what is innovation in business plan

• Business Essentials
• Leadership & Management
• Credential of Leadership, Impact, and Management in Business (CLIMB)
• Entrepreneurship & Innovation
• Digital Transformation
• Finance & Accounting
• Business in Society
• For Organizations
• Support Portal
• Media Coverage
• Founding Donors
• Leadership Team

• Harvard Business School →
• HBS Online →
• Business Insights →

Business Insights

Harvard Business School Online's Business Insights Blog provides the career insights you need to achieve your goals and gain confidence in your business skills.

• Career Development
• Communication
• Decision-Making
• Earning Your MBA
• Negotiation
• News & Events
• Productivity
• Staff Spotlight
• Student Profiles
• Work-Life Balance
• AI Essentials for Business
• Alternative Investments
• Business Analytics
• Business Strategy
• Business and Climate Change
• Design Thinking and Innovation
• Digital Marketing Strategy
• Disruptive Strategy
• Economics for Managers
• Entrepreneurship Essentials
• Financial Accounting
• Global Business
• Launching Tech Ventures
• Leadership Principles
• Leadership, Ethics, and Corporate Accountability
• Leading Change and Organizational Renewal
• Leading with Finance
• Management Essentials
• Negotiation Mastery
• Organizational Leadership
• Power and Influence for Positive Impact
• Strategy Execution
• Sustainable Business Strategy
• Sustainable Investing
• Winning with Digital Platforms

Innovation in Business: What It Is & Why It’s Important

• 08 Mar 2022

Today’s competitive landscape heavily relies on innovation. Business leaders must constantly look for new ways to innovate because you can't solve many problems with old solutions.

Innovation is critical across all industries; however, it's important to avoid using it as a buzzword and instead take time to thoroughly understand the innovation process.

Here's an overview of innovation in business, why it's important, and how you can encourage it in the workplace.

What Is Innovation?

Innovation and creativity are often used synonymously. While similar, they're not the same. Using creativity in business is important because it fosters unique ideas . This novelty is a key component of innovation.

For an idea to be innovative, it must also be useful. Creative ideas don't always lead to innovations because they don't necessarily produce viable solutions to problems.

Simply put: Innovation is a product, service, business model, or strategy that's both novel and useful. Innovations don't have to be major breakthroughs in technology or new business models; they can be as simple as upgrades to a company's customer service or features added to an existing product.

Access your free e-book today.

Types of Innovation

Innovation in business can be grouped into two categories : sustaining and disruptive.

• Sustaining innovation: Sustaining innovation enhances an organization's processes and technologies to improve its product line for an existing customer base. It's typically pursued by incumbent businesses that want to stay atop their market.
• Disruptive innovation: Disruptive innovation occurs when smaller companies challenge larger businesses. It can be classified into groups depending on the markets those businesses compete in. Low-end disruption refers to companies entering and claiming a segment at the bottom of an existing market, while new-market disruption denotes companies creating an additional market segment to serve a customer base the existing market doesn't reach.

The most successful companies incorporate both types of innovation into their business strategies. While maintaining an existing position in the market is important, pursuing growth is essential to being competitive. It also helps protect a business against other companies affecting its standing.

Learn about the differences between sustaining and disruptive innovation in the video below, and subscribe to our YouTube channel for more explainer content!

The Importance of Innovation

Unforeseen challenges are inevitable in business. Innovation can help you stay ahead of the curve and grow your company in the process. Here are three reasons innovation is crucial for your business:

• It allows adaptability: The recent COVID-19 pandemic disrupted business on a monumental scale. Routine operations were rendered obsolete over the course of a few months. Many businesses still sustain negative results from this world shift because they’ve stuck to the status quo. Innovation is often necessary for companies to adapt and overcome the challenges of change.
• It fosters growth: Stagnation can be extremely detrimental to your business. Achieving organizational and economic growth through innovation is key to staying afloat in today’s highly competitive world.
• It separates businesses from their competition: Most industries are populated with multiple competitors offering similar products or services. Innovation can distinguish your business from others.

Innovation & Design Thinking

Several tools encourage innovation in the workplace. For example, when a problem’s cause is difficult to pinpoint, you can turn to approaches like creative problem-solving . One of the best approaches to innovation is adopting a design thinking mentality.

Design thinking is a solutions-based, human-centric mindset. It's a practical way to strategize and design using insights from observations and research.

Four Phases of Innovation

Innovation's requirements for novelty and usefulness call for navigating between concrete and abstract thinking. Introducing structure to innovation can guide this process.

In the online course Design Thinking and Innovation , Harvard Business School Dean Srikant Datar teaches design thinking principles using a four-phase innovation framework : clarify, ideate, develop, and implement.

• Clarify: The first stage of the process is clarifying a problem. This involves conducting research to empathize with your target audience. The goal is to identify their key pain points and frame the problem in a way that allows you to solve it.
• Ideate: The ideation stage involves generating ideas to solve the problem identified during research. Ideation challenges assumptions and overcomes biases to produce innovative ideas.
• Develop: The development stage involves exploring solutions generated during ideation. It emphasizes rapid prototyping to answer questions about a solution's practicality and effectiveness.
• Implement: The final stage of the process is implementation. This stage involves communicating your developed idea to stakeholders to encourage its adoption.

Human-Centered Design

Innovation requires considering user needs. Design thinking promotes empathy by fostering human-centered design , which addresses explicit pain points and latent needs identified during innovation’s clarification stage.

There are three characteristics of human-centered design:

• Desirability: For a product or service to succeed, people must want it. Prosperous innovations are attractive to consumers and meet their needs.
• Feasibility: Innovative ideas won't go anywhere unless you have the resources to pursue them. You must consider whether ideas are possible given technological, economic, or regulatory barriers.
• Viability: Even if a design is desirable and feasible, it also needs to be sustainable. You must consistently produce or deliver designs over extended periods for them to be viable.

Consider these characteristics when problem-solving, as each is necessary for successful innovation.

The Operational and Innovative Worlds

Creativity and idea generation are vital to innovation, but you may encounter situations in which pursuing an idea isn't feasible. Such scenarios represent a conflict between the innovative and operational worlds.

The Operational World

The operational world reflects an organization's routine processes and procedures. Metrics and results are prioritized, and creativity isn't encouraged to the extent required for innovation. Endeavors that disrupt routine—such as risk-taking—are typically discouraged.

The Innovative World

The innovative world encourages creativity and experimentation. This side of business allows for open-endedly exploring ideas but tends to neglect the functional side.

Both worlds are necessary for innovation, as creativity must be grounded in reality. You should strive to balance them to produce human-centered solutions. Design thinking strikes this balance by guiding you between the concrete and abstract.

Learning the Ropes of Innovation

Innovation is easier said than done. It often requires you to collaborate with others, overcome resistance from stakeholders, and invest valuable time and resources into generating solutions. It can also be highly discouraging because many ideas generated during ideation may not go anywhere. But the end result can make the difference between your organization's success or failure.

The good news is that innovation can be learned. If you're interested in more effectively innovating, consider taking an online innovation course. Receiving practical guidance can increase your skills and teach you how to approach problem-solving with a human-centered mentality.

Eager to learn more about innovation? Explore Design Thinking and Innovation ,one of our online entrepreneurship and innovation courses. If you're not sure which course is the right fit, download our free course flowchart to determine which best aligns with your goals.

About the Author

Innovation in business: Importance, benefits, & examples

For companies willing to embrace innovation during uncertain times, the rewards can be transformative , both during a crisis and in its aftermath.

In this article, we demystify the concept of business innovation , offering actionable steps and tangible examples to help ignite a culture of innovation within your organization. We delve into the many benefits of embracing business innovation and draw inspiration from real-world examples where innovation has been a game changer.

Whether you’re an entrepreneur kickstarting your business, a small business owner seeking growth, or a business leader in a larger corporation eyeing enhanced competitiveness, we believe this guide will provide valuable insights. The aim? To help you shape a robust innovation strategy that can propel your business to new heights in any environment.

What is the definition of innovation?

What benefits does business innovation bring for you, what are the different types of innovation, real-world examples of successful innovation, 10 tips for business innovation.

• How to drive strategic innovation with IMD?

In short, innovation is doing something different to create value . Business innovation refers to the process of introducing new ideas, methods, products, or services that result in significant improvements or advancements within an organization. 

Innovation often involves transforming creative ideas into new solutions that drive business growth, improve efficiency, and meet customers’ changing needs while improving decision-making and problem-solving across the organization. 

Think about Tesla’s commitment to putting the first electric vehicle on the road in 2008, or Google’s introduction of a search engine in 1998. Each innovation was unheard of at the time and represented a major paradigm shift. 

Even if modern businesses don’t innovate at this same level, innovation is still crucial in today’s world. Not only does it offer the potential for increased profit, but it can also create new jobs and increase customer trust. Your brand may develop better public recognition, and current workers may discover increased efficiency or productivity. 

In an era characterized by rapid technological advancements and a constantly shifting economic landscape, business innovation is more than just a buzzword—it’s a critical path to success.

While this isn’t an exhaustive list, we wanted to give you a better idea of how innovation can impact your organization. A few benefits of innovation for both old and new business models include:

• Gain a competitive advantage. Innovation can help you develop unique products and services that set you apart from competitors. Over 80% of digitally mature companies cite innovation as one of their core strengths .
• Meet customer demands. Sixty-five percent of fast-growing companies say they collaborate with their customers on potential innovations. Businesses that try to better understand and respond to customer needs through ongoing innovation do a better job attracting new customers and retaining existing clients.
• Drive business growth. You’ll position your company to better identify and seize new opportunities. You may also create opportunities to diversify revenue streams or expand into new markets.
• Increase efficiency and productivity. Innovation can result in increased productivity as you find ways to improve existing processes, streamline operations, and implement new forms of technology. 
• Better equipped to deal with changes. Rather than reacting to changes that catch you off guard, you’ll be better prepared to identify emerging trends and anticipate shifts in the market in advance. 
• Attract and retain talent. You can create an environment that engages your workers and results in higher levels of job satisfaction and employee retention. Many top companies give their employees a designated amount of time each week to work on product innovations .
• Promote resilience and sustainability. Your business will be equipped to navigate economic downturns and changing consumer behavior. 

Even if your innovation doesn’t produce each of these potential effects, even two or three outcomes can provide a boost to your business. As we continue, we’ll discuss different types of innovation and their specific benefits.

Not all innovation processes are identical. Innovation can take on different forms, and we dive into a few of the most common examples.

• Incremental innovation : Incremental innovation involves making small, incremental improvements to existing products, services, or processes. While it may not result in the creation of a new product or fresh concept, it can enhance value creation and produce a positive impact.  The shaving company Gillette understands the importance of incremental improvement . While major product overhauls are uncommon, the company is always looking for ways to improve its razors. When the company finds ways to make incremental product improvements that produce slightly better razors, it becomes slightly more profitable at the same time.  A great example is when the company switched from the Mach3 razor to the Fusion razor by proposing the new product as a better shaving solution.
• Radical innovation : Radical innovation usually involves making a major breakthrough or invention that creates a new market or significantly changes an existing market. These innovations are more noticeable and represent a higher-risk, higher-return pursuit.  Apple’s decision to bring the iPhone to the market in 2007 is a great example of radical innovation. At the time, the iPhone represented the combination of three unique products: a mobile phone, a touch-screen iPod, and a portable connective device enabling users to access email, web browsing, and navigation while on the go.  Fast-forward to today, when over 120 million Americans own an iPhone .
• Disruptive innovation : Disruptive innovation creates a new market or value network that displaces an existing market or value network. Rather than introducing a new product to serve an existing market, disruptive innovation represents the creation of an entirely new market that disrupts the status quo.  Netflix introduced a disruptive innovation when it decided to take its DVD-by-mail business to the next level by providing online streaming . At the time, people received DVDs by mail or picked them up from a local service.  Everything changed when Netflix decided to pivot to online streaming. Now, the video streaming market is projected to grow to over $100 billion within the next five years. 
• Architectural innovation : Architectural innovations make major changes to a product or service’s architecture to attract new markets and consumers. In other words, it repackages an existing product, service, or idea to fill a new need or attract a fresh clientele.  Although smartwatches existed in different forms prior to the Apple Watch, September 2014 represented a major development in the industry as Apple brought its first wearable technology to the market.  Since its inception, the Apple Watch has surpassed giants like Rolex in the watch industry. The Apple Watch represents an architectural innovation because it incorporates existing smartphone technology into a different form. 

“Innovation is anything, but business as usual.” – Anonymous

We’ve discussed a few examples of successful innovation in the business world, but here are a few more noteworthy examples of innovation:

• WhatsApp : Expensive SMS services once dominated electronic communication. WhatsApp changed the game by introducing a secure messaging platform for anyone with a smartphone and an internet connection. This is a great example of radical innovation.
• Gavi : Exists to save children’s lives through broader access to essential immunizations. By targeting product innovations and a single improved framework , Gavi drove its incremental innovation efforts forward and achieved a deeper level of impact. 
• Mercedes-Benz : Made the decision to prioritize digital product development in its manufacturing efforts. The incremental innovation resulted in a significantly shorter innovation cycle and a rise in the company’s overall efficiency rate.
• Discovery Group : This international insurance company made the decision to offer incentives to company leaders. The organization used a semiannual divisional scorecard to incorporate multiple forms of innovation into its culture and heartbeat and mobilize the entire company around the same goal.
• Salesforce : came to market in 1999 as an internet customer relationship management (CRM) service. The company foresaw the future by establishing a cloud-based system that could operate at a minimal cost with businesses of all sizes. Salesforce’s radical innovation continues to produce a positive impact to this day.

You now understand the importance of business innovation, but you may still have questions about how to make innovation a reality within your organization. We offer some tips that can help make your innovation more effective and beneficial.

1. Create a culture of innovation

Businesses should create a culture where employees feel empowered to share ideas, experiment, and take calculated risks. Team leaders should talk openly and regularly about the value of continual improvement.  It may help to shift conversations about new ideas away from potential roadblocks and financial sacrifices. Instead, innovative conversations should focus on potential possibilities and the impact of innovative ideas on the organization.

2. Understand customer needs

Better understanding your customers’ needs (and desires) can equip you to serve them better and longer. You can best understand customer needs by making a habit of collecting regular feedback, conducting market research, and engaging with customers to uncover insights and identify innovation opportunities. 

Consider crafting a customer needs statement that concisely defines your ideal client’s exact needs.

3. Encourage cross-functional collaboration

Encourage diverse perspectives and interdisciplinary collaboration to promote fresh ideas. Take steps to break down silos and create channels for cross-functional knowledge. 

As you do this, establish a centralized communication method or standard and encourage regular dialogue so all team members are on the same page.

4. Allocate resources for innovation

In addition to money, time is a great resource to invest. Along with research and development budgets, set a predetermined amount of time for employees to pursue new ideas and methodologies. You must also decide which tools and technologies are necessary for your team to reach the next level. 

5. Embrace continuous learning

Employees who continue to grow and stretch are better positioned to contribute to the company’s ongoing innovation and development. Provide opportunities for employees to gain new skills, attend training programs, and participate in workshops or conferences. 

Encourage employees to stay updated on industry trends and best practices. Consider setting aside time to ask employees what they’re learning and how it might benefit the organization as a whole. 

6. Promote risk-taking and accept failure

Innovation often doesn’t happen without risk. Major innovations like the iPhone and Netflix’s streaming service could have easily failed, but these organizations didn’t let the potential danger keep them from moving forward. 

Foster an environment where employees feel safe to take risks without the fear of harsh consequences. Celebrate successes and failures, and consider what you can learn from each event. 

7. Seek external perspectives

If you never take time to listen to outside voices and perspectives, you’ll miss out on a wealth of helpful information. Collaborate with external stakeholders, industry experts, consultants, or startups to gain new perspectives. 

Explore partnerships, joint ventures, or acquisitions. Adopt a humble posture in conversations, and be willing to challenge your preexisting beliefs. 

8. Set clear innovation goals

Align goals and objectives with the overall business strategy and communicate them throughout the organization. Consider using the SMART goal framework to create measurable and actionable goals. 

Another best practice is to choose key performance indicators (KPIs) or specific metrics that reflect the type of progress you hope to make.  

9. Encourage idea generation and evaluation

If you want your employees to develop new ideas, give them the time and space necessary to cultivate new thoughts. Promote idea generation by holding brainstorming sessions, innovation workshops, or suggestion boxes. 

Have a platform for employees to submit and collaborate on ideas, and ensure each team member feels comfortable and safe when it’s time to share their perspectives or thoughts. 

10. Celebrate and recognize innovation

Reward innovative achievements, highlight the individuals and teams behind them, and showcase their impact on the organization. This will encourage future collaboration and participation among your team and allow your organization to mark progress and reflect on the company’s growth and development.

