In a prior post, we wrote about 30 ways to ignite innovation at your small company. If you follow these steps, you’re sure to come up with new, interesting ways to improve your marketing and your business.

Here, we would like to point out yet another way to inject innovation and differentiation into your business. Let’s call it "Cross Pollination."

MinuteClinic is a great example of a business that cross-pollinates two previously distinct industries: health care and retail. The organization brings healthcare to your neighborhood, making the process of getting medical attention easier, more convenient and more affordable, much like ATMs made it easer to conduct simple banking transactions at your convenience regardless of your bank’s office hours.

MinuteClinic make healthcare a little easier for people with hectic schedules (which is pretty much everyone these days). Their certified practitioners are trained to diagnose and treat common family illnesses, such as strep throat, bronchitis and ear, eye and sinus infections. No appointments are necessary, and they are open seven days a week. Taking a page from retail, their practitioners are trained in customer service to try to make your experience as pleasant as possible.

Whereas in the past, if you wanted to seek medical attention for even a minor ailment during off-hours, you would probably wind up at an emergency room and would be forced to wait for an hour or even a few hours. Because MinuteClinic deals with only a defined set of minor ailments, the process of seeking treatment is expedited. And many hospitals welcome MinuteClinic because it unclogs their waiting rooms for the people who really have serious, urgent medical needs. In fact, certain hospitals have installed MinuteClinic stations within their walls for just this reason.

MinuteClinic is a great example of cross pollination that blindsides an industry and helps a new entrepreneurial business succeed. Other examples abound as well:

• Threadless combined the previously exclusive realms of t-shirt design, social networking and retail to form a thriving, fast-growing business. Revenues are reportedly expected to top $40 million this year.
• Kiva (the world’s first person-to-person micro-lending website), combined the previously exclusive worlds of charity, micro-lending, entrepreneurship and social networking.

So, how can you apply cross pollination in your business this year?

• If you are a B2B business, what can you leverage from the retail world?
• If you are a B2C business, what can you leverage from the B2B world?
• If you are in professional services, what can you leverage from the manufacturing industry?
• If you are a small retailer, what can you leverage from the entertainment industry?
• No matter what industry you are in, can you cross pollinate your business with a social networking model?

Related posts:

1. Small Business Innovation: 3 Quick Ideas
2. 30 Ways to Ignite Innovation at Your Small Company
3. Harvesting Ideas Online to Solve Tough Problems
4. Small Business Website Promotion: 3 Quick Ideas
5. Small Business Social Networking Websites (poll results)

Tags: innovation, small business innovation

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 15th, 2008 at 6:53 am and is filed under innovation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.