How To Innovate Like A Shark

In 1975 a young director with no big films credits under his belt, set out to make a horror film. Steven Spielberg wanted his film filled with violent and gory shark attacks. He wanted us to watch as this massive animal, built to kill, would attack his unsuspecting prey. But there was a problem. The mechanical sharks that were supposed play a staring role in the film rarely worked as expected. As much as the young director wanted graphic shark attacks, he couldn't have them.

Frustrated, the team found another solution. They left most of the violence to our imaginations. Viewers would see a fin, then someone would disappear under the water, and then the water would turn red. That's it. In other scenes, we wouldn't even see a fin, we'd see a yellow barrel surfing across the water, knowing that it was a shark, deep below, towing the rope attached to the barrel towards the next victim. The effect was so scary and so powerful, it influenced our entire society.

Though people were of course aware of sharks prior, there was little thought given to them when they went to the beach. After Jaws, however, there was a significant increase in shark hysteria that remains to this day. The funny thing is that there are more people killed by dogs each year than have been killed by sharks since they started counting sharks attacks.

The brilliant way in which Spielberg told the story of Jaws did not happen in a brainstorming session and it was certainly not planned. It was the solution he found when what he wanted wasn't possible. The malfunctioning robots forced him to find another solution.

We have a false belief that innovation happens with lots of money and resources. In fact, the opposite is true. It is a lack of resources, it is a lack of money, it is after something goes wrong are we able to truly innovate - to truly re-imagine how something could work. This is why large companies rarely produce truly innovative products - because they have the money and resources to build anything they want. The problem is, the things they want aren't that innovative because they weren't hindered or forced to find new ways. Small businesses, in comparison, are where big ideas happen. Slim on money and resources, they figure out how to make something work with what they have. Then big businesses buy the small businesses for their big ideas.

To be clear, Spielberg was also a student of film. Without his mechanical shark, he was able to defer to his knowledge. He knew the techniques that Alfred Hitchcock used in his movies to build suspense - foreboding music, simple details and an view of the aftermath. The suspense, Spielberg knew, happened in our imaginations, not in our eyes. Though he knew this, he didn't need to tap that knowledge until he had to. And that's where having less produces more. There are plenty of smart people at large companies who don't tap their brilliance because they don't need to. They have all the resources they need. Smart entrepreneurs, in contrast, have no choice but to rely on their smarts and that's why they can run innovation circles around large companies every single day.

Innovation is not born from the dream; innovation is born from the struggle. Innovation, at its core, is not simply about building the future; innovation is about solving problems in the present. And the best innovations, just like the shark in Jaws, is often something we don't even know is there.

Comments

[Beau_fish]

WHY was it beneficial to watch the movie if it created fear in people?
I am one of those sensitive and visualperson with vivid imagination who cannot watch violence and vampires, sharks etc.
Your focus is on "why" it helps people find meaning in what they do.
This question can be answered in middle school if we studied philosophy.
Most young people not brain washed by education have this question in their consciousness early on, many questions, then gets driven out of them and they hear that success is money.
I like your presentation on TED and how you introduced search for our meaning in everything we do as a must to be satisfied and grow.
The sky is the limit its not a true statement, we have the universe and beyond and if we dare to imagine...I know we can have free energy directly from the air if we can just learn how to harness it.
Best to you
leah

[ColemanConcepts]

This is one of my more favorite posts of yours! I have found the struggles of this economy have forced me (in a good way) to explore other options, take a leap of faith and try new things. Believe it our not, it is slowly working! Thanks again for this great insight!

[Info]

I am a Brand developer and Strategist and fully agree with your points and have shared your post with my followers. Just like to add that one of the best Brands ie. Google was created in recession and others like McDonald experienced some of the biggest growth with the “McCafe” concept with healthy menus innovation. So innovation is required to survive and thrive in the future for Brands today.

[HPelifian]

I remember using the novel Jaws in a graduate class of English majors in Thailand. The book everyone agreed, including me, was very mediocre with strong suspense writing, though I didn't really care about the characters for there was very little to interest me in them.

This book was a marketing triumph and marketing is no more than exposure. Obviously, people are attracted to gore and fear coupled with predictable suspense.

In some ways modern marketing is no more than sophisticated carnival barking which works to sell, sell, sell.

[Joseph Coplans]

Fabulous article, thank you. This is what makes the adrenaline surge for so many micro-entrepreneurs: They want a chance to do something meaningful—that's why they got into a business idea in the first place, rarely for the money—and the chance to be inventive is what's really driving them, the desire to solve problems, the desire to see if idea can get off the ground. That's what creates a meaningful experience. While the word 'innovation' was fairly absconded by the tech world, it's a very important word for new business owners. Innovation is a supplement for the failings of outmoded forms of marketing. If marketing resources or PR isn't cutting the mustard, innovation helps to create new ideas and new ways to present these great ideas to buyers. Innovation creates cool ideas and cool ways to bring them to new buyers—in addition to all forms of marketing that are right for a given idea.

[Synthesis360]

Necessity indeed is the mother of invention

[Lisarobbinyoung]

It certainly helped that John Williams is a genius composer. His theme (which is just as haunting today as it was the year I was born) still makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck when you hear it. Simple, repetitive, and well-designed for adding the suspense to this film.

[StevenB]

Thanks for sharing these insights Simon. I work for a resource constrained university library - we'll never be harvard. But I've always believed that working under such constraints forces you to be more resourceful and creative in making the library an important part of the community that people want to use - and not just because they are being forced to do so. I also wanted to share that spielberg also added another dimension to jaws that was equally compelling to the terror. He focused on the relationships between the people in the movie - such as the one between the sheriff and his sons - or between the old grizzled shark hunter and the new style expert using technology. Some might say that the movie is much more about the people and how they dealt with an unreal experience than about the terror of a shark attack.

[ScottABarnett]

Great, great point! It's also true that subtle can be much more powerful than obvious.