How to drive strategic innovation with IMD ?

Innovation in business can sometimes feel like a complex puzzle, but when the pieces fall into place, it can propel your company to new heights. It helps redefine your product and service value, strengthen customer relationships, and create a distinctive space for you in the market.

The benefits of innovation extend to all business models, enabling companies to stand out with unique offerings. By understanding customer needs and fostering a culture of continuous innovation, companies can attract new customers and deepen relationships with existing ones. Innovation, in turn, drives growth by opening new opportunities and diversifying revenue streams.

In today’s dynamic and competitive business landscape, embracing innovation is not just an option, but a necessity.

If you’re looking to further embrace innovation, IMD’s innovation programs are here to guide you. Our programs are tailored to strengthen your leadership skills, enhance your ability to innovate strategically, and provide you with practical knowledge to drive successful innovation.

With IMD, you get more than just access to world-class faculty and personal coaching. We believe in real-world learning, ensuring that all of our participants can apply their newly acquired knowledge from day one. We are here to give you the tools you need to lead your business into an innovative future.

Discover more about IMD’s Innovation programs here!

Subscribe for more great innovation content 💌

Subscribe now for exclusive content from imd.

Are you curious how certain new businesses can completely reshape industries and leave established companies struggling to keep up? In the ever-changing business world, staying ahead of the competition requires constant innovation. While there have been many ideas and strategies over time, few have been as impactful and enduring as disruptive innovation. This article will […]

Picture this — you have a new startup or large business operating in a highly competitive market. A constant shift in trends makes it hard to keep up with your competitors and offer products people want. How will your organization keep up with those changes, thrive in the market, and set the pace for the […]

For companies willing to embrace innovation during uncertain times, the rewards can be transformative, both during a crisis and in its aftermath. In this article, we demystify the concept of business innovation, offering actionable steps and tangible examples to help ignite a culture of innovation within your organization. We delve into the many benefits of […]

5 Effective Steps to Creating a Powerful Innovation Strategy

Updated on: 1 March 2023

Innovation is an organization’s path to survival. In a world of rapid change and increasing competition, innovation has become essential to maintaining business growth, competitiveness, and productivity.  

Innovation is one of the key activities in a company’s operations. Innovation is a long and complex process that takes an abstract idea and converts it into a successful product or service. A proper strategy in place to execute it ensures that you do it well. 

In this post, we are exploring 5 effective steps for developing a powerful innovation strategy.

What is an Innovation Strategy

“Innovation transforms insight and technology into novel products, processes and services that create new value for stakeholders, drive economic growth and improve standards of living.”

In the simplest of terms, innovation is the process of bringing new, unique, and creative ideas into reality. An organization following an innovation strategy uses innovation to execute its business strategy. In other words, an innovation strategy guides the process of resource allocation, enabling the organization to achieve its long-term goals through the use of innovation.  

“An innovation strategy guides decisions on how resources are to be used to meet a firm’s objectives for innovation and thereby deliver value and build competitive advantage.” – Mark Dodgson, David Gann, Ammon Salter (The Management of Technological Innovation: Strategy and Practice)

A company’s innovation strategy should specify how the different types of innovation fit into the business strategy and the resources that should be allocated to implement these innovations.

An innovation strategy paves the way to 

• Improve the ability to retain customers 
• Reduce competitive intensity
• Improve product or service performance  
• Increase the chances of becoming a market leader 
• Preserve bargaining power in an ecosystem and blunt imitators

Types of innovation

• Gradual/ incremental innovation (continuous innovation) is based on abilities that can be easily learned and developed in an organization and has a low-risk low return. 
• Radical innovation (discontinuous innovation) on the other hand may change the structure of an industry dramatically and has a high-risk high return. 

Innovation Matrix

The innovation matrix as introduced by VIIMA helps categorize innovation based on two dimensions; the technology it uses and the market it operates in. It, thus, visualizes the most common types of innovation.

Based on these categories, three major types of innovation an innovation strategy can be based on can be identified, 

• Product innovation; occurs in the development of new products, modifications in established products, or in the usage of new materials or components in the manufacture of established products
• Process innovation; refers to the development of and implementation of significantly improved organizational processes through the integration of new technologies
• Business model innovation; refers to the improvements done to an existing business model or the creation of a new one to better meet the needs of customers

The Innovation Value Chain 

The innovation value chain provides a framework to identify which innovation approach makes the most sense for a company to adopt. It enables managers to find the company’s weaknesses and become more aware of an apt approach to implement for success. 

The framework includes three phases 

• Idea generation ; creating and sourcing new ideas from internal and external environments to achieve a competitive advantage in the marketplace.
• Conversion ; selecting and screening the best idea and implementing them. While this involves transforming knowledge into innovations in the form of new products, processes, or organizational forms, special focus should be placed on the company budget and strict funding criteria to avoid shutting down the development of the idea. 
• Diffusion ; spreading the idea across the organization. Find the relevant communities in the organization to support and spread the new product or service, process, and practices across geographic location, consumer groups, and channels. 

How to Develop an Innovation Strategy 

Determine the innovation strategy objective .

Developing an innovation strategy should start with understanding the reason behind developing one in the first place or the objectives you want to achieve by implementing it. 

To identify your innovation strategy objectives, examine the overall business objectives that help the company achieve sustainable competitive advantage. This will clear the path for your innovation strategy as it should eventually support the overarching goals of the organization.

Get the executive team onboard 

Engage the leadership team in dialogue and ensure that they are aware of the innovation objectives established and what it means for them as well as the future of the organization. During the discussions also identify, 

• External changes that could be occurring at present and in the future as a result of innovation 
• The implication of such changes on the company 
• Scope of innovation; identifying opportunities for innovation, whether to improve existing products or services or introduce brand new products to new markets
• Business outcomes; financial results, social impact, new economic models, market leadership,  etc. 
• The gaps that must be closed to deliver the chosen innovation scope, especially in terms of processes, skills, and resources needed and company culture
• Barriers to and enablers of the innovation strategy.  Barriers can come in the form of embedded beliefs on how the business should operate and enablers can show up as core capabilities or resources.  

Their involvement is necessary to create a shared vision of success with innovation at the core.

Gather customer insight 

Understanding customer needs will inform the direction of the development of the innovation idea. It will also enable you to formulate a strategy that works and create value-creating innovations that will ultimately generate a good return on investment.

In order to create value for potential customers with your innovation strategy, you need a thorough understanding of your market and the customer segment you are catering to. 

(Utilize a customer persona to gather insight on customers’ demographic characteristics, needs, challenges, and ambitions and apply that knowledge to generate a solution.)

Allocate resources 

When allocating resources for new areas for growth and renewal, reserving resources for the core business growth should also be taken into consideration. By conducting a comprehensive audit on the current innovation landscape of the organization you can determine and understand how much time, effort, and money are allocated to different innovation initiatives. 

The Harvard Business Review has introduced the Innovation Ambition Matrix to determine how to allocate resources based on the type of innovation initiative.

The matrix describes 3 types of innovation and how resources should be split among them,  

• Core initiatives – refer to efforts to make incremental changes to existing products and incremental inroads into new markets. For example, through new packaging or added service convenience. Such efforts can draw on resources the company already has. 
• Transformational initiatives – refer to creating new offers to serve new markets and customer needs. This may require assets the company is unfamiliar with. 
• Adjacent innovations – involves leveraging something the company does well into a new space. This type of innovation allows a company to draw on existing capabilities but necessitates putting those capabilities to new uses.

Research conducted by HBR shows that companies that allocated about 70% of resources to core initiatives, 20% to adjacent ones, and 10% to transformational ones outperformed their peers.

However, the right balance will vary from company to company and according to factors such as industry, competitive position, and the company’s stage of development.

To learn more about striking and maintaining the right balance between the allocation of resources and the innovation initiative, refer to this article here.

Develop an innovation system 

Not all organizations are likely to possess the capabilities to execute successfully at all three levels of innovation ambitions identified above.

However, HBR emphasizes that the companies that have got it right, have usually focused on five key areas of management that help them excel at the three levels of innovation ambition, and hence enable them to maintain a sustainable innovation system with the organization. 

• Talent : includes the skills needed to execute core, adjacent, and transformational innovation initiatives. 
• Integration : refers to organizing and managing the skills in the right way, with the right mandate, and under the conditions that will help them succeed.
• Funding: refers to determining how to fund the innovation initiatives. Core and adjacent innovations can be funded by the relevant business unit’s P&L through annual budget cycles. Transformational innovations, on the other hand, require a sustained investment that comes from an entity (i.e. executive suite and the CEO).  
• Pipeline management : mechanisms to track and monitor ongoing initiatives and ensure that they are progressing according to plan.
• Metrics : what measurements should inform management. While traditional financial metrics are appropriate for measuring core and adjacent initiatives, a combination of noneconomic and internal metrics should be used to evaluate transformational efforts.

Developing an Innovation Strategy 

The innovation strategy of a competitor or an industry leader may not work for you. While you can learn from their best practices, an explicit innovation strategy to match your own competitive needs will be effective in the long run. 

Follow the innovation strategy steps explained above to formulate a robust strategy and better coordinate your innovation process. 

Got anything to add to our guide? Let us know in the comments below.

Join over thousands of organizations that use Creately to brainstorm, plan, analyze, and execute their projects successfully.

More Related Articles

Leave a comment Cancel reply

Please enter an answer in digits: sixteen − five =

Download our all-new eBook for tips on 50 powerful Business Diagrams for Strategic Planning.

Ideas and insights from Harvard Business Publishing Corporate Learning

Five Steps to Implementing Innovation

We’re all familiar with stories about breakthrough products, services, and processes—the disruptors that grab the headlines and garner eye-popping valuations. And then there are the entrepreneurs who end up on the cover of Bloomberg Businessweek and write best-selling books about the keys to their success. The message seems to be that, through good timing or genius, innovation is the purview of a select few.

But at its core, innovation is simply a way to solve problems and create value in new ways. Overhauling an inefficient process, using customer feedback to breathe new life into a stale product—innovations don’t have to be splashy or game-changing to lead to sustained organizational success. These small but mighty initiatives seldom come from top management or an “idea lab,” but rather from individual contributors and frontline leaders who are closest to the customer and best positioned to understand their needs.

When employees from throughout the ranks learn to see themselves as innovators and take steps to make their ideas a reality, the results can be powerful. In addition to furthering a company’s purpose and bolstering its bottom line, employee-driven innovation engages people in ways that carrying out top-down directives never will.

Tips to get you started

Given the growing interest in innovation, it’s no surprise that organizations are looking for clear guidelines on how to implement it. Every innovation is unique. Even so, certain strategies and skills are useful across a range of projects and at all levels of an organization:

• Spot opportunities for innovation. As innovation expert Greg Satell puts it, “No matter what form innovation takes—short, agile sprints or long-term, grand-challenge investments—innovation is fundamentally about solving problems.” As you think about your organization, what problems need solving? Where do opportunities lie? Once you land on some promising ideas, continue to explore them from different angles. By doing so, you may discover even more exciting possibilities.
• Prioritize opportunities. You don’t have infinite time and resources, so prioritize potential innovations depending on where you think you’ll get the most bang for your buck. Narrow in on the two or three ideas you think are most worth digging into, testing, and refining. Then express them as hypotheses you can test through targeted experiments.
• Test your potential innovations. Keep your experiments modest in scope, especially when you’re starting out. You may want to begin with “paper prototypes,” or simple drawings of the new product or process that your end users can interact with to see what works and what doesn’t. They are quick and inexpensive, and they help you figure out where you need to tweak your concept. With each round of testing, move to progressively more complex experiments involving more users.
• Build support for your innovations. Don’t be shy. Make sure the time is right and tell your story to all your stakeholders, including those whose resource backing you need and those who’ll directly benefit from your innovation. You’ll want to tailor your approach based on what’s important to each person and what you need from them.
• Learn from your innovation efforts. You’ve probably heard the mantra “fail fast, learn fast.” After each innovation, list what you would do again and what you wouldn’t. And don’t overthink failure; the key is learn from it and apply those lessons to your next innovation.

We’ve seen these steps work at all levels in an organization. In fact, we even followed them when redesigning our Harvard ManageMentor® innovation-related topics. What process do you follow when implementing innovation in your organization?

Janice Molloy is senior manager, online learning at Harvard Business Publishing. Email her at [email protected] .

Let’s talk

Change isn’t easy, but we can help. Together we’ll create informed and inspired leaders ready to shape the future of your business.

© 2024 Harvard Business School Publishing. All rights reserved. Harvard Business Publishing is an affiliate of Harvard Business School.

• Privacy Policy
• Copyright Information
• Terms of Use
• About Harvard Business Publishing
• Higher Education
• Harvard Business Review
• Harvard Business School

We use cookies to understand how you use our site and to improve your experience. By continuing to use our site, you accept our use of cookies and revised Privacy Policy .

Cookie and Privacy Settings

We may request cookies to be set on your device. We use cookies to let us know when you visit our websites, how you interact with us, to enrich your user experience, and to customize your relationship with our website.

Click on the different category headings to find out more. You can also change some of your preferences. Note that blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on our websites and the services we are able to offer.

These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our website and to use some of its features.

Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver the website, refusing them will have impact how our site functions. You always can block or delete cookies by changing your browser settings and force blocking all cookies on this website. But this will always prompt you to accept/refuse cookies when revisiting our site.

We fully respect if you want to refuse cookies but to avoid asking you again and again kindly allow us to store a cookie for that. You are free to opt out any time or opt in for other cookies to get a better experience. If you refuse cookies we will remove all set cookies in our domain.

We provide you with a list of stored cookies on your computer in our domain so you can check what we stored. Due to security reasons we are not able to show or modify cookies from other domains. You can check these in your browser security settings.

We also use different external services like Google Webfonts, Google Maps, and external Video providers. Since these providers may collect personal data like your IP address we allow you to block them here. Please be aware that this might heavily reduce the functionality and appearance of our site. Changes will take effect once you reload the page.

Google Webfont Settings:

Google Map Settings:

Google reCaptcha Settings:

Vimeo and Youtube video embeds:

You can read about our cookies and privacy settings in detail on our Privacy Policy Page.

We're sorry but you will need to enable Javascript to access all of the features of this site.

Stanford Online

A guide to innovation management.

Companies, much like individuals, don’t benefit from remaining static — especially given the rapid pace of change in the world around them. 

Think of a staple brand (Netflix, Amazon, even your refrigerator manufacturer) and then compare the current operations of that organization to its origin. More often than not, the shifts in their process, product, and perspective are responsible for their continued relevance in our lives.

In an ideal world, organization executives would be managing a flood of new ideas from employees, finding the ones with merit and then putting them into practice in their business strategy. Unfortunately, for many companies, that idea-flood looks more like a firmly closed faucet — or, if they’re lucky, a leaky one.

There are several layers to the innovation management process, beginning with the fostering of an environment where a new idea is encouraged. At Stanford Online, leading innovation becomes a matter of inspiring people to practice — rather than just talk about — innovation.

Let’s dig a little more into this topical subject, from the possibilities of innovation management to successfully creating it within a company.

What is innovation management?

Innovation management is the process of taking innovative ideas from their inception to implementation. A company’s innovation capability rests in this system, and when done successfully can result in anything from a record-shattering new product to a revolutionary way to address customer needs.

There are, generally, a few steps to innovation management:

Step one: topic ideation and generation Arguably the most important stage — which we’ll get into a little more later — is turning a workspace into an innovation ecosystem. Any organization that encourages employees to think creatively, work on passion projects, and collaborate with coworkers is going to find they have a competitive advantage over companies that don’t open dialogue for their workforce to share ideas.

Step two: recording and sharing  Innovative ideas can be easily lost if there aren’t structures to catch them, record them, and make them publicly available. Before an idea can be considered ‘good,’ it needs to see the light of day. Whether this record system looks like a shared document or like a monthly reporting meeting, an idea that is saved and shared can gain traction and create previously unimaginable business development.

Step three: innovation evaluation The more ideas a team generates, the more options they’ll have as they sort through and discuss which are most likely to succeed. A company can act like a research center, picking apart an idea and distilling it down into something that can create benefit.

Step four: organize and implement A company, however successful, doesn’t have the resources to put every innovative idea into practice. Deciding which idea makes the most sense to try at a given point in time over others — while safely storing these unchosen ideas away for later — is an important practice of prioritization.

Types of innovation Any innovative manager should be on the lookout for ideas to implement, whether they’ve intentionally created an innovation process or not. There are a few types of innovation ideas:

• Organizational innovation is the adjustment of a business’s practices that streamline, automate, or adjust operations for the overall benefit of the company.
• Social innovation handles sticking points in social spaces and workplace environments, generally to the benefit of teamwork and group wellbeing.
• Product innovation refers to a new or improved good or service that achieves benefits for a company, which may include improving customer experience or opening a new market.
• Open innovation is when ideas aren’t just cultivated within an organization, but also sourced from external suggestions and solutions.
• Sustainable innovation addresses the environmental, social, and other challenges products may bring to the world, seeking to reduce waste, create more equity, or erase any negative impacts a product or service has.
• Disruptive innovation is when products or services that were previously restricted to certain consumers become more available to the general public, shaking up the established competition channels.

