One of the top issues on senior executive’s agendas is the quest to inject a bolus dose of innovation into their businesses in order to meet continually demanding growth objectives. Innovation can have the positive results of differentiation, productivity and neutralizing a competitor’s advantage. Unfortunately, research has shown that the most common result of innovation efforts is waste.
As innovation involves risk, there will inherently be some waste in all innovation efforts—similar to a forced error in tennis. The waste we’re talking about comes from the unforced errors—the ones that could have been prevented by thinking through the situation first. Following are a few of the potential unforced innovation errors:
- Innovation the market isn’t willing to pay for.
- Innovation that doesn’t add relevant differentiation to your offerings.
- Innovation that doesn’t solve existing problems or prevent future problems.
- Innovation that competitors can quickly match.
Which of these unforced errors has your group experienced with its most recent innovation efforts?