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BusinessWeek Logo We should have anticipated the question.

Last time, we talked about how to construct your innovation portfolio. And as you will recall, we said the analogy to keep in mind is personal financial planning.Just as you divide your personal holdings among various asset classes—stocks, bonds, and cash—you want to divide your innovation efforts among different approaches. And then we rattled off the four to use:

1. Evolutionary Innovation. (Technically easy and a clear customer benefit.) This is where you keep current cash cows fresh and incubate brands in the market.

2. Differentiation. (Technically difficult and a clear customer benefit.) This portion of your innovation budget is used for making a distinction between your products and those of your competitors.

3. Revolutionary Innovation. (Technically difficult, and there's no way of knowing ahead of time if the customer will accept it.) Here you search to find groundbreaking ideas for products, services, and business models.

4. Fast-Fail Innovation. (Technically easy but no way of knowing if the customer will accept it.) This is the activity for which you go to market and do your testing and learning there.

To read the full, original article click on this link: Proven Ways To Fill Your Innovation Pipeline - BusinessWeek

Author: G. Michael Maddock and Raphael Louis Vitón