Innovation projects aren’t restricted to a single category, like technological innovation. These creative, record-shattering, innovative ideas can benefit entire companies, individual workers, and the world in which they operate.

Impacts of innovation management

Successful innovation management takes an idea from its metaphorical birth well into its life to the benefit of the company, workforces, and the market.

While the process may be clunky at first as innovation managers adjust elements to smooth operations for the easier flow of ideas, eventually a well-run innovation management program can produce numerous benefits for a company. Some of these advantages include:

• A well-working, streamlined process to roll out new products, services, and initiatives.
• An improvement to a creative team’s environment that generates more ideas.
• An increase in brand impact, recognition, and overall monetary efficiency.
• A forward-looking, flexible company stance better suited to handling new industry trends.
• Higher quality and cutting-edge products that lead the competition.

Companies find success and become household names because they innovate. Robert Sutton, professor and researcher at Stanford University’s School of Engineering who studies the science of organizational change , uses Netflix as one example of a company’s innovation. From DVD lenders — a disruptive innovation — to streaming services and now to globally-known production company, Netflix’s innovation came from a shift in their culture: “from know it all to learn it all.” Meaning, of course, that when Netflix officials set their sites on unified growth, it opened the door for everyone to share their ideas. The result is a worldwide phenomenon that continues to engage and compel audiences.

Successful innovation management

Implementing innovation management isn’t always a smooth process, as companies can struggle to adjust to new ways of thinking.

Professor Sutton believes the view of innovation is flawed, and that the desire to innovate faster and better can have some enormous oversights. In a CIO Insight article on renovating innovation he outlines the diverse and recombined views that brought about some of the greatest innovations of our history — the assembly line or jazz, to name a couple. It isn’t a question of having the most prominent technological leaders, or geniuses, come up with the greatest new idea for more rapid innovation, but rather a group effort in which as many outside views can be sourced for overall benefits.

One of the largest barriers that can stand in the way of successful innovation is the overly structured oversight from the great innovators who have historically led the charge within the organization. While attention to detail is never a bad idea, “for creative work, the best management is often no management at all,” Sutton explains.

For executives, this can be quite the adjustment. After all, structure and consistent products may be the reason their companies have gained such success and prestige. Successful leadership in innovation spaces means motivating people to be creative, knowing when to charge ahead and when to slow down on idea implementation, and halting projects when they’re not working. In short, when leading a company, group, or team that aims to succeed with innovation, strategies should keep a global view — with the overall goals in mind — while allowing for flexibility in individual innovative spaces.

Remember, business innovation isn’t just about startups and small organizations that have more flexibility as they establish practices. At Stanford University, Professors Raymond Levitt and Pedram Mokrian discuss how intrapreneurship — an entrepreneurial spirit within the framework of a company — can bring innovative thinking to a business. In their on-demand webinar entitled Embracing Intrapreneurship: Create a Culture of Innovation Within Your Organization , they outline the biggest barriers to innovation — everything from underperforming innovative products to disruptive innovation risking standard practices — and how to overcome them.

Innovation, almost by definition, is a practice of improving standard structures while overcoming the dominating views that may limit progress — a struggle of the new versus the known.

Successful innovation management needs:

• A future-oriented view and attitude that bravely faces these unavoidable challenges.
• A flexible management strategy that balances company goals and innovation possibilities.
• A willingness to try, and try again when ideas need to be optimized.

Implementing innovation management

“There’s space for innovation,” you argue. “I just haven’t heard any world-class ideas yet.” This may be true. However, it may not be that workforces are lacking creativity, rather that it can be difficult to come up with new ideas with traditional workflows. Instead of just ‘opening the space,’ your strategies in place to ideate and brainstorm may need a little tweaking.

There are a few different terminologies to capture this complex process, but at Stanford University, future innovators learn these valuable skills in courses that teach design thinking . This nonlinear sequence of idea formation involves teaching workforces about the tools, mindsets, and working views that can facilitate innovation and problem-solving.

For example, banking industries that have traditional, and foundational, practices, are still faced with major disruptions — financial crises, a global pandemic, cryptocurrency, and so on. These new problems require new approaches and new innovative strategies provided by design thinking, solutions that adapted to new challenges as they arose and pivoted to creative answers. Steve Suarez, the Global Head of Innovation, Finance and Risk at HSBC discusses these necessary lessons in an on-demand webinar: Leading Innovation and Design Thinking .

Design thinking and innovation management go hand in hand. The techniques design thinking offers creates and encourages innovative ideas, while creativity and innovation management helps solve problems and channel brilliant new concepts into action.

Innovate, create, and develop ingenious ideas

In the Leading People, Culture, and Innovation Program , Stanford Online takes creative thinkers to the next level to make real change within organizations. Lead your organization into a new era of innovation with directly applicable skills designed to help you and your organization find success no matter the circumstances.

• Engineering
• Computer Science & Security
• Business & Management
• Energy & Sustainability
• Data Science
• Medicine & Health
• Explore All
• Technical Support
• Master’s Application FAQs
• Master’s Student FAQs
• Master's Tuition & Fees
• Grades & Policies
• Graduate Application FAQs
• Graduate Student FAQs
• Graduate Tuition & Fees
• Community Standards Review Process
• Academic Calendar
• Exams & Homework FAQs
• Enrollment FAQs
• Tuition, Fees, & Payments
• Custom & Executive Programs
• Free Online Courses
• Free Content Library
• School of Engineering
• Graduate School of Education
• Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability
• School of Humanities & Sciences
• Stanford Human Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI)
• Graduate School of Business
• Stanford Law School
• School of Medicine
• Learning Collaborations
• Stanford Credentials
• What is a digital credential?
• Grades and Units Information
• Our Community
• Get Course Updates

What is Innovation Strategy? Overview, Key Benefits, and Examples

Staying competitive and relevant requires more than just keeping up with the latest trends. It demands a structured and forward-thinking approach known as an innovation strategy. This comprehensive guide will walk you through what an innovation strategy is, why it’s crucial, and how it can revolutionize your business.

From the foundational concepts to real-world examples, we’ll explore how businesses, with or without the assistance of innovation strategy consulting, are harnessing the power of innovation to drive success.

What is Innovation Strategy?

An organization’s structured plan or approach to fostering and managing innovation within its operations is known as an innovation strategy. It defines a precise course for coming up with fresh concepts, putting them into practice, and eventually achieving long-term growth and competitiveness.

Setting objectives, allocating resources, and fostering an innovative culture are all essential components of a successful innovation plan. It can cover a wide range of topics, including customer engagement, process optimization, and market growth. Organizations can adapt to shifting market dynamics, keep one step ahead of competitors, and satisfy changing customer demands and expectations by implementing an innovation strategy.

Benefits of an Innovation Strategy

An innovation strategy offers many benefits for businesses, whether they embark on this journey independently or seek guidance from innovation strategy consulting. Below listed are some of the benefits of an innovation strategy:

Competitive Edge

With the tools and mindset to innovate proactively, this strategy helps organizations to stay ahead of the curve. Companies can recognize and seize growth opportunities, differentiate themselves from competitors, and improve their business innovation strategy by engaging in systematic innovation.

By utilizing external expertise and best practices, incorporating insights from innovation strategy consulting services helps strengthen this edge. As a result, the company becomes more inventive and adaptable, able to respond quickly to shifting market dynamics, satisfy growing client expectations, and keep a solid foothold in the industry.

Structured Approach

A planned and systematic approach to innovation is introduced by an innovation strategy, which is essential for putting creative initiatives into action. Businesses can use this well-structured framework as a road map for creating, putting into practice, and managing their innovation initiatives.

This organized method can be improved further by the assistance of innovation strategy consulting services, which can assist firms in customizing their plans to meet their unique demands and market dynamics. The end result is an efficient and well-structured innovation process that fosters imagination and idea development and guarantees that innovations are in line with the long-term aims and objectives of the business.

Enhanced Creativity

An innovation strategy helps firms become more creative. Embracing an innovative culture motivates staff to think creatively and generate original ideas. This focus on innovation techniques may result in a more dynamic workplace where employees feel free to experiment with new concepts.

Services for innovation strategy consulting can improve this creative environment even more. These outside specialists frequently bring a wealth of knowledge and best practices, sparking original thought and expanding the bounds of conventional problem-solving.

Risk Mitigation

An innovation strategy is essential for avoiding risks related to innovation operations. It is not just about coming up with original ideas. An innovation strategy assists firms in selecting the innovations to pursue, effectively allocating resources, and managing any risks by offering a defined framework and a clear plan.

Including information from innovation strategy consulting services can improve risk reduction even more. They frequently bring a thorough awareness of potential problems and can assist companies in navigating the complicated innovation landscape while reducing risks. As a result, risks are identified and methodically addressed, leading to a more considered and informed approach to innovation.

Improved Efficiency

Businesses may optimize resource allocation, streamline processes, and save operating costs by systematically developing and executing innovations. One of the key components of a well-designed company innovation strategy is this emphasis on efficiency. By identifying potential areas for efficiency improvements, innovation strategy consulting services can boost efficiency.

They provide the organization with a new point of view by highlighting inefficiencies that may have gone unnoticed internally. Costs are reduced, and resources can be redirected toward innovative projects, giving businesses a competitive advantage and increased market presence.

Customer-Centric Solutions

An innovation strategy places a heavy emphasis on creating customer-centric solutions that synchronize innovation efforts with those of the target market. By drawing on outside experience and industry knowledge, incorporating insights from innovation strategy consulting services can improve the creation of customer-centric products even more.

It results in the development of goods, services, and solutions that are precisely tuned to satisfy client needs and provide the most potential value. The success of the innovation strategy as a whole is attributed to the customer-centric approach’s increased satisfaction and loyalty.

Revenue Growth

Organizations can open up new revenue streams, broaden their market reach, and boost their market share by encouraging an innovation culture and systematically pursuing new product or service advancements. By utilizing their knowledge in identifying opportunities in the market and developing effective techniques for seizing them, innovation strategy consulting services can increase revenue growth.

As a result, the business is well-positioned to grow its revenue through new markets, creative offers, and increased competition. The firm is better positioned for long-term market success because of this revenue increase, which also improves financial performance.

Market Adaptation

Organizations can more easily adjust to shifting market conditions and changing customer preferences with the aid of an innovation strategy. Businesses may stay adaptable and sensitive to changes in the market by systematically pursuing innovative solutions, ensuring that their products or services remain relevant.

Using their knowledge of market dynamics and trends, innovation strategy consulting services help improve market adaption. These professionals often have a thorough awareness of the prospects in emerging markets and may help organizations modify their strategies accordingly.

Talent Attraction

An innovation strategy helps the company to be more creative and is essential in luring top talent. Businesses that foster an innovative culture attract creative and inventive people ready to share their ideas.

Businesses become more appealing to potential employees because of the reputation for innovation and access to networks of top talent brought by innovation strategy consulting services. As a result, a dynamic and creative environment is fostered in the workplace, attracting the best and brightest. This gives companies access to the knowledge and innovations of top individuals and establishes the company as a hub for industry innovation and thought leadership.

Long-Term Sustainability

A long-term sustainability strategy is built on an innovation strategy, which is more than just a short-term plan. By utilizing their knowledge in identifying new trends and possibilities that have the potential to propel the organization’s growth for years, innovation strategy consulting services can further improve long-term sustainability.

It puts the company in a position to remain flexible and relevant regardless of changes in markets, technologies, and customer preferences. This tactical approach assures the organization’s survival and puts it on the right track for long-term success in the industry.

Examples of Innovation Strategy in Action

To understand how innovation strategy can drive transformative change within organizations, let’s look at a real-world case.

Alex Morgan is a forward-thinking Chief Information Officer (CIO) of FutureBank. With a background rich in integrating tech solutions in the banking sector, Alex is no stranger to innovation. However, his latest challenge involves implementing a systematic approach to harness consistent and breakthrough innovations for FutureBank.

To navigate the complex landscape of innovation, Alex introduces the Transformation Navigation Team. He initiates a RACI matrix workshop, a simple yet effective means for defining project roles and responsibilities. In the matrix:

R (Responsible): Identifies the person performing the task. A (Accountable): Ensures completion of the task. C (Consulted): Provides input. I (Informed): Receives updates on progress.

With clear responsibilities established, the Transformation Navigation Team is focused on auditing and strengthening internal capabilities. Alex initiates training and certification initiatives, engaging industry experts to ensure that teams are well-equipped and mature enough to take on challenges.

These internal capabilities fortify FutureBank’s innovation engine, ensuring that every idea is rooted in robust processes and expertise. The initiatives include maturity assessment, coaching, mentoring, design thinking training and certification, expert guidance, and collaboration with design and technology partners.

With the Transformation Navigation Team in place and internal groups armed with hands-on training and tools, the journey commences with a focus on Business Strategy. The team starts by refreshing the business model for the bank and reviewing its value proposition for key customer segments, using tools like the business model and value proposition canvas.

Furthermore, they delve into cross-product service maps, outlining key processes from client acquisition to the investment lifecycle. These comprehensive tools offer an end-to-end view of service delivery, highlighting customer-facing and internal processes. They promote a holistic approach, maximize operational efficiency, and foster a shared understanding of processes.

With a shared understanding of the business model and a clear view of gaps and bottlenecks in the service map, the team proceeds to define objectives and shortlist ideas. They use the Innovation Canvas to brainstorm solutions and prioritize experiments that align with the organization’s goals.

Using a prioritization matrix, the team selects three experiments with the best balance of feasibility and impact on the organization.

This case illustrates how an effective innovation strategy, guided by a visionary leader like Alex Morgan, can propel an organization towards consistent and breakthrough innovations while strengthening its internal capabilities.

Final Thoughts

The secret to realizing the full potential of your company and safeguarding its future is innovation strategy. The rewards are obvious, from increasing productivity to luring top personnel and staying ahead of the competition.

Be mindful of the fact that innovation is not constrained by industry or size as you examine examples of innovation strategy. It’s a way of thinking, a will to accept change, and a journey that can take your company to new heights. So go ahead, put these strategies to use, and let innovation be the catalyst for your success.

• What is an innovation strategy, and why is it important?
• An organized plan for encouraging innovation and putting new concepts into practice within a company is known as an innovation strategy. Continually creating and putting into use innovative solutions, goods, or processes, it’s essential for maintaining competitiveness, adjusting to change, and promoting growth.
• How does an innovation strategy differ from a business strategy?
• An innovation strategy focuses on driving creativity and implementing new ideas, while a business strategy is a broader plan outlining how a company achieves its goals. Innovation strategy is a subset of business strategy, specifically addressing creativity and new product development, which can significantly impact a company’s success.
• What are the key components of an innovation strategy?
• Setting specific goals, promoting a culture of creativity, distributing resources, establishing processes, and regularly monitoring and improving innovation efforts are key components of an innovation strategy.
• What are the primary objectives of implementing an innovation strategy?
• The primary objectives of establishing an innovation strategy into effect are to promote growth, boost competitiveness, boost productivity, and develop customer-centric solutions.
• What are the key benefits of having a well-defined innovation strategy?
• Gaining a competitive edge, encouraging creativity, reducing risks, improving efficiency, increasing revenue, adjusting to market changes, luring top talent, and guaranteeing long-term sustainability in a quickly changing business environment are some of the key benefits of a well-defined innovation strategy.
• Is an Innovation Strategy only relevant for large corporations, or can small businesses benefit as well?
• All sizes of businesses can benefit from innovation strategies. Maintaining flexibility, adapting to market changes, and creating original solutions are all advantages for small businesses. They can become more competitive and promote growth by using customized innovation strategies.
• What are some potential risks associated with an Innovation Strategy?
• Resource allocation issues, failure to bring innovations to the market, excessive development expenses, and internal reluctance to change are among possible risks associated with an innovation strategy.

Facing a digital product challenge?

As guide and partner, let us help you deliver impactful change and delight your customers.

More articles

The Complexity of Multi-Channel Patient Recruitment Platforms in Clinical Trials 

How to Build a Customer Experience Strategy in 10 Steps

MassChallenge

Innovation Blog

Business innovation strategy: 9 key pillars for success in 2021.

• Published on: January 6, 2021
• Author: masschallenge

More than 80% of leaders at large corporations believe innovation is crucial for business growth. And yet, many companies have no innovation strategy.

Technology and digital disruption continue to advance at breakneck speed, leading all industries into a future where business agility counts just as much as having an experienced C-suite.

