Patterns of Innovation

Managers who are skilled at executing,clearly defined strategies are ill equipped for out-of-the-box thinking. In addition, when good ideas do emerge, they’re often doomed because the company is organized to support one way of doing business and doesn’t have the processes or metrics to support a new one. That explanation, too, is well supported.

Without a doubt, if you tackle business innovation systematically—rather than hoping people will get creative during an “innovation jam” or a special offsite—you improve the odds of success (and decrease the chances you’ll be left staring at a blank sheet of paper). Traditional, tested ways of framing the search for ideas exist, of course.

One is competency based: It asks, How can we build on the capabilities and assets that already make us distinctive to enter new businesses and markets? Another is customer focused: What does a close study of customers’ behaviour tell us about their tacit, unmet needs? A third addresses changes in the business environment: If we follow “mega trends” or other shifts to their logical conclusion, what future business opportunities will become clear?

Would like to propose a fourth approach. It complements the existing frameworks but focuses on opportunities generated by the explosion in digital information and tools. Simply put, our approach poses this question: How can we create value for customers using data and analytic tools we own or could have access to?

In Brief :

• THE CHALLENGE - Established companies are notoriously bad at finding new ways to make revenue, despite the pressure on them to grow.
• THE ANALYSIS - Most companies own or have access to information that could be used to expand old businesses or build new ones. These opportunities exist because of the explosion in digital data, analytic tools, and cloud computing.?
• THE SOLUTION - Answering a series of questions—from “What data can we access that we’re not capturing now?” to “Can we deliver one of our capabilities as a service?”—will help companies find ways to unlock new business value.?