Innovate or die seems to be the businessmaxim of the day. In a 2012 IBM survey, CEOs named product and serviceinnovation among the three most important sources of sustaining economic valuefor their businesses. Perhaps more telling is that 71 percent of the CEOs ofoutperforming businesses were expanding their partner networks in pursuit ofinnovation.
创新或者灭亡是当今的商务格言。在2012年IBM的一项调查中，CEO命名的产品和服务创新是保持业务经济价值的三个最重要的来源之一。也许更能说明问题的是大约71%杰出公司的CEO在追求创新时扩展了他们的合作伙伴网络。
Innovation is a messy and expensivebusiness, and the gap between the desire to innovate and the ability to do itwell is huge. But there’s plenty of evidence pointing to its necessity: Brandsare at risk going out of business, like the RadioShacks of the world, orbecoming shadows of their former selves like Kodak. These companies biggestthreats often are not known competitors, but disruptors such as Uber, Amazonand Tesla.
创新是一个混乱和昂贵的业务，而且创新的意愿与能够很好完成的能力之间的差距是巨大的。但是又有足够的证据证明它的必要性，像RadioShacks公司，或者是为辉煌的过去蒙上阴影的柯达。这些公司最大的威胁通常并不是知名的竞争对手，而是像Uber，Amazon和Tesla这样的搅局者。
In the worldof innovationanythingispossible, buteverythingisnot. And innovation without a starting point will burn infinite resources. Ifyou want innovation to work for you, and not consume you, you need to get towork.
在一个创新的世界里一切皆有可能，但是任何事情都不是绝对的。没有起点的创新将会消耗无限的资源，如果你希望通过创新来帮助你，而不是消耗你，你就需要准备起来。
Imagine the future.
Where do you begin? A truly innovativecompany doesn’t start with a blank sheet, but rather with its story, thenarrative and the quest of the brand. It has an expansive view of the businessit’s in, and that view is typically bigger than the category where it currentlycompetes. It also has a larger purpose and everything it does is in pursuit ofthat mission.
幻想未来
你从哪里开始？一个真正创新的公司并不会从一页白纸开始，而是有一个故事来叙事以及对品牌的追求。它对所在的业务有一个昂贵的观点，而且这一观点通常会比它目前奋斗的领域更大。它同样还有一个更大的目标，它所做的一切都是为了实现这一任务。
An innovative company doesn’t follow thelatest consumer trends or try to outpace the known competition. It imagines itsfuture based on its quest -- a vision that becomes its blueprint and thenit goes on to create that future. We call it quest-led innovation.
一个创新的公司并不会遵从最新的消费者趋势或者试图超越已知的竞争对手。它基于自己的需求幻想未来，一个可以成为蓝图的愿景，然后继续创造未来，我们称它为需求驱动型创新。
Nike has been in the business ofquest-led innovation for more than 50 years. It started out small, making shoesfor people who loved to run, but its ambition was much bigger. Nike’squest is to bring inspiration and innovation to the athlete in all of us. Thatambition has always framed and focused the company, starting with technicallybetter athletic shoes and the famous waffle-tread shoe, and most recentlyexpanding into the digital platform space with Nike+.
Nike已经在需求驱动型创新业务中走过了50多年。它从很小的规模起步，起初从为喜欢跑步的人做鞋开始，但是它的志向非常远大，耐克的任务就是将激情和创新带给我们所有的运动员。这一志向始终塑造并聚焦公司，利用技术生产出更好的运动鞋以及著名的华夫饼花纹鞋，并且近期通过Nike+进军了数码平台领域。
Nike no longer just builds great shoesfor runners, it builds and creates the software that enables runners -- 7million worldwide -- to track, measure, compare and share their runs. Thisdemanded new capabilities, a digital sports division, and new investments intalent. These investments are made all in service of its quest, a quest thatbrought both focus and the freedom to expand outside the category.
Nike不再仅仅为跑步者打造最棒的运动鞋，它建立了能够使全球700万的跑步者来追踪，测量，比较以及分享他们跑步数据的软件。这需要新的功能，数字体育事业部以及新的人才投资。这些投资都是为它的需求服务，这是一个通过引入焦点与自由来扩展他品类的需求。
Nike doesn’t ask how can it make bettersports shoes, it asks how can Nike inspire more people to be betterathletes. Imagine if Kodak had broadened its aperture and saw itself not as inthe film business but in the business of photography, of capturing, sharing andpreserving memories. How different might its fate have been? The company couldhave led the digital photography revolution and perhaps even started a digitalplatform such as Instagram.
Nike并不关心如何来生产更好的运动鞋，它关心的是如何来激发更多的人成为更好的运动员。设想如果柯达扩大了自己的业务，并不仅仅将其限制在胶片业务中，而是在捕捉，分享以及保存记忆的摄影领域，那么它的命运将会有何不同呢？柯达也许会引领数码摄像领域的变革，或者甚至开创了像Instagram这样的数码平台。
Know what stands in the way.