It doesn’t matter what industry you operate in now—the choice is the same for all companies:

Innovate or get left behind.

Without a solid plan that maps out how you will achieve your goals and establish a sustainable business built to adapt to a rapidly-changing digital landscape, you’re bound to struggle.

In this article, we’ll find out what an innovation strategy is, why it matters, and then we’ll give you the ideas and inspiration to start innovating at your company.

What is an Innovation Strategy?

An innovation strategy is a clearly-defined plan of structured steps a person or team must perform to achieve the growth and future sustainability goals of an organization.

Innovation  aims to create original value, such as new solutions to adapt in changing industries or solve impeding social, health, or economic challenges. A strategy is a plan that details precisely how you will bring your vision into reality.

Essentially, a strategy acts as a heuristic that we can rely on when facing tough decisions. Ergo, an innovation strategy provides people with a framework for critical decision-making relative to company innovation, such as:

• In what areas will we invest?
• How much will we invest?
• Who will make investment decisions?
• What capabilities will we need to develop to support our investments?
• What capabilities can we not build, which we must then acquire or form a partnership to provide?

All of these questions are long-term decisions. When devising an innovation strategy , we must consider our goals and the potential for change over several years.

Why Are Innovation Strategies Important?

Typically, the most effective business models, markets, and products follow a similar growth cycle, often visualized as an S-curve , where diminishing returns set in sometime after the initial growth trajectory.

This slowdown in growth is inevitable, and yet, many companies are taken off-guard. We can’t simply ignore these decisions. If you decide to wait until there is a lull in growth or sales until you gather more information, it may be too late.

In 2008, Blockbuster CEO Jim Keyes said, “Neither RedBox nor Netflix are even on the radar screen in terms of competition.”

This bold claim came even though Blockbuster had lost 75% of its market value between 2003 and 2005.

By 2010, the DVD rental store declared bankruptcy, succumbing to the indomitable rise of Netflix and the streaming television era.

Kodak fell to a similar demise. As smartphones became ubiquitous, Kodak could no longer compete, and in 2012, the company once synonymous with photography filed for bankruptcy and vanished from the camera industry.

These are, of course, highly visible and consumerist examples, but the same dilemmas befall more naunced areas is every industry, whether it be in healthtech, security, sustainability, or infrastructure.

Nothing grows forever, and you can never really know when the inflection point will hit, which is why it is best to always be ready. In other words, you should make innovation a continuous process. Otherwise, it’s only a matter of time before revenue starts tumbling.

Benefits of an Innovation Strategy

Holding on to traditional practices just because “that’s what we’ve always done” is not a strategy for success. That rigid approach is guaranteed to fail in the face of disruption, as proven by Kodak and Blockbuster.

With that in mind, here are four benefits of an innovation strategy:

Improve existing products

When selling any product or service, you must consider the three levers of the value proposition:

• Benefits and features
• Target customers

A good innovation strategy will experiment with these levers, helping sales and marketing teams to reinvent or revert the value proposition of existing products. In doing so, innovation helps to bring more value to the customer, and ultimately, more revenue for the business.

Develop new products

For many, the most appealing benefit of a business innovation strategy is its capacity to generate entirely new ideas. Innovation can birth new products and services to add to your existing lines, or it may open the doors to target new markets, or solve growing societal problems.

By analyzing the customer journey of different consumer types, you can develop a better understanding of purchasing behaviors. This research helps companies identify the key factors that motivate people to make purchases and discover new opportunities by finding markets or products that need improvement.

Optimize revenues

The three variables of profit are price, demand, and costs. For any business strategy to be deemed successful, it must increase profit by reducing costs or raising prices or demand.

Earnings innovation encourages businesses to seek out ways of maximizing their profit. Quite often, the most effective way to do this is by expanding your customer base.

Whether you’re creating a new product or improving your existing ones, the impact on your earnings should be a top priority of your business innovation strategy.

Optimize costs

Increasing revenue is not the only way to drive profits, as you can also use innovation to reduce costs. When you apply new practices and process throughout the organization, you can optimize internal operations in many ways, such as:

• Switching from legacy offline systems to cloud storage
• Moving to paperless systems for all records and communication
• Using live chatbots instead of human customer support staff

Through constant innovation, it’s possible to streamline workflows and teams so that you spend less on administration and more on activities that generate a higher return on investment (ROI).

9 Key Pillars of a Business Innovation Strategy

Creating an innovation strategy is a vital step that gives your team the understanding and directional insight into how individual, departmental, and organizational goals come together to deliver the business objectives.

Here are 9 pillars of an innovation strategy that enable a company to maximize its potential:

You can execute an innovation strategy using one of two models—business model innovation or leveraging existing business model.

• Business model innovation is the process an organization uses to adapt its business model to deliver more value to its customers. By making changes to its value proposition and the underlying business model, a company can gain a competitive advantage.
• Leveraging Existing Business Model focuses on continuous improvement of core business, rather than seeking to build new business models.

Once you have decided on your preferred model, you can experiment with the concepts below:

2. Intrapreneurship

Intrapreneurship is the practice of enabling employees to act as entrepreneurs while they work within a company.

By empowering individuals to think, act, and create their own ideas, a company benefits from a widespread internal culture of ongoing innovation. An organization can provide resources and support to intrapreneurs, helping them launch startups within the organization.

3. Corporate accelerator

A corporate accelerator is an innovation event or program funded by a large enterprise, which typically offers aspiring entrepreneurs the chance to acquire seed capital, mentorship, and important connections.

These programs usually culminate with a demonstration day, where startups pitch their ideas to the host corporation for the chance to secure investment or a partnership.

By including a corporate accelerator in your innovation strategy, you get the chance to build your network with promising new talent in your industry. Moreover, there is an excellent chance you will discover startups and concepts that align with your own business needs and goals.

4. Innovation labs

An innovation lab is a business department that provides a base and supporting resources for startups or R&D teams to work on new ideas that could disrupt the current market.

While these labs may operate independently from the parent company, it’s also possible to house an innovation lab within the main company building and staff it with existing employees.

5. Open innovation program

The traditional model of research and development relies on internal resources and expertise. Existing employees work together to generate, manage, and sustain new business ideas and retain all information within the company, usually within the R&D department.

Open innovation takes a novel approach by opening the company’s doors to external input, welcoming experts, researchers, and bright minds from outside the company to come and share their ideas.

6. External accelerators

An external accelerator is a little different from an in-house corporate accelerator, as your company will not cover the full costs of running the program. As such, this is a low-risk tactic in an innovation strategy, with the potential to deliver fantastic rewards. Like a corporare accelerator, purview to new startups and concepts that align with business needs and goals are exhibithed, but additionally there’s the benefit of opening your eyes to advantageous approaches that were not intially apart of your goals.

By becoming involved, you can actively participate in advancing startups and focusing on particular solutions that appeal to your business, making this type of accelerator a worthwhile venture.

7. Collaboration

The ideas are just the beginning, but it’s only through interaction and discussion with subject matter experts, researchers, and other innovators that you can successfully bring ideas to life.

Having more conversations around an idea with various outside sources makes it easier to identify potential issues and iterate a basic idea until it is something genuinely worth producing.

You should seek praise and criticism at this stage, as it’s important to challenge the concept and debate the pros and cons in-depth.

8. Ideation

Approximately 4 of every 5 employees has an idea to improve the company. Finding ideas is not a challenge—gathering, analyzing, and implementing the best ideas is the struggle for many companies.

Many companies fail because they lack an effective system to take a simple idea and turn it into a practical process that will deliver results. In other words, they don’t have an innovation strategy.

It’s important to explain your ideation processes to all employees to be aware of how the company captures ideas. When you have this system in place and encourage people to contribute, it’s easier to collect and organize new ideas.

9. Measurement

You can’t manage what you don’t measure. And so, one of the most important pillars of your innovation strategy is a plan for how you will measure success.

Think about your goals and the most relevant metrics to track. For example, if your goal is brand awareness, you could track social shares, website traffic, and email subscribers.

With every new idea, monitor its progress, and gauge performance by taking periodic measurements of your key metrics. It’s not always easy to measure innovation, but doing so from the start allows you to determine whether your efforts are successful.

Innovation Strategy Examples

We can see innovation strategy examples in every industry, as companies strive to get an edge in increasingly competitive marketplaces.

As the rise of café culture birthed hipster pop-ups and independent shops, the dominant chains began to lose ground. Keen to avoid a Kodak moment, Howard Schultz jumped to action . The Starbucks CEO invited store managers from all over the world to come together for a conference to redesign the café experience.

As a leader in technology and sustainability, Bühler invests up to 5% of its turnover every year in research and development. To optimize these efforts, in 2016 Bühler identified five core topics that are decisive for driving change:

• Food and Feed Safety: spend 50% of food relevant R&D projects with focus to improve food and feed safety
• Energy, Waste and Water Reduction: reduction by 50% in the value chains of their customers by 2030
• Mobility: make lighter cars with die-casting solutions and create more efficient batteries for electric vehicles
• Nutrition: spend 20% of food relevant R&D projects with focus to improve nutrition
• Digitalization: improve transparency through digitalization and collaboration

By working with an external accelerator, in the case MassChallenge, Bühler received early access to emerging, high-impact technologies and startups across their five core initiatives.

In 2018, Bühler teamed up with Givaudan to support Legria , a new natural sweetener made from waste streams, supporting their waste reduction initiative. The new business model was made more public-appealing by having two companies in support of it, however maintaining economic independence of each other.

The dating app, Tinder , was the first of its kind to gamify dating. The development team approached potential users at college sororities, recruiting signups from a largely female audience before pitching the app to men in the same colleges’ fraternities.

With a personal touch, the company’s clever innovation strategy quickly grew the app’s user base, as many college students joined because they knew other people on the app.

Sometimes, people can be concerned about offending with their reviews online, and therefore, they may not be totally honest.

Airbnb set 14-day deadlines and implemented a double-blind review process, so neither party can view the other’s review until both have been completed. This change paved the way for more spontaneous reviews and more candid, detailed feedback.

Airbnb turned reviews into a bonafide trust factor on their site with this simple move, which people use to make booking decisions. In the long-term, the strategy has helped grow the authority of the website and company.

The growth of the software-as-a-service (SaaS) industry tempted many customers away from traditional hardware technology companies. In the cloud age, IBM knew change was needed and decided to take a startup-like approach to innovation.

In 2014, IBM launched a growth hacking team to explore new ideas and tap into new markets through data-driven creativity. Now, the legacy tech corporation operates with a collection of lean, startup-sized teams within its workforce, encouraging team members to work in an innovation lab style to test new marketing strategies.

Our vision for a better company, product, or value for the customer may feel clear, but how we get there isn’t always so simple. Faced with market trends, changes in consumer preferences, new technology, and disruptive competitors, companies will need a blueprint to stay on track.

An innovation strategy goes beyond simple tactics like campaign ideas and marketing ploys to develop the company’s mission, vision, and unique value proposition against this ever-evolving landscape.

Nowadays, it’s no longer an option.

“Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.”  – Sun Tzu

MassChallenge gives partners the tools to meet this moment head on while realizing results that make the difference for their businesses. See how companies like MassMutual , Barry Callebaut , Columbia Threadneedle , and Elta Systems  have partnered with MassChallenge to drive their innovation.

Join the MassChallenge program today to give your corporation the edge in the startup era.

New to MassChallenge?

Visit the join section of our site to learn more about the organization and how you may benefit by getting involved., upcoming events, boston brews: open community networking.

• December 5, 2024
• MassChallenge HQ: 10 Fan Pier Blvd. 3rd Floor Boston, MA 02210
• October 17, 2024
• August 15, 2024

• Scroll to top

•   / Sign Up
• HOW WE HELP CLIENTS
• schedule your conversation

Innovation Strategy: Developing Innovative Strategies in Business

Published: 27 February, 2024

Social Share:

Get the Full Package for FREE & OpenSource

• Get instant access to this model including a full presentation, related tools and instructions!
• You will equally get instant access to all 50+ UNITE Innovation & Transformation Models!
• Completely FREE and OpenSource!

Table of Contents

Innovation has become an imperative for organizations worldwide, yet the multitude of methods and frameworks available often lead to confusion rather than clarity. While various approaches focus on specific aspects such as user experience or design thinking , they often fail to provide a cohesive strategy for innovation from start to finish. An innovation strategy is key to capturing and  sustaining innovation , it serves as a detailed roadmap, comprising a series of strategic steps that propel an organization toward its future objectives. Beyond being a mere guide for business success, this roadmap is essential for ensuring a company remains competitive in its industry by continually devising new and innovative approaches to address challenges.

At Digital Leadership, our core belief is that by harnessing emerging technologies and innovative business models , we can revolutionize customer experiences. Crafting an innovation strategy is crucial for a company’s success. It entails fostering collaboration within the organization to stimulate new ideas and establishing a well-thought-out framework for future growth. It’s crucial to understand that no two innovation strategy plans are identical. 

What is Innovation Strategy?

An innovation strategy is a planned and organized way of using new technologies and creative ideas to bring about significant changes in a company. It involves creating a detailed plan that closely matches the company’s main goals, encouraging a culture of constant improvement. Think of an innovation strategy as a commitment to a shared goal of innovation, including a structured set of activities designed to drive the future growth of the organization. 

Each innovation strategy is unique. This innovation strategy plan is more than just a guide for business success; it functions as a compass, steering the organization through new and creative approaches to address challenges. Developing a company innovation strategy includes clearly defining an innovation mission, aligning activities with long-term business goals , and promoting a culture that welcomes change and creativity. Following such a strategy ensures that organizations stay ahead in their industries, always adjusting and evolving to meet emerging needs.

Business Innovation Strategy: What is Innovation Strategy In Business

In the business environment, remaining competitive necessitates ongoing evolution to address evolving customer demands. Establishing an innovation strategy becomes imperative for organizations aiming to excel in this dynamic setting. One prevalent initial step in crafting such a strategy involves gaining a comprehensive grasp of the organization’s innovation initiatives and overarching business goals . This encompasses identifying the market landscape, comprehending customer requirements, and discerning the most effective strategies to optimize customer satisfaction while utilizing resources efficiently.

Once you have a grasp of your organization’s innovation landscape, the next step is to define a common innovation mission. This mission should align with your overall business strategy and focus your innovation efforts on creating value for your customers. An effective innovation strategy must also include setting specific innovation goals and metrics to measure success. By establishing clear objectives, businesses can better track their progress and adapt their innovation programs as needed.

So, Why are Innovation Strategies Important in Business

• Generating and capitalizing on returns from innovations serves as a primary source of competitive advantage.
• Complex and resource-intensive activities like R&D, product design, and collaboration can impact a firm’s competitive standing. Without strategic guidance, these efforts may yield fragmented and short-term outcomes.
• With globalization, firms face a multitude of opportunities and threats across various markets. A strategic approach to innovation helps navigate this landscape effectively.
• Organizational structures and innovation processes must align with the overall corporate strategy. For instance, R&D efforts may differ depending on whether the firm aims to lead or follow in innovation.
• Articulating long-term strategic objectives for innovation is crucial for engaging with public-sector policies, fostering collaborations, and attracting patient investors.
• A firm that prioritizes innovation strategically is more likely to attract talented individuals seeking opportunities for creative engagement.

The “UNITE Innovation Approach” Model acts as a guide for entrepreneurs to build a strong innovation strategy framework. This model smoothly combines market insights, aligns with business goals, and offers a structured way of generating and implementing ideas. By employing the UNITE model, entrepreneurs gain a strategic advantage, ensuring that their innovation efforts are intentional steps toward lasting success, not haphazard. 

Your download is now available!

You can now access the complete Innovation Approach Package, including a full presentation, related models and instructions for use.

The UNITE Innovation Approach | Overview

Steps of developing innovation strategy framework.

Innovation is crucial not only for large corporations but also for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). It serves as a vital competitive advantage and is often considered a core capability of firms. For SMEs, innovation is particularly important due to resource constraints, making it an effective means to enhance productivity and performance. However, research findings on Heineken Beverage Industry reveal that the organization’s innovative strategies, particularly in process, market, and product innovation, are weak and fail to significantly contribute to its performance and productivity levels. To strengthen their innovation efforts, SMEs can follow several steps in developing an effective innovation strategy.

Step 1: Innovation Strategy Setup

In the crucial first step of Setup within the innovation strategy , organizations lay the groundwork for success. This involves defining the business intentions and direction, outlining high-level Search Fields, and identifying detailed Opportunity Spaces. By articulating the Business Intention, organizations clarify the problem they aim to solve or the legacy they aspire to leave behind, ensuring alignment with organizational goals.

You can now access the complete Business Intentions Package, including a full presentation, related models and instructions for use.

