As a kid, I truly loved Neapolitan ice cream. Three flavors in one carton – what could be better? It was amazing: chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry. It was a rare and special treat for me because my mother was allergic to chocolate, so it was normally banned from our house.
The beauty of Neapolitan ice cream is that all three flavors are distinct. Yet as they co-exist side-by-side, the lending is even better. Chocolate and vanilla are terrific together. Vanilla and strawberry is divine. And who doesn’t want chocolate with any berry flavor?
Business and Three Flavors
In working with leaders in innovation, I’ve noticed that it’s the Neapolitans that succeed. It is sweet to enjoy a single scoop of fresh gourmet vanilla bean ice cream, but it’s still mono-dimensional. The intricacies and balance of multiple flavors – or ideas in the case of innovation – result in decadent outcomes. In product development, blending innovative ideas generates market share and profits.
Take, for example, a shop that sells only women’s dresses. You might find a beautiful dress, but you normally need accessories for any occasion. A competitor with a portfolio of accessories will win in the long run. You want to purchase jewelry, shoes, and a purse to go with the dress. In other words, you want strawberry and chocolate to go with the vanilla ice cream.
If you are working in innovation and product development, try this exercise. Assume your product is plain ole’ vanilla ice cream. What would it take to turn it into Neapolitan? What two features or attributes can you add to turn it into three “flavors”?
Consulting, Coaching, Peer Groups
Meet my Neapolitan business approach. Small businesses, like dress shops, need to meet the full needs of their customers. My gourmet vanilla bean ice cream equivalent is innovation and project management consulting. It’s special because of the expertise and years of experience I have generated in matching process systems with an organization’s culture. Check out my vanilla offering at Global NP Solutions.
Over the fifteen-plus years of consulting, I found myself conducting informal leadership coaching with clients. Enter chocolate ice cream.
Just like vanilla and chocolate are at opposite ends of the flavor spectrum while being the best complementary flavors to one another, so is consulting and coaching. While consulting might offer a specific solution to an organizational problem, coaching guides leaders to identify their biggest hurdles and use creativity tools to grow. Check out Inspired True Coaching to sample the chocolate complement to plain vanilla consulting.
Finally, let’s grab ahold of the delicious strawberry at the other end of the carton! Peer advisory groups perfectly enhance any consulting or coaching relationship. These groups take advantage of teaching and systemization of consulting. At the same, peer advisory groups utilize the power of community in brainstorming individual issues for growth as in executive leadership coaching. Check out my new strawberry flavor in my Neapolitan business portfolio with Kingdom Factor.
A Neapolitan Business
Years ago, in Entrepreneurial You, Dorie Clark wrote about the benefits of a portfolio business model. Every successful company I’ve worked with to improve innovation management has mastered balancing the product portfolio. I’m excited to fully immerse myself in the carton of Neapolitan to offer a broader set of services in my portfolio to all my clients (consulting, coaching, peer groups). What will you do in your business to switch from plain vanilla to Neapolitan?
** This article was written with no AI content.**
