An entrepreneurial metaphor

I was excited to be part of a the Think Tomorrow Today conference put on by ThinkEquity (an investment banking firm) in Half Moon Bay, CA last week.  I was on a panel entitled "Managing Innovation" along with Mike McCue (CEO of TellMe, recently acquired by Microsoft) and Jonathan Rosenberg (SVP at Google) to talk about the challenges of driving innovation within organizations of all sizes.  All three of us commented that we have tried to preserve the innovative spirit in our companies that we had when we were smaller--perhaps a hidden message to the smaller companies out there that there is no time like the present to push the envelope by innovating?

During our hour long conversation we kicked around a few metaphors for innovation, and how it differs from invention or idea-generation.  The one I liked best contrasted the easiness of coming up with ideas with the difficulty of nurturing those ideas into successful ventures.  Essentially, you can think of ideas as seeds.  If you've ever spent any time in a gardening store, you know that seeds are quite cheap.  You can get dozens of organic heirloom tomato seeds for $2.99.  But if you want to get a single seedling of the same variety, you'll pay the same price.  Go to the farmers market down the block in August (where you can choose from dozens of heirloom varieties) and you might very well pay $2.99 for a single tomato!  Full disclosure: to my wife's great amusement, for some reason I actually buy seeds to try and grow tomatoes from scratch over the winter, still buy tomato seedlings every spring (nine varieties this year in our garden!) and still buy several pounds of tomatoes at our farmer's market every week during tomato season. There is no rational explanation for this behavior.

Or consider Japanese maple trees.  I am especially fond of Japanese maples.  You can find beautiful specimens on almost every block where I live.  No owner objects to you collecting the seeds that come in little pods around this time of year.  However, if you want to buy a one year old tree of even the most common variety of Japanese maple (less than 12 inches tall), you'll pay $50.  If you want to buy a five foot high tree (about seven years old) you will pay between $500 and $2000.  Mature trees of eight or teen feet in height can cost between $15,000 and $25,000!

The difference between those tomato seeds in the little packet or collecting Japanese seed pods, and actually getting a perfect tomato plant or a stout Japanese maple; that is the difference between ideas and innovation.  Anybody can come up with ideas--they are not only a dime a dozen but, like the seeds, very difficult to get to the next level.  Deciding where to plant them, how to condition the soil, how much sun and water to give them, and giving them constant love and attention--that's the hard part.  That is innovation, and it's the major thing that entrepreneurs do.  It's also what we strive for every day at Homestead, and it's a fun and rewarding way to spend your professional life if you ask me.  It's also dirty, hard work, and takes a lot of patience before you see the rewards.  But trust me (and Mike from TellMe and Jonathan from Google), it's worth it.

In other words: it's not the idea, it's what you do with the idea that matters.  So get out your metaphorical gardening gloves and get dirty!

--jsk

Comments

[Ramon Ray]

Hmmm...ideas vs innovation...so true. Another thing revenue vs profits.

Ramon Ray, Editor and Technology Evangelist, Smallbiztechnology.com

Small Business Summit 2008....be there

[yaaser urbina]

i purchase a website (domain name) with homestead,i decide to cancel my website my hosting with homestead becouse they just dont offer mysql,and i told homestead to point my domain name to bluehost.com and they take more than 2 days which is something that should take 12 hr,i sent 1 message to the hosting support i receive a reply but with no answer if they did the point or not,after that i sent more than 8 e-mails and i had no answer at all,homestead.com is very inresponsable.

thanks
yasser urbina from miami florida

[Justin]

Yasser,
What email address are you using? We usually respond to all customer emails within 24 hours. Even better, our average wait time at 800.710.1998 is under two minutes, so please call us with your questions. Also, we do offer the ability to use MySQL databases now.
--jsk

[TAJ]

I have been with Homestead for over eight years. I use it for personal reasons, not business. I was dismayed to learn that Homestead recently renewed my membership with MY credit card (provided at last years renewal) "automatically". A simple request to have my credit information removed from my file was met with 'that's not possible, here is how you can cancel your membership, and oh, by the way, we don't do refunds - seeing as we just renewed your membership you might not want to cancel it just yet'. I guess I should wait until you automatically renew it again next year? I know in the past I have brought this issue up with homestead, and you have worked with me. It doesn't seem like an unreasonable request coming from a customer who has been with you for years. I shouldn't have to leave an open line of credit with Homestead to be a customer in good standing. I don't leave copies of my credit card at the gas station or grocery store I go to every week. I would appreciate if someone could take a look at this request. I really can't understand how a company can be okay with losing a loyal customer over something so simple - who has control over my credit card... I like Homestead, I have recommended Homestead to friends. I simply don't like having my credit card information sitting anywhere other than my wallet. This truly seems like a policy customers should be able to opt out of if it makes them uncomfortable, without having to cancel their membership.

[SB]

Sometimes, I feel that my dreams are so far out of reach. After reading your blog today, I am so encouraged! I will definitely continue working hard to see my seed/idea become a true reality.

Thanks for the metaphor - very inspiring!

Congratulations on the merger.

[Alan]

I am looking for a good hosting company. I find no place on your company site to email for questions. I have called the number listed which says you are open 6 to 8 Monday - Friday. It is after 6:15 PT and still no answer. I cannot find the prices for your service on your site. I see one price listed but when I Google your company name I find people saying you charge $20 a month for certain features which is about twice what they pay with other companies. If the company is an award winning company why is it so hard to get information and get someone to answer the phone during your posted hours. I am looking for good customer service and easy to find information and this is not a good start.

[Gardening Seeds]

I working with seeds near Half Moon California... thank you for the tip

[Gerald S]

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[fred]

I would like to cancel my membership. I am in the "free trial" stage and am very disappointed with the service thus far. Please advise as to how to cancel.
Thanks,

[Susan Pomerantz]

While I think it is rude to post stuff like this on a bog I cannot seem to make get this company to cancel a website I never used. At this point I have stopped your access to my credit card. Since I have been notifying this company for the past several months that I want to end this project, I would like every cent back that you have billed to me because I am about to proceed with making a report about internet fraud.