INNOVATION STRATEGY

SHAPING THE FUTURE OF YOUR BUSINESS

Innovation Strategy is about answering a key list of strategically important questions around how your business can and should leverage innovation for short, medium, and long–term growth... the scope, the directions, the speed, the boundaries, and so forth.   All of which must relate back to the future trajectory of your markets and your industry, and to the future trajectory that your business needs to have within that context, including the specific risk / reward trade-offs it will encounter along its journey.   Strategically, each business has to choose and pursue the specific strategies that will benefit it the most over the long run.   This is never an easy or cut and dry decision, as there are numerous market, customer, technology, and business factors that must be taken into consideration.

Furthermore, while innovation strategies can be used for both revenue growth and margin expansion, the most impactful strategies almost always focus on revenue growth, and therefore involve new offerings (products, services, and experiences), new markets, or both, whether pursued organically or inorganically.   And while there a number of approaches that can drive revenue growth, the most impactful approaches almost always involve some form of holistic business model innovation, which combines elements of product or service innovation with market and brand innovation, as well as operational innovation, to deliver the greatest overall impact to the business.   Ultimately your business will require a portfolio of strategies if it is to navigate the path from its current position to its long-term desired position.   This portfolio must be capable of bridging one stage of growth to the next, and of building the right foundations for sustained long-term leadership.

There is also an important public relations element to your innovation strategy.   The strategies you select must be compelling to both your external constituents (your markets) and your internal constituents (your organization), as well as to your financial constituents (your investors).   If these strategies are to be effective and sustainable over the long run, they have to capture – and keep – the imaginations of all three of these.