We all have grown up learning about overnight success stories, which actually did not happen instantly, but took years of hard work and consistency. The one takeaway from success stories is that success comes with a mindset to improve.
We, as professionals and entrepreneurs who want to grow in our careers, need to understand that improvement is not only the right approach. There is a world beyond improvement, which is aptly talked about by authors Harsh Haladker and Raghunath Mashelkar in their book, titled Exprovement: Exponential Improvement Through Converging Parallels.
Simply put, exprovement means immense improvement that leads to the birth of innovative solutions that are capable of solving complex problems. For a business, there are instances wherein entrepreneurs or the top management get stuck with a slow growth or even no growth. Here, if we get the right mindset to pivot or bring in new solutions, chances are it might take a lot of time, but that will be an exprovement.
To differentiate between improvement and exprovement, Haladker and Mashelkar say if the degree of change expected or desired is smaller, it is improvement. However, if the change expected is radical, it is exprovement. Therefore, an exprovement approach often involves changes in strategies, whereas improvement happens at the operations level.
The way to exprovement is that we need to always keep our mind and eyes open with regard to understanding different industries and bring that kind of innovation or solutions to our own business or life in general. This process is called drawing parallels from different industries and is key to exprovement.
Through 246 pages and 18 chapters, Exprovement explains different case studies and examples of how innovations were born in different industries. The book is a must read not only for entrepreneurs but for everyone who feels excited in solving problems and wants to understand how both chaos and ambiguity can deliver significant results.
Through several interesting stories such as similarity between a Formula One pit crew and emergency room, how a toy design led to design of a space component, taking money lending as an inspiration for time banking for eldercare, gaming and physiotherapy, among others, the chapters successfully hold the reader’s attention throughout.
Industries often use the term ‘disruption’ in their day-to-day operations, but what actually disruption is? Exprovement has an answer for that.
The authors have made an effort to differentiate or clarify commonly misunderstood terms and phrases used in corporate settings, such as ‘disruption’, ‘innovation’, ‘design thinking’, and ‘behavioural economics’. While the language used in the book could have been simplified more for a layperson, the effort of authors to tell a complete story within stories is appreciable.
In the starting chapters, the authors have focused on the fundamentals of exprovement, that is how to approach exprovement, how to look for parallels in unrelated areas and create a unique application, etc.
Then there are different case studies in each chapter. One of the interesting case studies in the earlier chapters is how Leicester City Football Club (LCFC) used scientific methods to improve the overall health of players and prevent injuries. Measuring, recording and analysing players’ data at various points such as hamstring muscle, player movement, pitch density and methods like 48-hour recovery process after games helped LCFC to stop players before they reach breaking point and get injured.
Besides, examples of exprovement are also found in the healthcare industry, for which parallels existed in the food and beverage industry. One of the most common causes of cancer death among women is breast cancer. Delays in screening were seen as the reason for most deaths. Based on the problem, a US-based company Welwaze came with a simple, pain-free, 15-minute method —heat-sensitive colour changing breast pads—to detect breast cancer. The breast pads use thermochromic material that changes colour when it comes into contact with heat. It is similar to labels on pizza boxes or beer bottles that change colour to indicate the temperature and if it’s fit to consume or not.
Then there is the story of chef Ferran Adria, who through his food experiments came up with ground-breaking gastronomical exprovements. In the concluding chapters, the authors introduces the concept of time banking for eldercare, which is the concept of getting time credits for helping elder people and volunteering for them for home assistance. It becomes interesting and useful when we think deep that these time credits can be encashed when we attain old age and require a helping hand. Here comes the concept of a time bank.
In fact, the same concept in Los Angeles is used for business development, wherein borrowers can reduce loan repayments just by mentoring in areas such as strategy, branding and communications, etc.
Who does not love a bonus? The book has a bonus chapter, ‘The Banyan Tree Analysis’, which talks about how analysis is useful for companies at all stages to understand their exprovement journey, and how they can look at potential new areas of growth. In fact, it also answers the basic question on whether to improve or exprove?
In the end, exprovement is all about asking the right questions, asking questions that bring in creativity, asking ‘could be’ questions, always watching out for different industries, not being afraid of mistakes, and being optimistic.
