**2. What the 2% did – First principles**

Mention of 'jumping off cliffs', 'Ordeal's and 'Roads Back' offer a nod to firstprinciple thinker, Joseph Campbell. Campbell devoted much of his life to studying the world's literature in order to, in a manner analogous to the TRIZ and Systematic Innovation research, decode the reasons why most literature (not coincidentally, around 98%) ends up as pulp, and a small percentage become enduring classics. His primary answer was published as The Hero With A Thousand Faces [6]. Although he did not understand the dynamics of what the business world now recognises as s-curves, Campbell's 'Hero's Journey describes how successful literature always passes through the same stages that will be experienced by innovators as they make the shift from one solution paradigm to the next. **Figure 2** illustrates these generic stages as they relate to the innovator's journey between s-curves [7].

The vertical axis on any S-curve picture may be plotted to show any and all of the attributes of a system that might wish to be improved. From an e-service perspective, the axis might be plotting customer related parameters such as benefits delivered, satisfaction, adoption rates, or, from the innovator's perspective, such business parameters as number of customers, turnover, risk-reduction, profit, or ROI. At more granular service levels, the axis might be plotting performance parameters like speed, accuracy, consistency, privacy, etc. Oftentimes, all of these attributes can be integrated together so that the curve plots 'value'. The horizontal axis is usually plotted as time, or, in more enlightened environments, improvement effort expended.

**Figure 2.** *The Hero's journey As S-curve transition.*

Looking at the s-curve itself, the shallow gradient start of the S-curve is usually associated with the inevitable struggle that occurs when a new service paradigm appears. Eventually, assuming a critical mass of 'early-adopter' customers are willing to pay enough for the 'poor' initial manifestations of the solution, this early revenue will pay for the continuing development of the offering. At some point, there will be some form of internally-controlled production-related Eureka moment – a new delivery technology, for example, or a new pricing model – that will allow the curve to follow a much steeper upward trajectory. This 'stride' portion of the curve is the joyous stage of an enterprise when life is easy – easy sales, easy improvements and easy knowledge creation and sharing. But then, sooner rather than later, comes the law of diminishing returns top part of the curve; the 'stuck' portion. This is where contradictions begin to emerge: whatever it is that the service provider is trying to improve, 'something' increasingly comes to prevent the achievement of those improvements. After 'Crossing The Threshold' (i.e. jumping off the cliff), the brave innovator is exected to endure a series of tests, allies and enemies before, eventually reaching a pont where they have no choice but to confront The Ordeal – i.e. the contradiction. Assuming they prevail and achieve 'The Reward', the beginning of a new S-curve begins to emerge. Then, assuming the 'right' new solution is appropriate, comes the Road Back – the transition from novel service idea to a service offering that is (commercially) successful.
