Innovation and Disruption to Create Sustainable Competitive

Every company must cultivate a culture of innovation. Not all can disrupt and industry though. Understanding these two is key to success. Peter Drucker, The Father of Management Says marketing and Innovation are the only two jobs of a company. However, many emphasize and reward other focus and ignore these. Every company must aspire to innovate constantly in this rapidly changing world where new technology or a new business model can obsolete your business in no time flat.

Success is almost always the end result of rapid (and cheap) failure. Edison, Colonel Sanders, Sir James Dyson and almost every successful investor “failed” miserably for years before their success. How minor business model twists and mindsets create billion-dollar companies. The right levels of failure to fund and expect. Frugal experimentation.

Look at any big success and you will see many failures before that success happened.

The spectrum and layers of company business models and how to optimize your company’s competitive advantage over time to move up the food chain., Ten types of innovation to think about. We cannot do them all, but we must do some.

List of the top innovative companies and the seven things they ALL do every day. This is a mindset and dedicating resources to innovation. A simple decision in the budget and hiring to invest I the future of the company. Ten ways to generate innovative ideas that could make your company a market leader. And profit and growth leader too.

Further techniques to drive innovation and models to help you decide which are most strategic for your company. The Product Idea Matrix™ is a tool to search for innovation opportunities I created back in 1989 when I was mainly a product driven person seeking business opportunities. Just a framework to ask the right questions and find emerging opportunities. The ten forces behind new business models. Virtually every company can integrate a few of these into their strategic plans. Which ones Jeff Bezos invests in without hesitation.

Moving from linear to systemic and parallel innovation. The Agile approach. Why customers buy and what is your “Why”. How technology market entry must be done using the Crossing the Chasm model because of human psychology and inertia, as well as “Fear of loss” by being too early.

At least six areas where innovation can be planned, invested in and driven, often in little and no cost ways. The spectrum of innovation from low cost and low newness to high cost and high innovation. Not always tied together. Incremental versus disruptive are just the ends of the spectrum. It is not an all or nothing decision. The systemic and cultural approach, in every department of your organization. Culture eats strategy for lunch because culture works every day making progress. Like gravity it is a weak force, but its cumulative effect is huge. Rabbit and tortoise anyone? Forming innovation teams.

Buying on emotion, not logic. Asynchronous innovation processes. Incremental versus disruptive innovation. The classic, must read books on this area. Which every CEO must master and live and breathe daily because constant innovation is the most powerful sustainable competitive advantage. It keeps you years ahead of competitors and makes them follow you.

The CEO must drive innovation and nurture it through the organization as a cultural imperative. In every area of the business. Hence the Entrepreneur, Product Champion and others need the support of the CEO to drive continuous innovation. This is always preparing for the future and never immediate or critical now, but it is more important than any other priority in the long-term. Pruning the garden to ensure teamwork in innovation and growing creative solutions.

Some video on key philosophies and quotes that set the right tone for innovation and the culture needed to insist on it daily. Pause the video and think about each of these slides and how they might apply to you and your company. All are models and best practices that few companies follow well, with discipline.