The UNITE Business Intentions

Utilizing tools like the Search Field Matrix aids in analyzing dimensions like trends and market segments, guiding prioritization of areas for innovation within the overarching innovation strategy. Opportunity Spaces then pinpoint specific intervention sites, outlining Jobs to be Done and target customers in alignment with the innovation strategy’s objectives. Building the core team, led by an experienced entrepreneur, is essential for executing the innovation initiative effectively. Operating in a protected environment, clear goals are set for each stage, with regular updates provided to stakeholders, ensuring smooth organizational setup and progression through subsequent stages.

You can now access the complete UNITE DEFINITION OF SEARCH FIELDS & OPPORTUNITY MATRIX, including a full presentation, related models and instructions for use.

THE UNITE Definition Of Search Fields & Opportunity Spaces

Step 2: problem/solution fit.

In step 2 of developing an innovation strategy, the focus is on achieving Problem/Solution Fit , and aligning customer needs with viable solutions. This involves three key streams of work: Stream A delves into understanding Jobs to be Done, Stream B crafts a Value Proposition, and Stream C defines the Business Model. Bringing the team up to speed is essential, involving active briefings with stakeholders and thorough research to refine objectives. Properly framing the broader objective, clarifying the JTBD, and conducting initial market research are vital steps before proceeding further, ensuring a solid foundation for subsequent actions.

You can now access the complete UNITE PROBLEM / SOLUTION FIT, including a full presentation, related models and instructions for use.

The UNITE Business Model Innovation Patterns

The Jobs-to-be-Done (JTBD) framework is a powerful tool for understanding customer needs and driving innovation. By focusing on tasks rather than demographics, businesses gain deep insights into their target market. Through qualitative interviews and quantitative surveys , companies validate insights and identify growth opportunities. This approach helps in creating solutions that precisely match customer needs, reducing the risk of failure and increasing market success. Continuous iteration based on customer feedback ensures a competitive edge in today’s customer-centric landscape. Embracing JTBD is essential for fostering innovation and delivering value to customers.

You can now access the complete JTBD Customer’s Job Statement Package, including a full presentation, related models and instructions for use.

The UNITE Jobs-To-Be-Done Statement & Map

It offers a systematic approach to understanding customer needs and shaping innovative solutions. By focusing on the tasks or objectives customers are trying to accomplish, rather than just their demographic or psychographic profiles, businesses can uncover deep insights into unmet customer needs and opportunities for improvement.

To effectively outline the tasks and activities customers undertake to fulfill their job using the UNITE Jobs-to-be-Done Universal Job Map, convene your team and set up a whiteboard or wall with eight columns representing the eight steps in the Job Map. From defining and planning to concluding, each step provides insight into the customer’s journey. For example, when purchasing a bottle of wine, steps may include defining preferences, locating a store, preparing by comparing options, confirming the choice, executing the purchase, monitoring the taste, modifying preferences based on satisfaction, and concluding the purchase experience. Understanding these steps is vital for developing solutions that precisely meet the customer’s needs.

You can now access the complete Jobs to be Done Universal Map Package, including a full presentation, related models and instructions for use.

At this stage, having gone through the Jobs-to-be-Done process and developed initial Customer Promises, we find ourselves within a relatively narrow solution space ripe for exploration using methodologies like Design Thinking. The next step involves translating these initial promises into robust solutions by treating each promise as a mini-opportunity Space. Ideation is the key here. We encourage exploring a plethora of ideas, ranging from ambitious “moonshots” to targeted solutions addressing specific but unsolved problems. It’s about being smart in approach, knowing when to think big and when to focus narrowly, all while keeping the original customer needs at the forefront.

To navigate this process effectively, we recommend leveraging frameworks such as the Value Proposition Canvas . This tool provides a structured approach to deep dive into the value proposition, ensuring alignment with customer needs and market demands. Crafting a robust value proposition isn’t just about generating ideas; it’s about understanding the core essence of what your offering brings to the table. By embracing ideation, divergence, and strategic frameworks, businesses can unlock innovation potential and create value propositions that resonate deeply with their target audience.

You can now access the complete Business Model Canvas Package, including a full presentation, related models and instructions for use.

The UNITE Business Model Canvas

(3) solution/market fit (mvp).

In step 2, we’ve pinpointed our customers’ needs, tested potential solutions, and outlined a solid business model. However, jumping straight into execution is risky. While we may have a good grasp of what our customers want, our concept hasn’t been fully validated yet. Step 3 of developing an innovation strategy, where customers actually buy and use our product, is crucial for true validation. Rushing into scaling before perfecting our concept can lead to wasted resources and the need for costly adjustments later on. It’s essential to ensure our business concept is finely tuned before expanding.

Innovation strategy hinges on the meticulous execution of a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) , a streamlined version of your offering that validates key business assumptions while conserving resources. The MVP approach, epitomized by Zappos’ early success, emphasizes real-world validation over elaborate prototypes, focusing on tangible customer experiences. Yet, challenges like imitation and reputational risk loom large, necessitating strategic differentiation and brand management. Moreover, maintaining quality is paramount, ensuring that the MVP not only functions but delights users, fostering genuine feedback. Executing an MVP entails two phases: development and launch, followed by rigorous testing and iteration. This iterative process drives continuous improvement , steering your innovation strategy towards tangible value creation .

You can now access the complete Unite Solution/Market Fit (MVP) Scorecard, including a full presentation, related models and instructions for use.

The UNITE Problem-Solution Fit & Minimum Viable Product (MVP) Scorecards

In the initial phase of MVP development and launch, four key work streams drive the process: Marketing focuses on brand development and campaign planning, while the Business stream refines models and tests pricing strategies. Product & UX teams develop and test the MVP, while Technology sets up technical infrastructure. Phase B shifts focus to live testing and tweaking, with Marketing launching test campaigns and Business refining operating models.

Step 4: Build & Scale Your Innovation Strategy

After countless tests and a number of pivots and iterations, you have quantitatively proven with real customers that you have achieved a Solution/Market Fit. In other words, your product works and customers have actually bought it! In Stage 4 of developing an innovation strategy, you will be shifting gears and moving from incubation (concerned with finding a working Business Model) to acceleration (building and scaling the identified Business Model). With your business concept now proven and well-defined, the next challenge is getting it to scale. That is the core purpose of this stage: to build and scale the business concept that you have been working on thus far and now get it out into the market to scale as quickly as possible. But moving from your business concept (the strategy) to an actual business (the execution) is inherently difficult. Many organizations fail to bridge the Strategy-Execution Gap , meaning they fail to implement the strategy, or business concept, they originally designed. According to the available statistics, up to 70% of organizations struggle with moving from strategy to execution.

One key ingredient we propose to overcome the Strategy-Execution challenge is to establish how you are going to execute using a well-defined and communicated Operating Model. The Operating Model Canvas emerges as a potent solution, offering a blueprint for execution. Establishing a well-defined and communicated Operating Model is pivotal in overcoming the Strategy-Execution challenge.

You can now access the complete GROWTH-HACKING PROCESS, including a full presentation, related models and instructions for use.

The Growth-Hacking Process

To ensure the effectiveness of the innovation strategy , it is imperative to embed innovation within the organization’s processes and overall strategic framework. This necessitates the allocation of resources, including time, finances, and skilled personnel, to innovation initiatives, while fostering a culture that champions and rewards innovative thinking.

By adhering to these guidelines for formulating an innovation strategy , businesses can position themselves for sustained success and growth amidst a rapidly evolving market landscape. Through a steadfast commitment to customer value creation and adaptability to uncertainty, organizations can pave the path to industry leadership through innovation.

Types of Innovation Strategies

Elaboration on innovation strategy typologies has been provided by various scholars (Freeman and Soete 1997; Goodman and Lawless 1994). These typologies encompass proactive strategies, characterized by technological and market leadership with a strong research focus, often associated with firms embracing first-mover advantages and taking significant risks. Active strategies involve defending existing technologies and markets while remaining agile to respond swiftly to emerging opportunities. Reactive strategies, on the other hand, are adopted by firms with a slower response to innovation, often prioritizing cost-cutting measures over technological advancements. Finally, passive strategies entail engaging in innovation only in response to customer demands, typically involving low-risk initiatives.

Examples of passive strategies can be observed among supplier firms in industries like automotive manufacturing, where lower-tier suppliers often rely on fulfilling specifications rather than driving innovation themselves.

1) Proactive Innovation Strategy

Being ahead in innovation defines successful companies that stand out in the ever-changing business world. These forward-looking organizations don’t just react to changes; they actively search for new opportunities and predict future trends. This proactive approach allows them to take control of the market by introducing fresh and distinctive products or services that capture consumer attention.

Within proactive innovation strategies, several paths contribute to an organization’s overall success:

• Product Innovation: At the core of being proactive in innovation is making new and groundbreaking products. Companies that do well put money into research and development, always trying to do things that haven’t been done before to meet new needs and go beyond what customers expect. Whether it’s using the latest technology or coming up with creative designs, creating innovative products is a big reason why these companies lead the market.
• Process Innovation : To ensure internal efficiency and stay ahead of the competition, organizations with a proactive innovation strategy focus on optimizing their internal operations. Process innovation becomes crucial, streamlining workflows, improving productivity, and fostering a culture of continuous improvement.
• Business Model Innovation : Recognizing that how value is provided and money is made is as crucial as the products themselves, organizations embracing proactive innovation strategies engage in business model innovation. This involves reimagining the fundamental structure of the business, exploring new revenue streams, and adapting to changing market dynamics.
• Open Innovation : Proactive innovators often collaborate with external partners, startups, or research institutions through open innovation practices. By tapping into a broader pool of ideas, expertise, and resources, these organizations enrich their innovation ecosystem and stay at the forefront of industry advancements.
• Sustainability Innovation: Forward-thinking companies, under a proactive innovation strategy, increasingly incorporate sustainability into their product development and business practices. This aligns with societal and environmental expectations, positioning them as responsible and future-ready entities.

Essentially, a proactive innovation strategy goes beyond mere adaptation; it positions organizations as catalysts of change, architects of the future, and leaders in industries where innovation is the key currency.

For instance, proactive innovators like DuPont and Apple exemplify a commitment to technological leadership through continuous innovation. Microsoft, employing an active strategy, strategically leverages existing technologies while adapting swiftly to market shifts. In contrast, firms like Dell may adopt a more reactive approach to technology adoption but remain proactive in their production and distribution models.

2) Active Innovation Strategy

Active innovation represents a dynamic approach for organizations to swiftly respond to market changes and evolving customer preferences. Embracing flexibility and agility, companies adopting this strategy proactively lead rather than merely follow in the ever-changing business landscape. Key aspects of the active innovation framework include:

• Proactivity : Organizations take the lead in meeting the needs of the continually evolving market.
• Incremental Innovation : Constant, small improvements to existing products or processes keep offerings up-to-date and aligned with customer preferences.
• Service Innovation: Beyond product creation, organizations focus on enhancing the overall customer experience by listening to customer feedback and adapting services accordingly.
• Adaptability : Rapid response to new demands, including staying abreast of technological changes.
• Technology Innovation: A pivotal component, organizations prioritize staying updated on technological advancements to provide modern solutions in the digital era.

Active innovation places a premium on a proactive mindset, swift actions, and a deep understanding of the market. This strategy positions organizations not only to navigate changes effectively but also to capitalize on new opportunities, establishing them as leaders in their respective industries.

3) Reactive Innovation Strategy

In the Reactive Innovation Strategy , businesses respond to market changes as needed. While not always the first to introduce groundbreaking products, these companies prioritize adaptability in the competitive environment. Cautious in their responses, organizations employing this strategy carefully evaluate market shifts before making changes. Though the pace of innovation may be slower compared to proactive approaches, this strategy holds advantages, especially in industries where stability and a deep understanding of market dynamics are paramount.

Strengths of Reactive Innovation:

• Adaptive Innovation: Enables precise adjustments in response to changes, maximizing resource utilization.
• Cost Innovation: Focuses on finding cost-effective solutions and operational efficiencies.

For organizations embracing Reactive Innovation , balancing responsiveness with forward-looking anticipation is key. While not always the first movers, strategic and well-timed responses to market shifts make them resilient players in the ever-changing business landscape. This approach proves particularly relevant in industries experiencing gradual changes, where staying attuned to market demands remains the primary focus.

4) Passive Innovation Strategy

In passive innovation , organizations show limited involvement in the innovation process , often missing opportunities and potential advancements. This cautious approach relies on established practices, avoiding proactive exploration. However, this passivity, while providing stability, can be a double-edged sword, risking stagnation in a quickly changing landscape.

• Imitative Innovation: Organizations that embrace passive innovation may tend to copy successful ideas from competitors or industry leaders, finding security in proven models but sacrificing the agility and originality of more proactive strategies.
• Stability vs. Stagnation: While passive innovation gives a sense of stability, organizations must be aware of potential downsides, including the risk of falling behind in industries where rapid advancements are the norm.
• Open Innovation Bursts : To counteract potential stagnation, passive innovation strategies may benefit from occasional bursts of open innovation. Drawing on external ideas and collaborations brings in fresh perspectives and helps maintain relevance in dynamic industries.

Developing an effective innovation strategy requires a comprehensive approach, incorporating key elements and following a systematic framework. By understanding the market, aligning strategies with business goals , and fostering a culture of innovation , organizations can stay ahead in the ever-evolving business landscape. The examples of successful innovation strategies from industry leaders further highlight the importance of innovation in achieving sustained business growth and competitiveness.

This nuanced understanding of innovation strategy underscores the dynamic interplay between technological advancements, market dynamics, and organizational capabilities, shaping firms’ strategic orientations towards innovation.

Innovation strategies vary widely, each tailored to specific organizational contexts and objectives. Also, there are five styles of Innovation Strategies

• Leadership ignites entrepreneurial energy within teams.
• Culture of rapid innovation and creation of new business models.
• Suitable for industries facing rapid changes.
• Management involves sharing the vision, establishing internal markets for ideas, and encouraging intrapreneurship.
• Managers innovate within existing business structures.
• Transformation of business structures over time.
• Ideal for companies seeking significant yet sustainable change.
• Management practices include experimentation, empowering teams, and customer-centricity.
• Exploration of new directions beyond existing strategic assets.
• Pursuit of radical change in response to limited growth opportunities.
• Management involves identifying crucial assets, encouraging cross-pollination of ideas, and seizing opportunities beyond core areas.
• Conducting low-cost experiments to overcome obstacles hindering major innovations.
• Cautious yet progressive approach to innovation.
• Suitable when significant opportunities are sensed, but details remain unclear.
• Management practices include goal-focused research, patience, and continuous exploration.
• Outsourcing creativity and investing in startups.
• Acquisition of promising startups.
• Feasible with available resources to leverage discoveries from smaller players.
• Management involves maintaining internal R&D capacity, scouting for acquisition prospects, and efficient integration processes.

Innovation Strategy of the Four main Types of Innovation

Four primary types of innovation —radical, architectural, disruptive, and incremental—provide a comprehensive innovation strategy framework for organizations to navigate the complexities of innovation and achieve their strategic objectives. Each type offers unique opportunities and challenges, catering to different levels of risk tolerance and resource availability. Understanding these distinct approaches to innovation is essential for organizations seeking to adapt, evolve, and thrive in an ever-changing marketplace. Let’s explore each type of innovation strategy in detail to gain insights into their applications and implications for organizational success.

• Radical Innovation : Radical innovation involves the development of entirely new technologies, products, or services that often disrupt existing markets or create entirely new ones. It represents a significant departure from current offerings and requires a high level of investment and risk.
• Architectural Innovation : Architectural innovation focuses on reconfiguring or redesigning existing systems, processes, or components within an organization to create new value. It involves changing the underlying structure or design of a product or service while keeping its core functionality intact.
• Disruptive Innovation : Disruptive innovation refers to the introduction of a product, service, or business model that fundamentally changes the way an industry operates, typically by targeting underserved or overlooked segments of the market. It often starts at the low end of the market and gradually improves to challenge established competitors.
• Incremental Innovation : Incremental innovation involves making small, gradual improvements to existing products, processes, or services over time. It focuses on optimizing and refining existing offerings rather than introducing radical changes, making it a lower-risk approach to innovation.

Innovation Strategy Examples

(1) apple innovation strategy.

Apple’s innovation strategy revolves around creating groundbreaking products that seamlessly integrate hardware, software, and services. Their focus on user experience and design sets them apart in the technology industry. This dedication matches the core of t he marketing innovation strategy – putting user happiness first by creating new and exciting solutions.

(2) Amazon Innovation Strategy

Amazon’s innovation strategy centres around customer-centric approaches, such as one-click purchasing, Prime membership benefits, and advanced supply chain management. Their focus on enhancing customer experience sets the standard for e-commerce.

