Innovation (cont.)

Questions that can evaluate whether the company has the mind set and infrastructure for continual innovation include:

·        What is your current niche?

·        How much barrier to entry do you have with your current product or service

·        What other innovations do you have in the pipeline?

·        How fast is the industry changing?

·        Are there signs of a tipping point approaching (super critical state, increasing incidences of odd stories)?

·        Do you have someone charged with innovation (title or authority?)

·        Do you an innovation infrastructure (lab, university relationships, industry trend scanning)

·        Do you have formal customer feedback channels?  Do sales people have a formal check in procedure?