead. You must observe, study, and analyze the field.

Being married to a doctor, I know firsthand how doctors sacrifice and delay gratification their entire lives. They spend about a third of their life going through the process of learning and preparing—college, medical school, residency, internship, and fellowship—before they are established as medical specialists and can start practicing on their own. Countless hours of study, financial investment, and sacrificing socializing time all eventually pay off. Doctors—and their loved ones—understand delayed gratification.

My in-laws, both of whom are doctors, know the value of patience better than most. They suffered through World War II, the Holocaust, and Communism to become doctors in their native Poland. When they escaped to the United States, they had to learn English and retake the medical boards in the mid-1960s. They worked long hours, lived a very modest life. Now, in retirement, they receive gratification from all that they accomplished and their daughter’s stellar career as a top retina surgeon.

Delayed gratification is a particularly challenging lesson to teach your children. As parents we struggle with how to raise confident, healthy children. I suggest this is best accomplished by requiring children to work for much of what they get, regardless of whether the parents are able to afford for the children not to work. This cuts against the more natural instinct of sharing your success with your children and shielding them from any harm or bad feelings. But teaching them to delay gratification and invest in their own success will prepare them for ninjahood.

Becoming a ninja is in its own way one long exercise in delayed gratification. Becoming a black belt in tae kwon do requires investing thousands of hours in rigorous exercise, practicing routines, and learning self-discipline. Show me an accomplished student of martial arts, and I’ll show you someone who knows all about delayed gratification.

Similarly, show me a successful CEO, and I will show you someone who has endured, sacrificed, studied, and worked hard to achieve his or her post. Even those who inherit a family dynasty are most successful when they are required to invest in themselves before rising to prominence in the business. Professional athletes aren’t the only ones who benefit from rigorous training; we all do, whether we’re artists, businessmen, or even bureaucrats.

Many companies have even made delayed gratification part of their successful branding and marketing strategies. Apple is probably the best recent example of this skill. The company has found great success in essentially teasing its customers with product launches. The day after Apple unveils its latest iPhone model, tech geeks start speculating about when the next model will come out and what new features it will include. The anticipation drives some people crazy (literally, in my opinion, judging by the lines that begin outside an Apple store days before a product launch), but it also makes the reveal, when it finally comes, even more spectacular.

Apple does this very well now, but they didn’t invent the idea. For decades, technology companies have employed similar strategies by waiting to unveil their newest products and concepts at the International CES. They realize there is a significant benefit to waiting for CES, when the eyes of the world are on the industry and they can truly show off. This has been especially true with the rise of new media, where boundless websites and blogs nurture our obsessions with gadgetry and innovation.

But the concept of delayed gratification goes much farther than just delaying a product launch until the right moment. It’s more than just sitting on your hands and waiting for the right time; it’s about recognizing the value in taking your time and using it to gather information, learn, grow, adapt, and prepare for the next steps you’ll take, whether personally or professionally. Don’t think for a moment, for example, that Apple is merely teasing its loyal customers with long waits for the next model. The company, like any that employs these strategies, pays attention to the speculation and uses the time to gather information about consumers’ desires and expectations. The end result is a product that meets users’ needs better.

The story I shared earlier about the creation of HDTV is a great example of this concept. While the Japanese rushed to get HDTV out quickly, the United States took its time—nearly twenty years—to gather intelligence, review dozens of concepts, and analyze the ideas being proposed to bring HDTV to American viewers. And when last-minute information came in to challenge the course we’d taken, we took the time to go back to the drawing board and reevaluate our course. The Japanese may have had it first, but we had it best. In the end, they ended up recalling their analog HDTVs when the digital standard embraced by the committee proved to be superior. (The Europeans, as I noted, are a good example of waiting too long to move forward on an idea and failing to use the intervening time productively.)

