A look at Breakthrough V/s Incremental Innovation.

Innovation is defined as the ways in with an organization updates, changes, and improves its internal processes, manufacturing techniques, and management methods. Innovations must meet certain criteria to be successful, including meeting customer needs, satisfying expense and return on investment requirements, improving employee satisfaction, and product quality. Innovations help introduce new concepts, knowledge, products, services, and processes into organizations and the outside marketplace.

If you look at the strategies and ideas that companies seek under the umbrella of innovation, most of them want to see something new, ideas and solutions which can fit the Star Trek theme - "going where no man has gone before". But companies need to realize that though breakthrough innovation have been huge money spinners, they come rarely. Incremental innovation is equally important to stay in the game. And often, they turn out to be bigger revenue and profit earners.

Breakthrough V/s Incremental Innovation

The difference is simple. An example of breakthrough innovation is Bell Labs’ invention of the transistor. An example of incremental innovation is Apple developing a new iPhone model.

Some people tend to dismiss incremental innovations and and put much greater value on breakthrough innovations. However, both types of innovation are valuable to organizations.

The invention of the liquid crystal display (LCD) panels was responsible for the decline of the cathode ray tube (CRT) business. However, by continuing to incrementally adapt and innovate the LCD panels and associated processes, organizations like Samsung have reaped great financial benefits, despite not being the original inventor. An organization can benefit greatly when it is adept at both breakthrough and incremental innovation.

Much of what quality technology is applied to can broadly be characterized as incremental innovation. Increasing the yield of a process by reducing the defects or achieving better control of a process are typical examples of incremental innovations.

However, innovations that may not be technologically significant enough to warrant much attention may still be extremely important economically. Making the first light bulb was a technological breakthrough. Making and fine-tuning an assembly line that can produce 3,000 light bulbs an hour is an incremental innovation. Yet both types of innovation demonstrate benefits to organizations and customers. 

A balance of breakthrough and incremental innovation processes help push forward the company in terms of staying and exceeding the norms of their industry.