Companies with great quests usually havea clear enemy. Many people believe that Tesla’s enemy is the car business, butin fact its enemy is much bigger -- the mine-and-burn-carbon economy.Tesla is on a quest to accelerate the electric economy of the future, thepursuit of which has disputed the car business but will likely disrupt manymore. The company is relentless in that desire, starting with makingpetroleum-free travel a reality.
知道什么是阻碍
有伟大需求的公司通常有一个清晰的敌人。人们相信Tesla的敌人是汽车业务，但是实际上它的敌人更大，那就是燃煤经济。Tesla正在加速它的未来电力经济，这一需求已经扰乱了汽车业务，而且将有可能扰乱的更多。公司对于这一愿望坚持不懈，并从将无石油旅行变成现实开始。
It built the beautiful Model S to inspireand learn about sustainable transportation, it created a revolutionaryinfrastructure of charging stations designed to make seamless electric vehicletravel for 98 percent of theU.S.population. And in an unprecedented move in the hyper-competitive car business,Tesla opened up its patents so its competitors could start building cars totake advantage of that network.
它打造了漂亮的Model S车型来激发和探索可持续交通，它建立了充电站基础设施革命，旨在为98%的美国人口提供完美的电车旅行。Tesla公开了它的专利，这是在竞争激烈的汽车业务中前所未有的举动，这样它的竞争对手就可以利用这一网络打造电力汽车。
The company’s latest industry disruptionhas moved Tesla from our roads and into our homes with Powerwall systemsdesigned to create energy storage for sustainable homes. Tesla is justbeginning its journey of disruption in its desire to end themine-and-burn-carbon economy, much in the same way that Amazon began bydisrupting the book business and now disrupts all retailers on its quest tobecoming the biggest marketplace in the world.
公司最新的行业颠覆已经使Tesla从我们的公路转移到了我们的家里，它为可持续家庭建立了储存能源的Powerwall系统。Tesla起初是从希望能够结束燃煤经济的愿望开始，同样Amazon从希望颠覆图书行业开始，在成为世界上最大市场的需求推动下，扰乱了所有的零售商。
YouTube just celebrated its10th birthday. Since its inception it has been on a quest to empower theworld to create, broadcast and share. In doing so, it has broken down the wallsbetween creators and fans, enabling everyone to participate, collaborate andcreate the video economy of the future. The quest started with a platform forthose videos to be uploaded, discovered and shared. YouTube went on to createproduction studios in major cities such asLondonandL.A., whereits creators could have access to some of the best technology and productionsets and tools available.
YouTube刚刚庆祝了它的10岁生日。从成立之初，它的目标就是鼓励世界来创造，传播和分享。通过这样做，他已经打破了创造者与粉丝之间的那堵墙，让所有人能够参与，合作并创建视频经济的未来。这一需求从建立一个可以上传，探索以及分享视频的平台开始。YouTube继续在主要的城市比如伦敦和洛杉矶创建制作工作室，在那里创建者可以接触到一些最先进的技术，生产套装和工具。
Everything YouTube does is focused aroundits homegrown talent and fans. What if RadioShack had thought of itself as thehome for makers, tinkerers and hackers -- not just a place to buyelectronic stuff, but a marketplace for nerds, a place to make and maybedistribute its own products? I suspect its destiny would have looked verydifferent
YouTube所做的任何事都是围绕它土生土长的人才和粉丝。如果RadioShack将自己认定为制作者，能工巧匠和黑客之家，不仅仅是购买电子产品的场所，而是书呆子的市场，一个可以制作以及或许能够发布自己产品的地方，那将会怎么样呢？我认为它的命运将会截然不同。
Innovating around the quest of your brandbrings focus and helps to sort the wheat from the chaff, to filter the rightideas from the good ideas. It creates white space, adjacencies that maynot seem immediately obvious but are likely the places where the disrupterswill emerge and the big battles will be won or lost. It enables you to focusyour precious resources on fewer, better things, to move faster and in theright direction, to be out ahead of the competition, known and unknown.
围绕品牌追求的创新能够聚焦并帮助你将小麦和麦壳区分开来，从好的想法中筛选最合适的想法。它创建了并不明显的空白和邻近区域，但是却有可能是颠覆者将要出现或者重大战役将要取胜或失败的地方。它可以让你将珍贵的资源聚焦在更少更好的事情上，并向正确的方向更快的转移，从而站在竞争对手的前列，无论是知名的还是不知名的。
Quest-led innovation makes anything possiblein a world where everything is not.
需求驱动型创新在一个一切都未就绪的世界里，让一切皆有可能。
声明：本文为个人翻译最新商务类新闻文章，均有中英文对照，转载请与作者联系，尊重版权！