Why pursuing innovation fails
Adam Hartung provided a great analysis of why the pursuit of innovation usually fails inside established companies. If you work for a company that has made innovation a priority, I’m sure you can relate to thoughts like these:
For all their brainstorming exercises and “open innovation” programs, they mostly just come up with reformulations of existing products, new pricing plans and basic updates—the same old things just a little cheaper, faster or better.
Businesses ask their “strategic customers” where to innovate and get little advice. Those customers are usually strategic only in that they are large, not because they have any particular market insight. They too just want more, better and cheaper, which are hardly recommendations for true innovation.
Innovation budgets are determined only after budgets are already in place for defending the “core business.” The core business isn’t usually doing so well, but it gets first call on resources because management feels it needs to defend what already exists.
Holy kaw, does he call a spade a spade or what? Definitely worth reading and (anonymously) forwarding inside your company! I can hardly wait for Adam’s next installment when he will explain what to do about this.
More help for Innovators.
Comments (5)
The first point though does not quite fit in that innovation is usually combining a bunch of things that already work to produce something new.
The last point assumes that innovation requires lots of funding I have seen more innovations by cash strapped startups that had to innovate or die so that doesn't quite fit either.
Innovation needs to come from a matrix group, an intrapreneur team, a group of individuals a few degrees out of the normal day to day engineering and mix them into a group of engaged excited people willing to support a new idea. Innovation is often thrown to the side for various silly reasons that become inevitable barriers, from a lack of understanding of how to sell and idea, to the lack of support to test the idea. That is where so many young adults are entering into the creative entrepreneur arena and doing so well, like Mark Zuckerberg starting Facebook, and Matt Mullenweg starting Wordpress. These people are out of the normal day to day constraints of budgets, and having their ideas shot gunned into oblivion.
Innovation comes when there is an environment to support and welcome the idea, whether it is in a coffee house or in the corporate arena it is all possible yet yes there is a discouraged innovative spirit, yet it like a phoenix is coming back alive through other venues.
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