Know Your Terrain

THE PRIMARY ROLE OF THE FIRST NINJAS OF FEUDAL JAPAN WAS TO be spies. The warlord would send ninjas to gather as much information (intelligence) as they could on the enemy to gauge strengths and weaknesses. In popular culture, the ninja employs the techniques of disguise and infiltration as a way to assassinate his opponent. But there is little evidence that proves that ninjas actually carried out assassinations. Rather, research shows ninjas developed these techniques so that they could gather intelligence. A contemporary document at the time said: “Concerning ninjas, they were said to be from Iga and Kôga, and went freely into enemy castles in secret. They observed hidden things, and were taken as being friends.”5

Then as now, the ninja is always gathering information.

My job requires me to attend lots of lunches and dinners, where I’m usually seated with people I don’t know very well. As part of my own ongoing information-gathering mission, I always challenge myself to learn something from the people with whom I am seated. It’s almost a mental game I play—but one that is rewarding. Almost everyone is an expert at something, and chances are the other person is proficient in something you’re not. Delving into another person’s knowledge is a strategy I employ that offers me the reward of insight. For the ninja innovator, you never know when a casual conversation will lead to learning an important piece of information or about a future opportunity.

This requires real conversation, which necessitates a lot of active listening. This means not just mentally waiting to say your piece after the other person has finished speaking; it calls for thinking about what the other person is saying and asking a relevant follow-up question. One simple way to ensure you’re listening actively is to restate what the person told you, to show that you were engaged and make sure you understand what they were saying. Active listening helps avoid confusion and misunderstanding and can help make any exchange more meaningful.

Doctors must be especially good at this kind of skilled information gathering. I’ve learned to share as much information as possible with my doctors. As experts who’ve invested the time in learning about the various functions (and failures) of the human body, doctors who are good intelligence gatherers will know which information is worthwhile and what is just the ramblings of a sick patient.

In my own career, I’ve come to learn that the same thing is true for most professions. Even if you’re in a position of real or perceived authority, there are good reasons to listen more than you speak. For starters, you learn more. If you only talk, you never learn anything from other people. The old saw about having two ears and one mouth, and using them proportionally, is simply good advice.

The maxim about listening is especially true in sales. While the stereotype of a salesperson may be a fast-talking pitchman armed with an answer to every objection, the most effective salespeople are those who take the time to listen and understand what the prospect needs, what challenges they have, and how the salesperson can provide a solution to the unique situation and problems of the prospect.

The same is true in job interviews. While good interviewers are excellent listeners, an employer (speaking from experience here) will have a more favorable impression of a candidate if the conversation time is more balanced than a simple one-way question-and-answer session. Many people in power positions are more impressed if the candidate can get the interviewer talking as well. It shows inquisitiveness, initiative, and a certain amount of boldness.

For example, our better U.S. presidents, in modern times at least, have all been great listeners. As each of them works a room it becomes evident that they spend a lot more time listening than they do talking. They know how to interview for a job. The vast majority of successful political leaders are good listeners, because they have to be. Voters want to feel respected and understood.

But not all politicians care about listening. One that immediately springs to mind is a former presidential candidate who has a brilliant political mind but always feels the need to prove that he is the smartest man in the room. During every encounter I have had with him he has been content to pontificate on the issue at hand, not seeming to care much about anyone else’s opinion. I have had many bad experiences with another certain congressman who also is a nonlistener—more, he is rude about it. I have testified before him several times. Most times he has been talking to someone else, reading a paper, or working on his BlackBerry—even when he was chairing the subcommittee that called me to testify. His arrogance was palpable and disconcerting to me and the other witnesses. By comparison, almost all the other members of Congress sitting on the same subcommittee would listen carefully to the testimony of both sides on an issue.

Being a good listener is just the first step to being a good conversationalist. The second step is knowing what to talk about. Eleanor Roosevelt said it well: “Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.” Not every conversation can or should be about ideas. But “idea” conversations are the most provoking, meaningful, and productive. They permit insights into the other person and their thoughts. Every business, every invention, every improvement, started with an idea—and probably a discussion (or two, or ten, or a hundred) about it. Discussing ideas can catalyze growth, create energy, and establish a bond among the participants, who can leave a conversation knowing they shared something important.

