2nd Inning

2nd Inning

 

There is a general belief that everyone deserves a second chance. If you believe in it, then you are on my side to explore this further in the space of innovation. If you don’t believe in it, then also reading it further may force you to re-think your position. Many companies, organizations, and teams run innovation campaign at small and big level. They come in various forms like drives, hack fest, hackathon etc. Ideas are collected and at the end winners are awarded. As soon as the campaign is over, things comes to full stop. The ideas that did not made it to winners circle are completely forgotten. Even the submitters of those ideas feels it may not be worth taking forward. In short, the one time drive killed thousands of potential idea in the process of giving light to few at the top. These forgotten ideas deserves a second chance.

Ideas that did not made to top may be a case of insufficient details, miss-aligned reviewers, time pressure, or articulation. Sometimes the idea may be too early in the game and market is not yet ready to understand or accept. These ideas may have hidden potential in other areas that the reviewers or sponsors are not ready to focus or invest. They may be supplementary or complementary to other ideas or products. All these suggests they should not be ignored. They should be re-looked with fresh perspective and fresh mind from time to time regularly. No idea should have an expiry date unless it is already implemented in the same exact form. No idea should be ignored at review stage.

Often questions arise on the feasibility to maintain such idea pools. That should be easy to resolve in today’s world. Storage has become cheaper. Tagging and search technologies have improved. Crowd sourcing, community funding, and VCs are always eager to invest. Further, the value of such databases is much exceptional if someone decides to utilize it at max. In short, it is worth investing in such ideal pools as against ignore them as lost. By giving them a second chance, you are keeping the submitter hope alive. The submitter mature over a period of time and they themselves will see their ideas morph into new ideas over a period of time. The submitter themselves will maintain their ideas with latest development in the world around them. Wikipedia is one such example where submitter maintain the content in absence of any returns. Having such idea pools may result in small and supplementary ideas to existing products. Having such idea pools may connect submitter to potential champions or sponsors in future when the time is right to invest. Having such idea pools will keep the hopes alive for many and becomes a source of inspiration to continue on new ideas.

 
In conclusion, the idea of giving second chance to all ideas has merit and potential much beyond our current imagination. It may open doors into infinity to prosper innovation for ages to come. In games like cricket it is the 2^nd inning which is important to conclude the game. Hence, second chance is important in the space of innovation.