TGGD#10: The Role and Importance of Innovation in a Tough Economy

This is a guest post by Connie Crosby.

Our speaker/facilitator for the evening was Candice Faktor, Managing Director, Corporate Development and Innovation, TorStar Digital. Most recently, Candice was promoted to Managing Director, Corporate Development and Innovation where she is charged with fuelling innovation in the company and exploring acquisitions and partnerships to drive Torstar Digital's growth and leadership in the industry. Candice was instrumental in the 2005 creation of Torstar Digital. Prior to this, Candice held the role of GM, toronto.com, one of Torstar Digital's most prominent and trafficked consumer websites. She also played a key role in the foundation of several start-up ventures and partnerships including Olive Canada Network, which has become one of Canada's most successful premium online ad networks.

Candice led us through some discussion, and gave us some solid examples both from her own experience and from other industries while inviting us to share our own experience. This session very much picked up where TGGD #9 roundtable in December left off.

We started off with a quick review of what people consider innovation to be, and then Candice took us through a warm-up exercise. Each table was given a regular drinking straw, and everyone was invited to share an innovative idea of what they could do with that straw. Ideas ranged the gamut from blowing bubbles to making an earring to learning how to circle breathe (something I had never heard of!). This showed us that, even with constraints, one can be very creative, and sometimes those constraints can even drive innovation.

She then took us through some stories of innovation during times of constraint. Among the stories that emerged:

• how her Torstar Digital endeavour was originally a minor player at Toronto Star, there were just two of them in a small office with barely any budget or readership, and over time they have found ways to make it a major part of the organization;
• the use of Open Source is rising as organizations seek alternatives to expensive systems;
• the Cheap Eats series of books came about when Alexa Clark left her job and was trying to find a project to do for 3-4 months until she found something else. Today it is a growing series of publications.
  

The last recession was in 2001; what emerged in 2001?

• Google
• first iPod in Oct 2001 - we had CD players and small mp3 players that held about 100 songs. It was a huge leap for Apple - 1000 songs and beautiful design. There was no clear leader in music player industry. 19 product innovations since the launch. They kept investing in the product. 2008 the iPod was apple's top product, not their computers.
• Napster - 99 cents for a song - closed down in 2001 but left a mark on how we buy music
  

In times of cut-backs, you still have to invest in innovation. For example, Toronto.com was created in 2000; in 2001 they cut everything e.g. the link with the prominent Citysearch website in the U.S., and put it under newspaper leadership who did not understand. They have been playing catch up ever since. Meanwhile, for Workopolis which was also created in 2000, they kept investing. It is now the top Canadian job search site; US competitors have left the market.

What does it mean to be in technology and digital media today? The group seemed to agree things are different today than in past recessions:

• people can take things online, build podcasts and blogs online, take part in the market conversation
• investment still needs to be made in the projects
• Apple - now iTunes and app store are innovative ways to bring in money, even if they do not sell new iPods and computers
• people may go to the web because they are desperate but don't necessarily understand it; the ones who do it well will stand out
• a lot of things are challenging conventional wisdom; the difficulty is figuring out whether you will get it right
  

Is it a good time to be in tech/digital media?

• yes, as far as setting the groundwork, but money is not good at this time
• transform or die - things are not going back - digital and technology are helping businesses to transform. It is a good time to be helping businesses transform.
  

According to industry statistics, only digital and gaming are growing (digital = Internet media and digital formats of traditional media eg. Tv, mobile)

Challenges we are facing:

• people want more for less - how can you offer more without spending money?
• organizations are behind the times
• companies don't understand that they have to innovate to get ahead
• the expectation that everything is free (how do you bring in an income without breaking the trust you have built with your clients or audience?)
• finding a viable business model
• access to capital; currently there is little or no venture capital (VC) available, especially in Canada where the market is small
• traditional communications on their own are no longer working; how do you use a mix between traditional and new communications; how do you bridge that gap and find the right balance?
• gaining access to the right people (people senior enough, for example) to show them innovative ideas and have them acted upon so your ideas will really make a difference
• FEAR: it can be paralyzing; how do you move beyond fear of uncertainty, cut-backs, and the unknown? Defensiveness starts to kick in as a result of fear.
  

We came away from the evening with a sense of optimism and potential for the future. From the enthusiasm in the room, I also sense a feeling that people want to really find ways to support each other beyond just talking once a month at meetings. We seem to be gelling into a real community.

Thank you to our generous sponsor for the evening, FITC Conferences, providing conferences for those who work in the new media development and design field. All in attendance are being offered free admission to FITC Toronto 2009 April 25-28.