Any conversation is really managed by the person asking the questions. It should never be an interrogation (unless it is), but polite questioning can reveal that person’s thinking or elicit information you wouldn’t have known otherwise. As the president of CEA, I do a fair bit of interviewing of leading government officials and businessmen onstage before large groups of people. I find the questions I ask at the dinner events I mentioned earlier are the same ones I ask onstage at events like the International CES.

My technique is to simply ask questions and follow up the answers with questions telescoping further into promising areas. How’s business? What keeps you awake at night? Where do you think you/your business will be next year at this time? What excites you? How did you start the business? How did you meet your spouse? How did you propose? Tell me about your family. What was your first job? Where would you invest? What are areas for growth? What advice would you give to someone starting out in your industry? What’s your business philosophy? Any answer to a question that is incomplete or expresses feelings is an opportunity for a follow-up “why” question. Why were you frustrated? Why was it important to you? Why did you leave (the job, situation, location)?

Notice that none of these questions can be answered with a yes or no. All require some thought and an explanation, and they are all applicable to virtually any person. It’s not just about professionals, either. It’s about life experiences and hobbies. By asking such questions of my professional colleagues and acquaintances, I have learned about mountain climbing, fishing, stamp collecting, dog shows, and investing.

A simple conversation with any random person is an opportunity to engage another human, learn more, and expand your knowledge base. Listen carefully to the words they use. Words make statements about a person’s upbringing, culture, and values. Bad grammar is a fair indication of education and upbringing. Cursing frequently reflects a lack of control, concern, culture, or all three. Using big words when little ones would work fine tells me the person lacks confidence but wants to appear smart.

Using these seemingly simple techniques helps me learn and grow. Finding opportunities for personal and professional growth in unexpected places is a ninja quality. While they’re patiently delaying satisfaction, they’re doing more than just waiting for a windfall. Ninjas watch and observe. They listen and learn to figure out what is really happening, and what they need to know and do to be smarter and more efficient.

Delayed Gratification in Public Policy

WHILE NINJAS ARE EXPERTS AT DELAYING GRATIFICATION AND using the intervening time wisely, society in general is horrible at it. We are an instant-gratification society, and I’ll be the first to admit at least some of this is reinforced by the innovations made in the CE industry—all kinds of entertainment on demand, online shopping with free next-day shipping, etc. While this can be good for the economy, it’s harmful in the realm of public policy. The consumers who demand instant gratification are also voters who demand instant gratification, so policy solutions tend to put a Band-Aid on our problems rather than fix them for the long term. Look at our own government for some examples of this. We refuse to address the serious problems facing entitlements, for example, because the best solutions are not immediate solutions.

Visiting India recently, I stayed in a magnificent hotel in the buzzing business center of New Delhi and journeyed by bus to Agra to appreciate the glory of the Taj Mahal. I was not disappointed by the world wonder, but the four-hour road trip each way left a deep impression. While the road itself was fine, the going was laborious. Animals, overcrowded jitneys, and even political demonstrations slowed and often stopped traffic. More, I kept waiting to get out of the “bad” area. Extreme poverty defined each kilometer without a break. Malnourished children were everywhere. Garbage lined the road. Plumbing and running water were rare, and the air was dirty from ubiquitous two-cycle engines. Electricity was sporadic at best. Life is tough in India, and survival is a daily challenge for many.

For India, the road to prosperity is long, and it is clearly based on education and innovation. The country has made a national commitment to taking the hard road, in the knowledge that investing time and resources in education will build a strong foundation for broader economic growth and prosperity.

As a result, India is now home to some of the world’s most highly respected universities. There is an Indian joke that students who fail to get into the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) settle and go to their “safety school”—the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The truth is that Indians rely on education, as both an export and a strategy for growing their economy.

