I’ve always
viewed innovation and disruptive innovation as being the same thing, but viewed
from different perspectives. Innovation can be defined as “the process of
translating an idea or invention into a good or service that creates value or
for which customers will pay.” (WebFinance, Inc, 2015) The
differences between innovation and disruptive innovation are that one benefits
you the other is out to destroy you. I will reflect upon how one may navigate
their way thru innovation, what to look out for with disruptive innovation, and
finally how to approach the two together.
When it
comes to innovation there are many techniques to use as a strategy. McKeown
brings up the idea of Ries’ build-measure-learn wheel. (McKeown, 2014) This idea is incredible
iterative in the sense that you’re constantly refining and redefining the
product so that it better suits the needs of the customer. The idea is to be
able to get feedback relatively quickly so that you know if you’re heading in
the right direction or if change needs to occur. This also allows your
innovation to be more agile against future disruptive innovation.
Disruptive
innovation can come in many forms and strengths, but all of it should be
treated equally when evaluating their potential. Wessel and Christensen give
three things you must consider with a potential disruptive innovation: the disrupter’s
advantage, your own advantage, and finally how easily the disrupter might co-opt
your advantage in the future. (Wessel & Christensen, 2012) With this you
can gain new insights and reveal if the new disruption will be a slow one, a fast
one, and how dangerous. There are some questions that should be asked too, such
as what sort of barriers are there? Wessel and Christensen recommend finding
out the momentum barrier, the tech-implementation barrier, the ecosystem
barrier, the new-technologies barrier, and finally the business model barrier. (Wessel & Christensen, 2012) The more
difficult the barrier, the less likely the disruptive innovation will be
dangerous and will allow more time in react. So what if a disruptive innovation
occurs midst cycle of innovation?
As
discussed before, Ries build-measure-learn wheel is iterative in nature. Should
something disruptive come along, then a it would be a good opportunity to pause
at the next complete iteration and then employ Osborn and Parne’s creative
problem-solving. (McKeown, 2014) The basic run down of this
strategy is to take it in three parts: explore the challenges, generate ideas,
and prepare for action. When a disruptive innovation is released, it has become
a new challenge. This new challenge needs to be evaluated and conquered in
order to stay ahead of the game. Perhaps then, the current innovation project
would then either need to continue its course, change direction, or gets
cancelled altogether.
Discussed
were a strategy to use for leading innovation, things to watch out for in
disruptive innovation, and finally an approach to innovation should it occur at
the same time as disruptive innovation. If its one thing that’s constant with
the world, it’s change. As time goes on, we need to be ever more adaptable to
new disruptive challenges or perish as we fall behind.
References
McKeown, M.
(2014). The Innovation Book. London: Pearson.
WebFinance, Inc. (2015). Innovation. Retrieved 2015,
from Business Disctionary:
http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/innovation.html
Wessel, M., & Christensen, C. (2012). Surviving
Disruption. Harvard Business Review , 56-65.
No comments:
Post a Comment