“That’s So Obvious!” or The Power of Truth

There is something beautiful in taking away the extraneous to reveal a truth. In fact, I believe that the power of a great quote or catch phrase is exactly that: to epitomise a truth and say something in such a way that it makes you think, “I knew that, I just didn’t hadn’t seen it expressed that way before.”

In Peter Drucker’s classic work “The Discipline of Innovation,” (originally published in May 1985) he talks about how grandiose ideas designed to revolutionise an industry rarely work and he then expounds the virtues of endeavour, talent, ingenuity and knowledge. He talks about how innovators (entrepreneurs) look for solutions to real problems and to unexpressed needs and desires or “jobs” that we hire products or services to do. In other words, the customer “job to be done” (JTBD), something I use in my work in Marketing every single day.

So when I hear in boardrooms and chats “that’s so obvious” I take it as the greatest praise. Why? Because it means I am not overcomplicating things or increasing complexity for the sake of it. It takes discipline and diligence to make things obvious and sensical and to recognise, too, that sometimes not everything will be clear right away. It’s OK not to know. In fact, I am working on an article right now about anomalies and I have learned that making something obvious or on trend or ahead of the game is an art, science and takes an extreme amount of inquiry and commitment.

In “The Discipline of Innovation,” Drucker states that…

Entrepreneurs. Whether they exist as a business founder, or someone in your marketing department or a musician, those people are entrepreneurs and are at the heart of innovative activity since they embody, in the words of Drucker, “the effort to create purposeful, focused change in an enterprise’s economic or social potential.”

It’s about seeing and capturing value in potential. It’s so obvious!