Lessons from climbing

We have come to expect the new from California, the exciting from Silicon Valley, the ambitious from the Middle East...but from Leicester in the UK - that hot bed of innovation, technology and finance. Well think again. Leicester is the home of Riversimple, the most ambitious hydrogen car project in the world - why? Because its bottom up - it didn't start with an existing car like BMW, it didn't start with an existing structure like every business, it didn't start with any expectations (because it’s in Leicester, UK) like every other innovation project in the auto sector. And here lies its brilliance and why it is doomed to failure.

The clean sheet has enabled it to redefine the car, not put a new engine in a heavy existing car structure. It has made hydrogen a more attractive solution in the medium term than electric. It has proved that it can work and the pilot phase to be rolled out in Leicester with 30 cars is making it a reality. And it is getting lots of airplay (witness the article in the Wired this month) because it is doing it differently in structure and makeup of the organisation itself and this unfortunately is why it will fail itself but provide the impetus for other companies to succeed through their inspiration.

A friend once told me of a climbing analogy - the key in climbing is to never take more than one of your hands or feet off at any time - and so is true in business. If you try and take all your hands and feet off at the same time i.e. do something totally new in a new way the likelihood of reaching the top is put in peril. Others will take from your inspiration and race past (and sometimes that's job done). But if you want to succeed with your breakthrough invention it sometimes makes sense to do it within the existing structures of business so that there's never more than one hand off the wall at any time. Then you can race to the top. Good luck Riversimple.