(3) Tesla Innovation Strategy

Tesla’s innovation strategy includes advancements in electric vehicles, renewable energy solutions, and autonomous driving technology. Constantly pushing boundaries, Tesla exemplifies the essence of value innovation strategy, delivering cutting-edge solutions that reshape the automotive industry.

(4) Netflix Innovation Strategy

Netflix’s innovation strategy lies in content creation, personalized recommendations, and streaming technology. They continually invest in original content and technological advancements to stay ahead in the entertainment industry.

(5) Microsoft Innovation Strategy

Microsoft’s innovation strategy encompasses a diverse range of products and services, from operating systems to cloud computing. Their commitment to empowering individuals and organizations through technology fuels continuous innovation.

(6) Google Innovation Strategy

Google’s innovation strategy revolves around search algorithms, online advertising, and a wide array of digital services. Their commitment to organizing the world’s information and making it universally accessible drives innovation in various sectors.

(7) Nike Innovation Strategy

Nike’s innovation strategy focuses on product design, materials, and technological advancements in sportswear. They continuously introduce new technologies, such as Nike Adapt, to enhance athletic performance and customer experience.

Types of Innovation Strategies Examples

Innovation strategies can vary significantly depending on the industry, organizational goals, and market dynamics. Here are several types of innovation strategies along with examples:

• Example: Apple’s continuous development of the iPhone, introducing new features and designs with each iteration.
• Example: Toyota’s implementation of lean manufacturing principles, led to streamlined production processes and reduced waste.
• Example: Netflix transitioning from a DVD rental service to a subscription-based streaming platform, revolutionizing the entertainment industry.
• Example: Airbnb’s platform, enables individuals to rent out their properties to travellers, disrupting the traditional hospitality industry.
• Example: Procter & Gamble’s Connect + Develop program, which sources innovation ideas from outside the company to fuel new product development.
• Example: Tesla’s electric vehicles disrupt the automotive industry by challenging traditional gasoline-powered vehicles with innovative technology.
• Example: Coca-Cola introduces new flavours or packaging variations of its beverages to maintain consumer interest and market relevance.
• Example: SpaceX’s development of reusable rocket technology, aims to revolutionize space travel and exploration.

Elements of a Great Innovation Strategy

Crafting an innovation strategy plan entails navigating a dynamic landscape, demanding a flexible and multifaceted approach.

• Nurturing an Innovation culture : Establishing an environment that fosters creativity and embraces change is crucial for fostering innovation.
• Embracing Digital Transformation strategy : Incorporating technology to enhance processes and business models is a key aspect of digital transformation.
• Top-Level Endorsement: Securing commitment and support from senior leaders is essential for successful innovation initiatives.
• Strategic Resource Allocation : Wisely allocating resources to support novel and imaginative ideas is paramount.
• Customer-Centric Focus : Prioritizing and comprehending customer needs throughout the innovation process is indispensable.
• Agile Adaptation : Remaining receptive to agile methodologies facilitates swift adjustments to evolving circumstances.
• Performance Measurement: Implementing metrics to assess the success and impact of innovation efforts is vital.
• Investment in Research and Development: Devoting funds to research and development endeavors represents a valuable investment.
• Learning from Risks and Setbacks: Cultivating a culture that embraces risk-taking and views failures as learning opportunities is critical.
• Innovative Business Models : Continuously reimagining and innovating fundamental aspects of the business model adds a layer of dynamism to the innovation strategy.

In essence, innovation is the cornerstone of organizational longevity and competitive advantage. By embracing diverse innovation strategies such as technological advancements, architectural refinements, disruptive shifts, and incremental enhancements, businesses can unlock fresh opportunities and deliver unique value propositions. Whether through revolutionary changes or gradual refinements to existing offerings, innovation is pivotal for adapting to market fluctuations and seizing value.

Central to these pursuits is the evolution or reinvention of the business model. By aligning with customer preferences, organizations can develop innovative solutions that resonate with consumers, thereby bolstering market presence and fostering growth. Ultimately, a well-crafted innovation strategy empowers organizations to stand out from the competition, achieve objectives, and ensure sustained success in today’s fiercely competitive business arena.

Frequently Asked Questions

(1) what role do senior leaders play in achieving innovation strategy.

Senior executives wield significant influence in propelling innovation strategy forward. Their unwavering commitment, backing, and visionary guidance establish the organizational ethos. They allocate resources judiciously and foster an atmosphere conducive to experimentation and bold risk-taking.

(2) How is product innovation strategy delineated in business?

Product innovation strategy in business encompasses the formulation and introduction of novel or refined products to satisfy consumer demands and attain a competitive edge. It revolves around the conception of pioneering features, designs, or functionalities that distinguish the product within the market milieu.

(3) What delineates the trifecta of Innovation Strategies?

The trinity of innovation strategies comprises proactive, active, and reactive approaches. Proactive strategies entail a proactive quest for novel opportunities, active strategies pivot swiftly in response to market dynamics, while reactive strategies are triggered only by exigencies.

Related Posts

Business level strategy: examples & types for business strategy success.

In strategic management, businesses use a variety of approaches to craft a1

50 Innovation Examples: Exciting Innovative Ideas in Business

In the Business environment, strategic innovation has taken centre stage as a1

Minimum Viable Product (MVP) Examples and Definition

The MVP or Minimum Viable Product approach is an idea that was1

What is Design Thinking? Definition, Explanation & Process

With Design Thinking, new and innovative ideas can be generated together and1

Recent Posts

Examples and Types of Effective Functional Level Strategy for Business Support

A key objective of any business strategy is to improve operational efficiencies...

The Three Levels of Strategy: Corporate Strategy, Business Strategy, and Functional Strategy

Understanding the intricate levels of strategy is crucial for any organization aiming...

• FREE LIVE TRAINING

How To Overcome The 90% Failure Rate in Innovation

Learn the winning formula from over 80+ successful innovation projects

SAVE MY FREE SPOT NOW

Register For Your FREE 
Innovation WorkShop Seat Now!

Learn how to overcome the 90% failure rate in innovation from a master innovator and best-selling author.

Expert tactics to boost your innovation odds.

Insights on capturing customer needs for innovation.

Tools that turn your ideas into triumphs.

First name *

Last name *

Professional E-mail *

I want to be kept up-to-date and accept the privacy statement *

By signing up, you agree to receive news and accept the privacy statement (mandatory)

Verify your e-mail address now by entering the 6-digit code we’ve just sent to your inbox

Don't receive Code? Resend code

Last one step

Help us better understand our innovation Show members

Country * Please Select Afghanistan Albania Algeria Andorra Angola Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin (Dahomey) Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Brazil Brunei Brunswick and Lüneburg Bulgaria Burkina Faso (Upper Volta) Burundi Cabo Verde Cambodia Cameroon Canada Cayman Islands Central African Republic Central American Federation Chad Chile China Colombia Comoros Congo Free State Costa Rica Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czechia Democratic Republic of the Congo Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Eswatini Ethiopia Fiji Finland France Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Grand Duchy of Tuscany Greece Grenada Guatemala Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana Haiti Holy See Honduras Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Korea Kosovo Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Mauritania Mauritius Mexico Micronesia Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Morocco Mozambique Namibia Nassau Nauru Nepal Netherlands New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria North Macedonia Norway Oman Pakistan Palau Panama Papal States Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Piedmont-Sardinia Poland Portugal Qatar Republic of Congo Republic of Korea (South Korea) Republic of the Congo Romania Russia Rwanda Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Samoa San Marino Sao Tome and Principe Saudi Arabia Schaumburg-Lippe Senegal Serbia Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Sudan Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Suriname Sweden Switzerland Syria Tajikistan Tanzania Thailand Timor-Leste Togo Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Tuvalu Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom Uruguay Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela Vietnam Württemberg Yemen Zambia Zimbabwe Industry * Please Select Automotive, mobilty & transport Financial Services Chemical & agriculture Construction & Real Estate Consulting Education Energy Banking, insurance & FS FMCG Food Gov / Public Industry Health & lifestyle Logistics, Aero & Shipping Media & Entertainment Natural resources & mining Pharma & Biotech Retail & trade Tech & E-Commerce Telco Tourism design Information technology & services Management consulting Retail Pharmaceuticals International trade & development Professional training & coaching luxury goods & jewelry Automotive Insurance Mechanical or industrial engineering Company Size * XS - 1-10 S - 10-100 M - 100-1000 L - 1000-5000 XL - > 5000

Seniority * Please Select Junior Consultant Senior Consultant Manager Senior Manager Director VP SVP Partner CXO Board Member

Areas of interest * Innovation Digital Transformation Culture & Organization IT Strategy & Bus. Alignment Customer Experience

Discover the largest library of innovation & transformation tools on the entire Internet!

LOG IN VIA E-MAIL

Forgot password?

New to Digital Leadership? Create your account

Thanks, We’ve Received Your Updated Details

Learn how to overcome the 90% failure rate in innovation from a master innovator & bestselling author!

Your e-mail address: * Your first name: *

One Last Step..

Help us better understand the UNITE community

Free guide to improve your innovation success rate*

Our 35-page comprehensive innovation guide covers the key areas why innovation fails. While it cannot cover all the solutions (that would take books to fill), it provides you with a convenient starting point for your analysis and provides further resources and links to the corresponding UNITE models, ultimately allowing you to work towards a doubling and tripling your chances of success.

Get access to the UNITE Models now!

Discover the largest library of innovation & transformation tools on the internet!

Choose Your Password *

Confirm Your Password *

Already have an account? Log in

Country * Please Select Afghanistan Albania Algeria Andorra Angola Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin (Dahomey) Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Brazil Brunei Brunswick and Lüneburg Bhutan Bulgaria Burkina Faso (Upper Volta) Burundi Cabo Verde Cambodia Cameroon Canada Cayman Islands Central African Republic Central American Federation Chad Chile China Colombia Comoros Congo Free State Costa Rica Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czechia Democratic Republic of the Congo Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Eswatini Ethiopia Fiji Finland France Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Grand Duchy of Tuscany Greece Grenada Guatemala Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana Haiti Holy See Honduras Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Korea Kosovo Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Mauritania Mauritius Mexico Micronesia Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Morocco Mozambique Myanmar Namibia Nassau Nauru Nepal Netherlands New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria North Macedonia Norway Oman Pakistan Palau Panama Papal States Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Piedmont-Sardinia Poland Portugal Qatar Republic of Congo Republic of Korea (South Korea) Republic of the Congo Romania Russia Rwanda Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Samoa San Marino Sao Tome and Principe Saudi Arabia Schaumburg-Lippe Senegal Serbia Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Sudan Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Suriname Sweden Switzerland State of Palestine Syria Tajikistan Tanzania Thailand Timor-Leste Togo Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Tuvalu Uganda Ukraine United States United Arab Emirates United Kingdom Uruguay Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela Vietnam Württemberg Yemen Zambia Zimbabwe Industry * Please Select Automotive, mobilty & transport Financial Services Chemical & agriculture Construction & Real Estate Consulting Education Energy Banking, insurance & FS FMCG Food Gov / Public Industry Health & lifestyle Logistics, Aero & Shipping Media & Entertainment Natural resources & mining Pharma & Biotech Retail & trade Tech & E-Commerce Telco Tourism design Information technology & services Management consulting Retail Pharmaceuticals International trade & development Professional training & coaching luxury goods & jewelry Automotive Insurance Mechanical or industrial engineering Company Size * XS - 1-10 S - 10-100 M - 100-1000 L - 1000-5000 XL - > 5000

Editable UNITE models (PowerPoint) included

Most of our models and canvases are designed to be applied! 


To help you personalize them to your exact business requirements, you can download fully editable versions of the UNITE models available (PowerPoint format)!

They are straightforward to work with, and you can directly incorporate them into your presentations as you need…thus saving countless hours of replication!

PS: did you know that you are also getting hi-res print-ready versions for your workshops?

Monthly live webinars

Each month we host our exclusive, invitation-only webinar series where one of our industry-leading experts updates our members on the latest news, progress and concepts around business strategy, innovation and digital transformation, as well as other related topics. 



You will receive the book in PDF and EPUB formats, ideal for your computer, Kindle, Tablet or other eReading device.

Bi-weekly live group Q&A sessions

These sessions are your opportunity to bring any questions or challenges you’re facing and receive expert guidance on the spot. 


Come and be a part of engaging discussions where your unique concerns are heard and addressed.

1x personal coaching session / month

If you are occasionally looking for a sparring partner or you need limited support, then this option will be ideal for you. Coaching sessions are 1-2 hours where we can discuss any challenge or opportunity you are currently facing.

If you need a few more hours outside of this provision, then these could be billed transparently.

Unlimited video call support! – it’s like always making the right decision!

We believe support shouldn’t be limited. Because we typically find that the occasional hour just doesn’t cut it – particularly if you and your team are in the midst of a large and complex project.

Your time with Stefan is therefore unlimited (fair usage applies) – in his function as coach and sparring partner. That does mean that you will still have to do the work – we cannot take that off you, unless you hire us as consultants. But you will get valuable strategic insight and direction to make sure you are always focusing your efforts where they will lead to the best results.

One personal coaching session / month 
+ unlimited support via e-mail & WhatsApp

We believe support shouldn’t be limited. If you generally know what you are doing but want a sparring partner to frequently raise questions to, this is the perfect choice!

In addition to your monthly 1-1 live coaching sessions with Stefan, you will also get unlimited support from him via email and WhatsApp messaging (fair usage applies). This not only allows you to get valuable strategic direction in your calls, but also gives you instant access to expert help as you work through your plans each month.



The fact that support is text-based means that we can speed up our responses to you while keeping the overall cost of support down.

Welcome gift of our book 
 “How to Create Innovation” 
 (digital + physical editions)*

As a welcome gift, you will receive the both the digital and physical version of our book “How to Create Innovation”, which covers numerous relevant resources and provides additional deep dives into our UNITE models and concepts.


The print version will be shipped out to you on sign-up. The digital version will be emailed to you, and comes in PDF and EPUB formats, ideal for your computer, Kindle, Tablet or other eReading device.

1x major workshop or 2x smaller workshops / month

1x major or 2x smaller workshops based on the UNITE models.

• Topics covered: almost any challenge under the header of #strategy, #innovation or #transformation, leveraging the UNITE models.
• Hands-On Learning: solve your challenges while learning the practical application of the UNITE models and walk away with concrete plans and tools to take your next steps.
• Industry thought leadership: facilitated by Stefan, the founder of Digital Leadership and the main author of the UNITE models, ensuring top-tier guidance and knowledge sharing.
• Collaborative approach: engage in interactive sessions that foster collaboration, idea exchange, and real-time problem-solving among peers and industry leaders.
• Continuous Improvement: Regular workshops ensure ongoing development in your organization staying ahead of industry trends and customer needs.

Access all of our UNITE models, 
 (incl. editable & print versions)

All of our Professional plans offer full access to the following:

• 6x UNITE model package downloads are included per month, if you need something in addition to these however, please let us know!
• Hi-res, print-ready versions you can use in your workshops
• Fully editable PowerPoint versions where applicable – personalize to your needs.
• Exclusive access to our vault of never-before-published strategic materials. We have much more to share – a lot of our concepts have never been published!

Exclusive access to our private UNITE community (upcoming)

We are currently in the process of launching our brand new community., we are designing our community to specifically help you:.

• Get answers to questions (“How do I …”)
• Share leading practices & knowledge
• Jointly develop new models
• Network amongst a highly qualified group of peers

Please, select the reason

Cancelling your plan will deactivate your plan after the current billing period ends. You will not be charged further, but also won’t be able to access [exclusive features/services].

• Cost-related issues
• Unsatisfied with the service
• Features I need are missing
• Switching to a different service
• Other (Please specify)

Book Your Initial Blueprint Session Now

Simply fill out the below form and book in a time for our initial session that works for you. This initial session is free, no strings attached, and is where we can discuss your Blueprint needs more in-depth before moving forward.

Stefan F. Dieffenbacher

Founder of digital leadership.

Adam D. Wisniewski

Partner for it strategy & business alignment.

Get in touch with Digital Leadership

Speak to our team today to find the best solution for your business to grow and scale.

We are here to support you across the entire lifecycle in all topics related to #digital, #innovation, #transformation and #marketing!

Stefan F. Dieffenbacher Founder of Digital Leadership

Contact Us!

Contact form, contact details, book a call.

Title, first name & last name * Email address * Phone number Please let us know how we can best support you! *

By clicking “Send”, I agree to Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.

Let’s have a conversation!

“Please be invited to reach out! We are happy to help and look forward to a first meeting!”

+41 (0) 44 562 42 24

[email protected]

Schedule Your Call With Our Team

Find a time on our calender that best suits you !

Founder and CEO of Digital Leadership

SCHEDULE YOUR INITIAL CALL

A Quick Survey!

What is the main challenge you're currently facing in your business?

You Want To Drive Change?

Let’s find the best solution for your business to grow and scale sustainably!

Let’s kick start it!

