R&D Prototypes of Lightspray on display during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games
Connecting Dots is the monthly newsletter for global professionals leading innovation.
◎⁃◎
On Running > Lightspray’s Olympic Innovation Gold 🥇
For two weeks I was in Paris during the 2024 Olympics and studied up close innovation in sports, media and industry.
Events like the games are a helpful forum to see who is doing what and how well. Though it can be hard to identify what might stick after the games versus what was simply a nice “brand activation”.
However, spending two weeks up close with athletes and professionals pushing the boundaries of their domains reconnected me to a truth about how meaningful achievements and breakthroughs happen.
It’s not about skill
It’s not about effort
It’s not about mindset
There isn’t one thing that makes an effective innovation leader.
Just as there isn’t a single thing that gets an athlete to the Olympic games, let alone on the podium. Complex in execution and seemingly effortless in solution.
It’s about applying all three factors, in parallel, over time.
To say innovation leadership is an integrated practice may not sound that surprising. But, in practice, it certainly is surprisingly rare.
Over two weeks I surveyed the world’s most innovative sportswear brands. I heard their pitches, spoke to their people and picked away at their culture.
They all excelled at one of the three. Only one excelled at all three factors.
On Running
I’ve followed On Running since 2018 when boarding a 5 pm flight out of Zurich. It seemed ever smartly dressed Swiss professional sported a pair of tastefully coloured On trainers.
At the time, the world wasn’t asking for another billion-dollar running shoe brand and yet a few years later we have one. Out of Switzerland of all places.
Innovation in product design, materials, marketing and retail has been their driver. However, after a decade and billion-dollar growth, a culture typically plateaus unless a new s-curve can be developed.
Rather than succumb to the Innovator’s Dilemma they were able to birth a new product logic without detracting from their core business.
Lightspray
One morning after a run, I found myself in a naturally lit atelier beside Canal St. Martin. The area serves as the current culture and fashion engine of Paris.
Before me was a pop-up manufacturing facility with two robots, a small display and of course excellent coffee.
Olivier Bernhard, one of On’s founders, described their 8-year journey to develop a new manufacturing process that changes the economics, llgistics and performance of running footwear.
In front of us, a robotic arm precisely applied a continuous spray thermoplastic making the shoes’ upper. The proprietary technique and material were bonded to a soul featuring a carbon plate as is now common to elite running shoes.
However, this shoe was anything but common. It debuted publicly a few months before at the Boston Marathon and won.
Meanwhile, in Paris, athletes were picking up shoes straight off the robot and onto the track in Stade de France.
It was an impressive display but what stood out wasn’t the technology—it was the people.
They knew Lightspray was great and while it was now out in the real world they were able to discuss what still needed to be done despite their pride in the achievement.
Staff at every level I spoke to could identify moments of uncertainty where they stayed confident and took intelligent risks. As well as the trust of each other and belief that even if they weren’t included directly in all aspects of top secret R&D it was a collective achievement.
It was candid, personal and authentic. Very different from all the other brands in Paris.
Emotional Capital
What I observed physically and culturally in the atelier was a rare complete portfolio of emotional capital.
Emotional capital is a well-researched attitudinal and behavioural way to evaluate the vitality of an organization and levers for executives to evolve and mature a growing organization or pivot and revitalize a stagnant one.
What I saw, heard and felt were the levers that through actions express or generate:
RESPECTFUL AUTHENTICITY:
Alignment between actions, thoughts, and feelings. Feeling of being sincere and considerate to myself and others.
DESERVED PRIDE :
Feeling that we are appreciated for our differences and concrete contributions to others.
REALISTIC HOPE:
Feeling that today’s actions will improve our future.
THOUGHTFUL PASSION:
Feeling of deep personal engagement and high energy experiencing timelessness.
ASPIRATIONAL DISCONTENT:
Unhappy that we have not realized our full potential. We can if we want to.
I scored On Running ten points in all categories and award them my gold medal for innovation over the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
One of my favourite things about the experience is that the shoes they were manufacturing really were being manufactured. It wasn’t a demo, it was real-world manufacturing in the middle of Paris.
They will be sold later this year in a direct-to-consumer drop with a Made in France label. It’s their next step in distributed, individualized and sustainable production.
Congratulations On Running, you’ve earned your gold.
◎⁃◎
Learn more about Brett’s leadership development practice for global executives with innovation responsibilities.
◎⁃◎