Innovation has become a somewhat overused buzzword. Don’t get me wrong, I love innovation. New products and services are the key to growth, but not the only key. It’s increasingly important to find new ways to organise and find innovative ways of doing business. 

So what is innovation? 

There are many kinds: radical, disruptive, incremental, social, systems, and more. Innovation as a concept has a long history, and one of my favourite parts is the ancient Silk Road. Imagine the richness of exchanging ideas, new products, and finding new markets!

In more recent years, many types of innovation have indeed been defined. Here are some examples: 

In terms of technology innovation, Clayton Christensen (1997) proposed a distinction between sustaining and disruptive innovation. Sustaining technology builds on and improves existing products. According to Christensen, disruptive technologies have a different value proposition than what has been seen in the market before. Disruptive technologies tend to even have worse product performance in the beginning. However, they have other features that customers value. 

Incremental and radical innovation are other terms to describe the above scenarios. 

In addition to technological advancements, impactful innovation can occur anywhere in the organisation and its value chain. Business model innovation should not be overlooked. For example, Strategyzer offers great resources to understand the possibilities and challenges on the commercial side of innovation.

I’ve spent my entire career working with clients and their product innovations. Most of these products have fallen into the sustaining or incremental innovation categories, but I’ve seen many radical innovations, too. I’ve worked with small companies and large global corporations. The common factors are the vigorous and lengthy R&D process and pride in their work. I’ve had less visibility of the business model development and processes of gaining insights into commercial viability and feasibility research in the early phases. I have, however, seen many product launches delayed or derailed altogether due to different innovation ecosystem risks. It’s a complex landscape to navigate. 

These examples don’t even scratch the surface of the topic, and they’re not intended to do so. As I start my blogging journey, I plan to explore and write about innovation to share thoughts and ideas. And, of course, I want to keep learning more myself.

Come along!

Reading & sources: 

• Christensen, Clayton M.1997. The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail. Boston, Mass.: Harvard Business School Press.
• Strategyzer: https://www.strategyzer.com/