We will uncover your current business situation and goals and provide you with a bespoke solution that helps you drastically grow your business working with us.

Stefan F. Dieffenbacher, M.B.A.

Feedback about our consulting that we are proud of

Read the reviews and make sure that this is not a waste of time, but a super effective tool.

You want to drive change?

Schedule your free business assessment call with our founder.

On this call, we will uncover your current business situation and goals and talk about how to drive change and solve your need.

Choose the meeting type that applies to your needs and schedule a time to meet with someone from our team. We look forward to speaking with you soon!

Schedule Your Free Business Assessment

Schedule Your Free Business Assessment Call With Adam D. Wisniewski

Welcome to our scheduling page.

Let’s Design your Customer Experience Blueprint !

In a uniquely designed 60 or 90 minute session* , we will …

• > identify where to start with near-certainty
• > define what approach it takes to create success in your organization

Based on the Blueprinting session, you will receive a tailored blueprint that aligns with your objectives, vision and goals, ensuring that your initiative is a success from start to finish.

In this session, you will be working together with Patrick Zimmermann, Associate Partner for Customer Experience

Let’s Design your Culture & Org-Change Blueprint !

In this session, you will be working together with Dr. Andreas Rein, Partner at Digital Leadership for Culture & Org Change

Let’s Design your Innovation Blueprint !

In this session, you will be working together with Sascha Martini, Partner at Digital Leadership for Innovation and Digital Transformation

Let’s Design your Transformation Blueprint !

In this session, you will be working together with Stefan F. Dieffenbacher, Founder of Digital Leadership Stefan is a global thought leader in the innovation space

Let’s Design your IT Strategy & Business Alignment Blueprint !

In this session, you will be working together with Adam D. Wisniewski, Partner for IT Strategy & Business Alignment

Patrick Zimmermann

Sascha Martini

Dr. Andreas Rein

Write a personalized review! Log in

Create Review

Innovation Strategy – What is it and how to develop one?

Strategy is about making choices between a number of feasible options to have the best chance at “winning”, and innovation is just one of the means to achieve your strategic goals.

Without a good one, it’s actually quite difficult to achieve long-term success and orient your business for speed in order to secure competitive advantage.

What’s interesting is that according to statistics , 96% of executives have defined innovation as a strategic priority . However, the lack of clear innovation strategy is a fundamental problem especially for established companies when optimization of existing business becomes a priority.

While developing an innovation strategy isn’t necessarily difficult in itself, aligning it with your overall business goals and ways of working is what takes most of the time and effort.

This time, we’ve decided to try to make sense of the broad topic by introducing five steps for developing your own innovation strategy. In addition, we’ll introduce a few tools that can be used when mapping your strategic goals in order to make the best choices for long-term success.

Table of contents

The strategy choice cascade.

• 1 . Determine objectives and strategic approach to innovation
• 2. Know your market: customers and competitors
• 3. Define your value proposition
• 4. Assess and develop your core capabilities
• 5. Establish your innovation techniques and systems

Reverse Engineering a Strategy

Pick your focus, align innovation strategy with your business goals, communicate and integrate your strategy to the ways of working, measure systematically and adapt, conclusions.

• Get The Ultimate Toolkit for Innovation Management

What is Innovation Strategy?

Innovation is about creating new value people are willing to use and pay for, whereas strategy is the plan for harnessing for example marketing, operations, finance and R&D to support achieving the competitive goal.

To clarify, innovation strategy isn’t about innovation tactics, such as setting up an idea challenge , but more about mapping organization’s mission, vision and value proposition for defined customer markets. It sets boundaries to your innovation performance expectations by simplifying and structuring your innovation work to achieve the best possible outcome.

Innovation strategy can be described as an explicit roadmap for desired future.

Before moving forward, it’s important to mention that your innovation goals shouldn’t be separated from your overall business objectives as having a unified vision and common goals for innovation will help fight the silo effect and increase your operational efficiency.

If you think about marketing, for example, you wouldn’t want to separate your marketing strategy from your overall business objectives but rather make sure your marketing strategy and initiatives help contributing to your overall business plan and vision.

The same goes for innovation. There’s no point of innovating just for the sake of it, as it has to contribute to your bigger plan. So, before starting to develop an innovation strategy, make sure you’re aware of how innovation helps you to achieve your goals .

Building innovation into your strategy development process starts with making a deliberate choice of focusing on the best possible way to win as well as justifying the reasons behind that choice.

Often, the best approach to this is to make a set of choices you’re more capable of putting into practice compared to other players in your field.

One relatively solid framework for making those strategic choices is The Strategy Choice Cascade. The cascade is introduced in a strategy book called Playing to Win ,  by  A.G. Lafley,  the former CEO of P&G and  Roger L. Martin, Dean of the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management.

Needless to say that these two gentlemen have a lot of experience on business and innovation strategy consulting.

The purpose of the strategy choice cascade is to turn strategy from a complicated, messy and often deeply confusing and divisive chore, to a systematic and simple exercise.

The cascade consists of five steps that can help develop and implement sustainable strategy at any organization:

Next, we’ll look into each of these steps separately from the perspective of innovation.

5 Steps for Developing Your Innovation Strategy

1. determine objectives  and strategic approach to innovation.

The first step in the strategy choice cascade is to define your winning aspiration. In other words, your innovation objectives and the why behind your innovation strategy.

As any other strategy, the planning process of your innovation strategy starts with defining your objectives: What do you want to achieve with innovation?

If we take a step back, think about your long-term business goals and the things that are most likely to drive your business forward even after some time. As already mentioned, your innovation strategy should help supporting your business objectives and vice versa.

An example of a good strategic approach introduced in  Playing to Win is Olay. Olay's winning aspiration is to become a leading skincare brand that wins convincingly in their chosen markets and channels. Along with hair care, it will help establish a key pillar in the Procter & Gamble beauty-care business.

It's likely that your approach to innovation will be something different. Typically, there are two different approaches to innovation strategy: b usiness model innovation and leveraging existing business model .

Business Model Innovation

Business model innovation is the development of new, unique concepts supporting an organization's financial viability, including its mission, and the processes for bringing those concepts to fruition. The primary goal of business model innovation is to realize new revenue sources by improving product value and how products are delivered to customers.

The purpose of business model innovation is to address the choice of target segment, product or service offering, and revenue model. At the operating model level, the focus is on driving profitability, competitive advantage, and value creation.

Business model innovation is the art of enhancing advantage and value creation by making simultaneous, and mutually supportive, changes both to an organization’s value proposition to customers and to its underlying operating model. — Boston Consulting G roup

Business model innovation requires a deep understanding of your company’s competitive advantage and can be approached in four different ways:

Leveraging Existing Business Model

Leveraging existing business model refers to continuous improvements and incremental/sustainable innovations. As opposed to the business model innovation, the strategic focus with organizations that leverage existing business model is on improving the core business rather than building new business models to create new value.

Based on these two approaches to innovation, we can identify three innovator archetypes:

2. Know Your Market: Customers and Competitors

The second step in the strategy choice cascade is defining the right playing field, as in, the market you’re operating in and the customer segment you’re offering value for.

To be able to innovate and to respond to your customers’ needs, you should listen and understand what your customers really want and remove the rest. To be able to do that, knowing what happens in the market is essential. 

3. Define Your Value Proposition

Next, and probably the most important step is to define that unique value proposition. How will you win? What type of innovations allow the company to capture that value and achieve competitive advantage?

Because the purpose of innovation is to create competitive advantage, you should focus on creating value that either saves your customers money and time or makes them willing to pay more for your offering, provides larger societal benefit, makes your product perform better or more convenient to use, or becomes more durable and affordable compared to the previous product and the ones in the market.

To be able to create a unique value proposition, the ability to identify and exploit new uncontested markets is recommended. This can be done through value innovation.

Value Innovation

Value innovation was first introduced in the HBR article called Blue Ocean Strategy and later in the classic book bearing the same name.

The purpose of value innovation is to achieve sustainable competitive advantage by looking beyond your current understanding of the industry and reforming your value proposition to stand apart from the competition.

Securing new competitive advantage is done by making competition irrelevant , also referred to as the blue ocean. To succeed, one must adapt existing products or services through differentiation and lower cost .

Often, companies imitate their competitors offering slightly improved products and services with slightly more competitive price. Because rivals and imitators are about to attack fast, both the value proposition and the profit proposition should be outstanding.

This makes your business model more difficult to imitate and gives the best chance for you to be able to swim in that blue ocean.

To reach value innovation, try to clarify which customer segments your competitors are focused on, and how do these segments overlap with the ones your new offering targets. Is it possible to adapt any of your existing products to differentiate them further for the geographies or segments that will face the most pressure?

4. Assess and Develop Your Core Capabilities

The first three steps in the strategy choice cascade really come down to one thing; your fundamental capabilities required for winning.

When assessing your set of capabilities that need to be in place, consider the following:

For example, if you want to win at delivering breakthrough technology, you must have internal skills and knowledge to be able to build that. The ability to connect and develop these capabilities is key to innovation.

5.  Establish Your Innovation Techniques and Systems

Last but not least, to be able to execute your innovation strategy in a scalable and integrated manner, you should find out what systems need to be in place.

Define: which innovation techniques and systems do we need in to be able to link our innovation infrastructure elements together? What are the most important systems that support and help measuring the results of our innovation strategy?

According to a recent study , Christopher Freeman defines the system of innovation as 'the network of institutions in the public and private sectors whose activities and interactions initiate , import , modify and diffuse new technologies' .

This includes the following elements:

• The role of company R&D , especially in relation to technology
• The role of education and training related to innovations
• The conglomerate structure of industry
• The production, marketing and finance systems

The Play-to-Win Strategy Canvas

Now that you know which strategic choices you need to make in order to succeed in innovation, you should map these choices. This will help you to identify what must be true for your strategy to be valid.

A simple and visual tool for the job is The Play-to-Win Strategy Canvas:

Reverse engineering is a technique a part of the strategy canvas that can be used to ensure your strategic choice is sound. Instead of relying on opinions, reverse engineering allows you to design and conduct valid tests in order to make informed choices.

It helps you to involve all of the decision makers (VP’s included) to critically assess the viable options and make them committed to the process and strategy.

Reverse engineering helps identify the “nice to have conditions” vs. must have conditions and to find an answer to : what would have to be true instead of what is true. This question helps you to focus on analyzing things that really matter.

Since testing is often the most time-consuming and expensive part of developing a strategy, the fewer tests you need to make, the better. Use reverse engineering to pinpoint only what you really need to know.

So, to find out what would have to be true for your strategy to work, consider the following aspects:

• Capabilities
• Competition

The Choice Process

In the end, only viable strategic options remain, as all other conditions failed to pass the test.

Best Practices – How to Make your Innovation Strategy Work?

After you’ve picked your strategic approach to innovation and mapped all of the most important elements related to it, it’s time to put your innovation strategy to work.

To make sure innovation remains a strategic priority, stay focused on your goals and execute your innovation strategy in a systematic manner.

"Choosing what kind of value your innovation will create and then sticking to that is critical, because the capabilities required for each are quite different and take time to accumulate ” – Gary Pisano  

Your strategic long-term goals give structure and support to your innovation work. Having boundaries and staying focused on your end goal is the only sure way to get there.

As already mentioned, aligning innovation strategy with your overall business goals is one of the most difficult tasks when it comes to succeeding in innovation. So much so that 54% of innovating companies struggle to bridge the gap between innovation strategy and business objectives.

According to Deloitte 2016 Global Board Survey , one of the reasons for this might be that the overall understanding seems to be weak with regard to talent management and innovation/R&D strategy. Other common issues are uncertainty and the unusual time horizon of innovation results.

To succeed with strategy alignment, aim for communicating the role of innovation within the entire portfolio to drive innovation across all units in your organization. Ensuring that innovation is fully embedded into an overall business strategy is the only way to allow your organization to innovate in the long term.

No matter how great your innovation strategy is, it won’t get you far if you fail to get people committed to your innovation management processes .

Often, the root cause of these types of challenges is the top management. If senior managers fail at the top-down communication, even a good strategy won't work if not integrated into the actual ways of working.

Because senior leaders are often the ones making the decisions, prioritizing active communication and engagement can help motivate people to be more active. When your employees are aware of the goal and purpose, as in, why you’re doing what you do, it will make the long-term commitment much easier.

To integrate innovation into the ways of working, you might want to consider partnering with your key people and set individual goals that support your innovation strategy. Providing clear direction and guidance can help you to make innovation a part of your everyday work.

Last but not least, to be able to tell how your innovation strategy works in practice, you should be able to measure it in a systematic manner. Picking the optimal metrics and setting the right expectations  helps monitor your progress.

Systematic measuring is the only way to be able to adapt to changes to achieve better outcomes in the future. So, don’t do it in a silo, but aim for bigger impact by making a systematic measuring a part of your innovation strategy.

Innovation strategy is about making the best educated choice between a number of feasible options. To succeed in developing the best possible innovation strategy for you, you need to identify and map your best possible strategic choices required to win.

However, making those choices is only half the battle as it’s equally important to test and validate your approach.

For your innovation strategy to work, strategic alignment and seamless integration to the ways of working is the key. By clear communication as well as supporting metrics on company and individual level will help you make innovation a continuous practice.

Succeeding in innovation takes a combination of knowledge, the right skills and practices, as well as a lot of hard work. To help you succeed, we designed The Innovation System , a program to support you across all facets of the journey.

We've recently put together a framework that helps you address all of the aforementioned challenges: The Flywheel of Growth . We've also created a workbook that comes with tips on how to use the framework, as well as concrete examples and PowerPoint templates. You can download it here .

We've also written quite an extensive guide to innovation management which you might find useful.

When you have the right innovation strategy in place, the next step is to build a systematic process for generating, developing, evaluating and implementing new ideas.

Related articles

The Flywheel of Growth – A Strategic Innovation Framework

Product Portfolio Management: Connecting a Vision to Strategy and Budgets

Innovation Toolkit – Tips, Tools and Templates for Managing Innovation

• SUGGESTED TOPICS
• The Magazine
• Newsletters
• Managing Yourself
• Managing Teams
• Work-life Balance
• The Big Idea
• Data & Visuals
• Reading Lists
• Case Selections
• HBR Learning
• Topic Feeds
• Account Settings
• Email Preferences

Build an Innovation Engine in 90 Days

• Scott D. Anthony,
• David S. Duncan,
• Pontus M.A. Siren

Most executives will admit that their companies don’t innovate in a reliable, orderly way. Too many breakthroughs happen only because of serendipity or individual heroism. Great ideas remain locked inside employees’ heads, and the concepts that are developed often aren’t the most promising. But there is a way to make innovation more systematic—without massive investments, restructuring, or even a single hire. In this article three consultants explain how a company can build a “minimum viable” innovation function, in just three months, by doing the following:

Day 1–30: Define your innovation buckets, looking at how much growth innovations in your core can produce and how much will need to come from new-growth initiatives.

Day 20–50: Zero in on a few strategic opportunities, after talking to customers to identify growing needs that match your capabilities.

Day 20–70: Dedicate a small team to begin developing innovations.

Day 45–90: Set up a committee to shepherd projects, borrowing venture capitalists’ best practices.

Drawing on the experiences of a financial services firm, a water utility, a hospital, and a 100-year-old nonprofit, the authors describe how to use this approach to build systems that ensure that good ideas are encouraged, identified, shared, prioritized, resourced, and developed.

HBR Reprint R1412C

Get a reliable system up and running fast.

Practically every company innovates. But few do so in an orderly, reliable way. In far too many organizations, the big breakthroughs happen despite the company. Successful innovations typically follow invisible development paths and require acts of individual heroism or a heavy dose of serendipity. Successive efforts to jump-start innovation through, say, hack-a-thons, cash prizes for inventive concepts, and on-again, off-again task forces frequently prove fruitless. Great ideas remain captive in the heads of employees, innovation initiatives take way too long, and the ideas that are developed are not necessarily the best efforts or the best fit with strategic priorities.

• Scott D. Anthony is a clinical professor at Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business, a senior partner at Innosight , and the lead author of Eat, Sleep, Innovate (2020) and Dual Transformation (2017). ScottDAnthony
• David S. Duncan is the author of The Secret Life of Customers (Public Affairs, May 2021). He formerly was a senior partner at the growth strategy consulting firm Innosight.
• Pontus M.A. Siren is a partner at Innosight .

Partner Center

Innovation—the launchpad out of the crisis

As companies prepare for the recovery from the pandemic, many leaders hope innovation will set them up for the next phase of growth. In this episode of the Inside the Strategy Room podcast, Laura Furstenthal, whose client work focuses on healthcare organizations and innovation transformations, and Erik Roth, leader of McKinsey’s global innovation practice, explain how to establish a sustainable innovation process . This is an edited transcript of the discussion. For more conversations on the strategy issues that matter, subscribe to the series on Apple Podcasts or Google Podcasts.

