Continuing to share ways to thrive during chaotic times, John Wright of Bee Wild and I both were guided to share how you can be more successful in uncertain times through innovation. John’s willingness to innovate has kept his business successful during a very trying year and is one example of the benefits of innovation in uncertain times.
What Is Innovation?
Let’s break down the formal definitions of innovation into a simple statement:
Innovation is a new way of thinking or a new way of creating something.
At the moment one of the strongest role models for innovation is Elon Musk, a man who has built a multi-billion dollar empire looking for the core truths for his goals (“First Principles”). This YouTube video describes how Musk questions all assumptions to get to these core principles. This way of thinking allows him to create beyond what currently is accepted as “all there is.”
An Example of Innovation: Farmers to Families
I have a disabled friend with limited mobility and a very limited income. The effects of COVID-19 hit her very hard, and she was having challenges getting food. Her sister did some research and found the Farmers to Families Food Box program. Within days the National Guard brought a box filled with fresh produce, eggs, meat, and other farm-to-table food. They continued to deliver this food directly to her weekly. I felt so very grateful that boxes of healthy, nourishing food were available to her during adverse times. But, why do I see this program as innovative?
We all have gone through tough times before — tornadoes, blizzards, etc. The typical governmental response to situations like this is to throw tons of money at local governmental agencies. They also pay farmers in the area stipends to cover their spoiled crops or to let their crops spoil since no one can pick the food up and deliver it to a central location. Then, they pay distributors unemployment because there’s nothing to distribute. Then, people stand in line for hours for a limited amount of not particularly healthy, non-perishable food, some of which has been kept past its expiration date.
The farmers to families program is different. Here’s how:
Bee Wild Innovates Post-COVID-19
John is the third generation of the Wright Family Beekeeping business. He has transformed the way his family shares honey, moving from traditional marketing to creating a successful business as a digital agropreneur. But, even a successful entrepreneur has challenges. When COVID-19 hit in 2020, local farmers markets, the key to Bee Wild’s success, closed down. Here is how John used out-of-the-box thinking to innovate. He decided to create win/wins with everyone around him (other entrepreneurs, customers, staff members, friends, family, business associates):
Since most of our customers are used to seeing us in person at farmers markets and events, we thought creating more engagement with our online customers would be a lot of fun as well as keep us connected. So, we began writing personal notes on each order and have really enjoyed the email responses and calls we have received.
We partnered with several real food ecommerce based brands and made our honeys available on their websites as well.
I collaborated with my team to create 2 new infused honeys (one will be launching soon!)
We updated our “shop honey” section of our website with brand new honey tasting set configurations and gift sets giving our customers more options than ever before.
Offering local delivery on large orders In the Atlanta Metro-area
Offering free pickup on pre-orders for our 2 weekly farmers markets, Freedom Farmers Market & Grant Park Farmers Market.
By being willing to innovate, John has been able to grow Bee Wild during extremely adverse business conditions.
The Key to Innovation
When you are trying to find an as yet undiscovered solution to a problem or process to manifest a goal, try first principles thinking:
Identify your vision or goal clearly.
Find the lies and assumptions by listing all obstacles to known actions for your goal.
Discover first principles by asking these questions:
- What are physics of it? How does it work?
- What does it cost to make/do this?
- How much time does it take to make/do this?
- How can I make it cheaper, better, faster…?
Innovate.