Strategic Innovation

"Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower"
- Steve Jobs

Speed and change are keywords in modern business and strategic innovation is therefore necessary to keep up with the market. Implementing strategies for "creative destruction" (Schumpeter's term) has a key problem, how can one produce efficiently, and still give room for creative variety? How can a company learn and unlearn at the same time?

These two ditches are easy to fall into, but has a dramatic result. If a company focus too much on creativity, learning and testing, it will never be able to produce efficiently and will lose market. On the other hand, if a company only produce efficiently, sooner or later a new product will change customer expectations and force the company out of the market. Hence, only producing efficiently is not sustaining in the long run, and there needs to be a balance or a conscious corporate innovation strategy keeping the efficient levels of creativity and efficiency at an optimal state.

Furthermore, modern understanding of innovation claims that innovation works best involving all departments of the company. Traditionally, new products have found their way from the R&D department throughout the production facilities, ending up at the marketing department, only to find that there is no market for the brilliant new product. By involving all parts of the organization in the co-evolution of radical innovations, the organization can maximize speed, efficiency and profit from a new product.

Therefore, it is no longer enough to be a market leader today, one needs to think five to ten years into the future, and predict tomorrow's market. Strategic innovation is therefore a necessity for companies aiming to perform in the future.

However, innovation literature is often filled abstract philosophy and little hands-on material help you put theory into practice. Since innovation management is hard, and has no three-step program for a successful outcome, guidance and learning from others are crucial to succeed.

One recent book that deals excellent with these topics, and provides a hands on approach to innovation (with lots of real life examples) is the book "Innovation to the Core - A Blueprint for Transforming the Way Your Company Innovates", by among others innovation change guru Gary Hamel. Other books that are useful on the topic are "Harvard Business Review On Innovation" by Clayton M. Christensen and Rita McGrath and Making Innovation Work: How to Manage It, Measure It, and Profit from It by Tony Davila et al. Links to recommended literature can be found below.

As knowledge is becoming companies main assets, learning and understanding how innovation works in your organization is the only way to create a sustaining long-term profit!