Sean Brown: Laura, perhaps you can set the stage. How do you define innovation in the corporate setting?

Laura Furstenthal: If you look up “innovation” in a dictionary, you see definitions like creating novel ideas or even just the word “creativity.” We believe you have to think about the impact, so our definition of innovation incorporates delivering net new growth that is sustainable, repeatable, and substantial. You can focus on new products, markets, customers, or business models, but however you measure it, innovation has to increase value and drive growth.

Erik Roth: The word “substantial” is really important. Organizations often experiment with incremental initiatives that take up a lot of resources, but if innovation is to be the growth engine, it has to be large enough to matter.

Laura Furstenthal: For successful organizations, innovation is a choice. It has to be backed by a commitment. Putting your organization on a new growth trajectory requires both deliberate action and resource allocation. However, while innovation is at the top of most organizations’ agenda, far more fail than succeed at driving successful innovation. In fact, 86 percent of executives we surveyed told us that innovation is a top three priority, yet fewer than 10 percent say they are satisfied with their organizations’ innovation performance.

Sean Brown: How should business leaders decide what innovations to prioritize, especially when there is still so much uncertainty?

Laura Furstenthal: We have found that every successful innovation throughout history has come at the intersection of three lenses: an unmet customer need, or the who; a technology that generates a solution, or the what; and a business model that enables you to monetize that solution, which is the how. Another way to think about it is to ask yourself the three questions. First, does what you are doing matter? Will customers benefit from it? Second, can you build it, and what technologies do you need to do that? And third, will it win? Is there an opportunity for the innovation to take on a market? Because all of these lenses are required for successful innovation, the best way to generate new concepts is to collide them in a very structured and purposeful way.

Every successful innovation comes at the intersection of three lenses. The lens we find organizations often spend the least amount of time on is building a scalable operating model. Laura Furstenthal

Think about the famous inventor Thomas Edison. In every case, he did not just invent the what, he also invented a how. He was often not the first person to create the innovation, whether it’s the light bulb or the motion-picture player, but his unique contribution was to make it salable and scalable. In the case of the light bulb, he created the filament and the vacuum tube that allowed it to turn on and off, and he developed the production process that enabled mass production. That’s a great example of all three lenses, and the lens we find organizations often spend the least amount of time on is building that scalable operating model.

Sean Brown: You both mentioned that the innovation has to be substantial to merit the resources you allocate to it. How do you determine if the innovation concept will deliver that substantial outcome?

Laura Furstenthal: We often find that people come up with ideas and build business plans, laying out all of their assumptions, but those assumptions become assertions over time and their teams end up trying to prove that their assumptions were right rather than testing them. Instead of building a business plan, we recommend building what we call a reverse P&L: What would need to be true for this idea to meet your hurdle rate and get to the level that you would consider a success? Then take those assumptions and rank them by the level of uncertainty and the degree of impact they have on the business case, and test the highest ranked first. If those assumptions fail, you know you need to pivot early. We often find people test the customer interface first, but it’s the business model or the supply chain or the technology that require early testing.

If you are going to innovate, start with the size of the business you want and work backward. If nobody can conceive of a way to get it to that size, maybe it’s not the right business for your company. Erik Roth

Erik Roth: We recommend getting rid of business cases altogether. They are a waste of energy and time. I will go so far as to say they actually increase risk, for the reasons that Laura mentioned: everybody writes down their assertions, showing hockey-stick growth at the end, and I am willing to bet the models are dominated by market growth as the dominant variable, not growth driven by your innovation. If that’s the case, there is no point in creating something. The point is, if you are going to innovate, start with the end goal. Start with the size of the business you want and work backward. If nobody can conceive of a way to get it to that size, maybe it’s not the right business for your company. Many teams then apply what looks like a new product development (NPD) process, which is a sequential risk-management tool. The problem is that innovation processes are iterative and learning based, not linear and risk management based.

Sean Brown: The past year has forced companies to get innovative to overcome constraints the pandemic imposed on us. What are your favorite examples of organizations coming up with clever and valuable solutions to these challenges?

Erik Roth: It’s always interesting how the old becomes new again. The pandemic obviously hit retail in an unprecedented way, and retailers’ ingenuity in leveraging their store assets, retaining some level of customer experience, and reconnecting the brands with people was incredible. One of the more fun examples is Walmart using their giant parking lots as drive-ins to create entertainment and connectivity to the brand in a time when we were all hungering to be outside of our homes but still safe.

Sean Brown: Did innovation take a back seat during the pandemic at most companies?

Laura Furstenthal: We did some research looking at pre-COVID-19, during COVID-19, and the expectations for the post-COVID-19 environment, and we found that most organizations battened down the hatches during the crisis and focused on the core business, with the expectation that they would focus on innovation projects once they recovered from the crisis. So we asked, is this the right thing to do? We looked across multiple crises, including the SARS epidemic that ravaged Asia and became the impetus for widespread adoption of online transactions, and back to World War II when we saw rapid growth in manufacturing of convenience technologies to capitalize on the fact that women were working. During the financial crisis, stranded assets and an unemployed workforce spurred the sharing economy, among other things. The lesson is that those who innovate through a crisis come out stronger (exhibit).

Sean Brown: How do you determine if your organization has the capabilities it needs to innovate successfully?

Erik Roth: Innovation is a context-specific sport. However, our research on about 5,000 companies over the past seven years has identified about 100 activities that we know promote, support, and enable innovation, and that research allows us to quantitatively understand the state of play in terms of an organization’s innovativeness. Those activities are grouped into eight categories that we call the “ eight essentials of innovation ,” and they in turn fall into four buckets. One is about strategy and portfolio, and another is about the ability to create distinctive value propositions that are not only products but business models and other forms of value creation. Launching and scaling up is another bucket, which refers to accelerating those innovations’ paths to market and making them as big as they can be. The last one is about mobilizing your culture and external partners so you get reinforcement and celebration of success.

Subscribe to the Inside the Strategy Room podcast

Normally, organizations track their R&D spending or patents or other indirect indicators of innovation. We instead looked at how public companies stack up in terms of economic profit creation when they apply those essentials. Organizations that satisfy up to seven or eight of the essentials generate 2.4 times the amount of economic profit as their competitors.

Sean Brown: Can you offer any examples that illustrate what these activities involve, and how companies can determine whether they have those capabilities?

Erik Roth: Each essential has a test question. For “aspire,” for example: Does your organization find innovation or net new growth critical to meeting its future objectives, and has it cascaded those objectives down to the right parts of the organization? If you answer yes, then you are probably well on the way to meeting the biggest challenge of innovation, which is reallocating resources to the best opportunities. Why is that so hard? We use a heuristic to assess whether an organization is prepared to be a great innovator: Does it have a green box? The green box represents the gap between your aspiration and what your organization can expect to deliver on its regular growth trajectory. Say on one side you have today’s revenue and on the other is revenue you want five years out. There are four ways to get from one side to the other. One is selecting the right market segments. If you did nothing else but get the average growth rate in those segments, that tells you your baseline. You could then outperform your competition through all the activities in your annual plan and some incremental innovation, such as ingredient changes or functionality improvements.

If you only do those two things, how close do you get to the five-year aspiration? Is it a small gap, no gap, or a big gap? Companies that have no gap are the ones that struggle the most with innovation. No matter how many times executives make speeches to inspire people to innovate, if the business model and the growth model tell employees, “Just keep doing what you’re doing,” they will cheer at the speech, then keep doing what they were doing—because there is no green box. The business can achieve its objectives by performing those first two steps. Sometimes M&A fills in the gap, which is the third way. But unless there is a green box designed into the strategic plan that only innovation can address, it is hard for an organization to reallocate resources toward risky propositions like innovations.

What is interesting is that when organizations don’t have a green box and their executives get frustrated, they start creating appendages like accelerators and corporate venture-capital units and incubators that are meant to satisfy the green box but actually sit on the side and struggle. They might create interesting things but the core business does not need them to satisfy its growth ambition.

Sean Brown: How can companies identify the innovations that will fill that gap the green box represents and meet the threshold you mentioned of being substantial?

Erik Roth: Great innovation, as Laura said earlier, starts with a valuable problem to solve. It starts with the outcome, or the value of a potential opportunity. Then we use a formula. How many customers are excited about that outcome? How much do they pay today and how frequently does that occur? The most important thing, which is often forgotten or never asked, is the customer’s frustration level with the existing solutions. If that level is high, the likelihood of the customer switching and being willing to pay more goes up. You can quantify the opportunity using this formula and understand which problems are valuable and the degree of difficulty in solving them.

Sean Brown: So if I am a leader frustrated with the lack of innovation in my organization, Laura, what should I do tomorrow?

Laura Furstenthal: First, make sure you are reallocating toward the future. As we say, innovation is not an ideas problem, it is a resource reallocation problem. COVID-19 has caused a massive disruption and customer needs have changed. You probably have a long tail of innovation initiatives in your organization, and there is an opportunity to redeploy those resources toward a few big, bold moves that will really move the needle.

Secondly, embed flexibility. It is important to put a structure in place where it is not okay to say, “This is the way we’ve always done it.” You need to find the “way we now do it” and role-model that in your organization. Finally, hack your processes. Over time people develop a compliance mindset, risk aversion, and process discipline. They put in place various things that get in the way of what is at the core of innovation, which is finding ways to delight the customer.

Laura Furstenthal is a senior partner in the San Francisco office. Erik Roth is a senior partner in the Stamford office. Sean Brown , global director of communications for the Strategy & Corporate Finance Practice, is based in Boston.

Explore a career with us

Related articles.

Innovation in a crisis: Why it is more critical than ever

The innovation commitment

Hitachi and Microsoft enter milestone agreement to accelerate business and social innovation with generative AI

• Share on Facebook (opens new window)
• Share on LinkedIn (opens new window)
• Share on Twitter (opens new window)
• Three-year, projected multibillion-dollar strategic partnership will focus on creating innovative industry solutions that deliver transformative outcomes for businesses and society
• Hitachi Group will embed the Microsoft cloud, Azure Open AI Service, Dynamics 365, Copilot for Microsoft 365 and GitHub Copilot into its Lumada Solutions to accelerate growth of the Lumada business, and improve productivity for its 270,000 employees
• Hitachi will train more than 50,000 “GenAI Professionals” on advanced AI skills. As part of the partnership, Hitachi will incorporate training provided by Microsoft into Hitachi’s training

Redmond, Wash., June 3/Tokyo, June 4, 2024 – Hitachi Ltd. (TSE:6501) and Microsoft Corp. announced a projected multibillion-dollar collaboration over the next three years that will accelerate social innovation with generative AI. Through this strategic alliance, Hitachi will propel growth of the Lumada business, with a planned revenue of 2.65 trillion yen (18.9 billion USD) *1 in FY2024, and will promote operational efficiency and productivity improvements for Hitachi Group’s 270,000 employees.

“Hitachi has been driving transformation by applying AI across the Hitachi Group to improve productivity and will invest 300 billion yen（2.1 billion USD) *1 in GenAI to capture new growth opportunities in FY2024. Hitachi and Microsoft have already been working on a variety of co-creation projects including the development of next-generation digital solutions for the manufacturing and logistics fields *2 and the development of a field-extended metaverse that runs on Microsoft Teams,” said Keiji Kojima, president and CEO of Hitachi. “Under this new agreement, we are excited to further accelerate social innovation by expanding our efforts to social infrastructure areas such as energy and mobility, and by applying generative AI, to improve the productivity of frontline workers, which will become even more important in the future. By combining our capabilities, we can help solve the issues faced by our customers and society, and contribute to a more sustainable future.”

“We are entering a new era of AI with the promise to deliver transformative business outcomes across every role and industry,” said Satya Nadella, chairman and CEO, Microsoft. “Our expanded partnership with Hitachi will bring together the power of the Microsoft Cloud — including Microsoft Copilot — with Hitachi’s industry expertise to improve the productivity of 270,000 Hitachi employees and help address customers’ biggest challenges, including sustainability.”

Hitachi’s business transformation:

Hitachi Rail is leveraging GenAI for predictive maintenance, enhancing equipment monitoring and refining forecast accuracy. This proactive approach prevents breakdowns, increases service quality, reduces operating expenses and augments safety. For example, a cloud-based platform on Microsoft Azure was used to streamline data visualization and analysis, empowered by AI to furnish data-driven insights to digitally monitor rail infrastructure. These insights were translated into actionable steps for Network Rail , enhancing decision-making for predictive maintenance of overhead lines.

Develop innovative digital solutions

Hitachi is enhancing its Lumada solutions by incorporating the capability of generative AI. As part of the initiative, Hitachi has already started to use Microsoft’s Generative AI for JP1 Cloud Services, a SaaS version of JP1, its integrated operations management software with approximately 20,000 customers. This will accelerate response times to address failures, and enable improved operational efficiencies for IT departments, financial and public institutions. In an internal verification test conducted earlier, Hitachi confirmed that the time required for the operator to make an initial response to an alert was reduced to approximately two-thirds by using generated AI to respond to the alert and displaying the source of the citation, such as a manual, that provided the basis for the response.

In addition to this, Hitachi and Microsoft will also support the energy transition with improved access to and strengthening of digital solutions for asset performance management, energy trading, and risk management to reduce downtime and increase profitability. Increased computing power and cloud infrastructure are both critical to scaling these applications. Hitachi Energy’s Enterprise Software Solutions technology and its partnership with Microsoft are key to optimizing the energy network, from generation, through transmission and distribution, and ultimately in delivering reliable and sustainable energy to customers.

Joint projects to promote sustainable growth

Multiple Hitachi Group Companies including GlobalLogic, Hitachi Digital Services and Hitachi Solutions, deliver a wide range of digital engineering, IT and managed services, and application services for the cloud. Additional development efforts through this partnership will focus on enhancing this broad range of services with the aim of sustainable innovation with Microsoft.

As the impact of CO2 emissions from AI on the global environment increases, Hitachi and Microsoft will work toward zero carbon, starting with a data center project in Europe, to reduce environmental impact.

Strengthen digital skilling and talent development

Hitachi will train more than 50,000 GenAI Professionals. As part of the partnership, Hitachi will incorporate training to acquire advanced software development skills using GitHub Copilot and Azure OpenAI Service into the program to develop GenAI Professionals, talents who support customers’ transformation using AI.

*1 Forecast as of April 26, 2024, calculated at 140 yen to the U.S. dollar.

*2 Hitachi News Release (June 26, 2020) “Hitachi and Microsoft form a strategic alliance to advance next-generation digital solutions for manufacturing and logistics across Southeast Asia, North America and Japan” https://www.hitachi.com/New/cnews/month/2020/06/200626.html

*3 Hitachi News Release (May 15, 2023) “Hitachi Establishes New ‘Generative AI Center’ to Accelerate Value Creation and Improve Productivity in the Lumada business by promoting the use of Generative AI” https://www.hitachi.com/New/cnews/month/2023/05/230515.html

*4 Hitachi News Release (May 21, 2024) “Hitachi to Accelerate System Development Transformation With Generative AI” https://www.hitachi.com/New/cnews/month/2024/05/240521.html

About Hitachi, Ltd.

Hitachi drives Social Innovation Business, creating a sustainable society through the use of data and technology. We solve customers’ and society’s challenges with Lumada solutions leveraging IT, OT (Operational Technology) and products. Hitachi operates under the 3 business sectors of “Digital Systems & Services” – supporting our customers’ digital transformation; “Green Energy & Mobility” – contributing to a decarbonized society through energy and railway systems, and “Connective Industries” – connecting products through digital technology to provide solutions in various industries. Driven by Digital, Green, and Innovation, we aim for growth through co-creation with our customers. The company’s revenues as 3 sectors for fiscal year 2023 (ended March 31, 2024) totaled 8,564.3 billion yen, with 573 consolidated subsidiaries and approximately 270,000 employees worldwide. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the company’s website at https://www.hitachi.com.

About Microsoft

Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) creates platforms and tools powered by AI to deliver innovative solutions that meet the evolving needs of our customers. The technology company is committed to making AI available broadly and doing so responsibly, with a mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.

Media Contacts

Microsoft Media Relations, WE Communications for Microsoft, (425) 638-7777, [email protected]

Related Posts

Microsoft and G42 announce $1 billion comprehensive digital ecosystem initiative for Kenya

ServiceNow and Microsoft expand strategic alliance, combining generative AI capabilities to enhance choice and flexibility

Microsoft announces $3.3 billion investment in Wisconsin to spur artificial intelligence innovation and economic growth

Microsoft and LinkedIn release the 2024 Work Trend Index on the state of AI at work

Axel Springer and Microsoft expand partnership across advertising, AI, content and Azure services 

• Check us out on RSS

Share this page: