The Innovation Landscape

A (very) Short Course

Some Basic Perspectives

to Help Interpret Innovation Ideas

Innovation as a Concept
• It’s a Process with Identifiable Steps
• People play Roles in the Process
• It’s studied by many Disciplines
• It’s part of many Frameworks
• It can be Systematically Modeled
• It produces Results and Added Value

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 What Innovation is Not
• Artistic Creativity
• Invention
• The “Bright Idea”
• Scientific Discovery
• Problem-Solving
• Simple Incremental Improvement

Innovation at Different Levels

• Individual - creative skills & ideas
• Team - problem-solving
• Large Unit - innovation roles defined
• Organization - process supported
• Industry - new technology
• Societal/Marketplace - diffusion

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 3 Views of
Innovation as a Process
• New Product Success Factors
• Innovation as New Product Development
• Innovation as New Technology
• Innovation as Management Improvement

New Product Development

as Innovation
• Strategic planning
• Allocate resources to support the innovation
• Generate a product concept
• Test its technical feasibility
• Develop and refine the product
• Prepare the product for manufacture
• Full-scale production of the product
• Place the product in the marketplace
• Support problem-solving and improvement

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 New Technology
as an Innovation Trigger
• Recognize a “breakthrough technology”
• …or recognize a user need
• Formulate an application idea
• Resolve any technology problems
• Translate idea into a solution
• Develop and refine the solution
• See the solution ‘adopted’ by users

Management Practice
as an Innovation
• Observe needs and opportunities from
within an organization
• Generate an idea for addressing the need
or opportunity.
• Test the idea for feasibility
• Refine the idea for acceptability
• Sell the idea to users and employees

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 Generic Process Steps
in an Innovation
• Scanning • Production
• Recognition • Positioning and
• Ideation Selling
• Concept • Adoption and
Development Diffusion
• Prototyping • Support and
Refinement
• Testing & Evaluation
• Re-Creation

Innovation’s Role Players

• Spotter • Process
• Inventor Manager
• Tester • Sponsor
• Champion • Protector
• Gatekeeper • Seller

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 Innovation Diffusion
(as defined by Everett Rogers)

• The process by which an innovation is

communicated through certain channels over
time among members of a social system.
• Diffusion is the process by which a new idea or
product is accepted by the market.
• The rate of diffusion is the speed that the new
idea spreads from one consumer to the next.

Innovation Pragmatists:
Adoption Stick with the herd! Conservatives:
Hold on!
Cycle
Visionaries:
Get ahead of the herd! Skeptics:
No way!

Techies:
Try it!

Innovators Early Early MajorityLate Majority Laggards

Adopters

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 Managing Innovation Value
• Intellectual Property Management – generate
more intellectual properties; focus on short-
term returns of patent licensing.
• Intellectual Asset Management – focus on
broader intellectual assets; assemble both
unprotected and protected assets.
• Intellectual Capital Management – harness the
‘hidden value’ of an innovation; deploy
intellectual capital toward the firm’s vision

Acting like an Innovator

[…after Leonardo Da Vinci’s 7 Principles: Gelb]

• Quest for continuous learning

• Be willing to learn from mistakes
• Ability to scan for opportunity
• Willingness to embrace ambiguity
• Balancing right and left brain viewpoints
• Cultivating a style to express your ideas
• Recognition of ‘systems’ relationships

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 Innovation Landscape Summary
• Understanding basic innovation vocabulary and
concepts will help you navigate the course material.
• Exploring the textbook’s index will build your
innovation vocabulary.
• Three basic forms of innovation—New Products,
New Technologies, and New Management
Processes will comprise the range of innovation
activities in an organization.
• Managing these processes is what innovation
management is all about.