The United States also benefits from many highly trained Indians who emigrate to America for a better life. While an increasing number of Indian-Americans are born in America, many still emigrate here. In 2011, more than 69,000 Indian men and women obtained legal permanent resident status in the United States,6 and the trend has been upward in the last decade—in conjunction with the technology boom.7 Vivek Wadhwa, a technology entrepreneur and distinguished academic who studies entrepreneurial trends, estimates that more than 15 percent of Silicon Valley IT companies launched in recent years have been started by Indian immigrants.8

And now, homegrown Indian tech start-ups are beginning to threaten U.S. companies. Indian outsourcers are “performing sophisticated research and development,” according to Wadhwa. “Today, Indian engineers design aircraft engines, automotive components and manufacturing plants, next-generation microprocessors, telecom products, and medical devices. Indian I.T. has grown from almost nothing in 1980 to an estimated $88 billion in revenue in 2011 according to Indian I.T. trade group, NASSCOM.”9

You can visit any top-tier science class, read any American medical journal, or even watch the finals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee and see that America is benefitting from the Indian educational system, culture, and work ethic. Educated Indians help both India and the United States. Unfortunately for us, while many educated Indians emigrate to the United States, restrictive American immigration laws combined with a fast-growing economy and lower cost of living in India are making it less attractive for them to do so.

While India’s growth has helped grow the world economy alongside the other three BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, and China), it is taking some turns away from the free market that are impeding its success. For one, it is flirting with protectionism. In 2012, it toyed with the idea of restricting government telecommunications procurements to products made in India. While this may have boosted Indian manufacturing jobs and the local industry in the short term, it could restrict competition—forcing a higher price on lower-quality products. More, in the long term, it encourages other countries to impose similar requirements and raises barriers to trade. As India is a low-cost producer of products, an antitrade policy is not helpful for promoting exports or national economic growth. Fortunately, the government backed away from the idea.10

More, India has invested poorly in infrastructure. A basic role of government is to ensure clean water and air, and encourage investment in electricity and roads. India suffers from a lack of capital investment. India’s size and growth make it attractive for investment, but its infrastructure obstacles discourage it. The temptation is to employ quick fixes, but if India can resist those temptations and continue to focus on patiently investing time and resources in real, solid growth, the final payoff will be so much better.

That said, India appreciates the value of knowledge and information, and it is reversing its historic legacy of being an impoverished country. It isn’t any secret why Indians are sought-after workers for U.S. tech firms: It’s because they have the requisite training and education (spurred by a national strategy) to do the work that is required. Meanwhile, America’s K–12 education system falls further into decay.

The Patience Payoff

THE 1984 MOVIE The Karate Kid (YOU KNEW THIS WOULD COME UP, didn’t you?) features a great example of how patience, perseverance, and delayed gratification prepare the ninja for battle. In the film, the protagonist, Daniel, wants to learn martial arts so he can protect himself from bullies. More, he wants to learn right now. But his teacher, the wise Mr. Miyagi, puts off Daniel’s training. The famous “wax on, wax off” scenes show Daniel growing increasingly frustrated by the wait in his training while he is forced to perform seemingly irrelevant chores. But it all serves a purpose, as Daniel learns discipline, respect, and training techniques that serve him well later when those skills are put to the test.

The same payoff applies to modern ninja innovators who learn this important skill. Exercising patience is not only good for the project at hand, but it also trains and hones the information-gathering and analytical skills that come in handy when crisis hits. For ninjas, exercising discipline at all times meant less stress and less chance of mistakes in the execution of a dangerous mission. Using their “downtime” to train and gather information equipped them with a second-nature response to scan the environment and consider the possibilities.

Companies, industries, and governments should also scan the environment and be prepared for something that could devastate them. Seemingly minor decisions can have big consequences. Small problems can become big ones if not countered. Failure to respond quickly (and know how to respond) when you’re attacked can be deadly.

Being fully prepared not only improves your work, but it also builds character and makes success worthwhile. In order to truly appreciate something, you have to earn it. The disciplines of patience, listening, information gathering, and education may seem unrelated at first glance, but in truth they work together to develop some of the key qualities of being a ninja, and a ninja innovator.