Business Success Rules::

Strategies of Market Leaders

Innovation

Bringing New Ideas to Life

"Out there in some garage is an entrepreneur who's forging a bullet with your company's name on it. You've got one option now – to shoot first. You've got to out-innovate the innovators."  ~ Gary Hamel

Innovation Defined

To innovate means to make changes in anything established and introduce something new.

Innovation is a process of taking new ideas through to satisfied customers. It is the conversion of new knowledge into new products and services.

10 Commandments of Innovation

Innovation is about creating value and increasing efficiency, and therefore growing your business. It is a spark that keeps organizations and people moving ever onward and upward. "Without innovation, new products, new services, and new business models would never emerge, and most organizations would be forever stuck doing the same old things the same old way."⁴

Innovation Is Love

Innovation is actually a very simple phenomenon.

Innovation is about Love: do what you love to do, and love your customers... More

Renewed Emphasis on Innovation

Shift to the new knowledge-based economy, combined with a dramatic increase in highly capable global competition, demands a renewed emphasis on innovation. Rapid changes in the competitive environment create the new world of competition - "a fierce contest set in truly global context, with more capable players, higher stakes, and vastly different rules of engagement from those that we have enjoyed to date."³ This new economy is led by those who innovate – create, find and/or combine knowledge into new products, services, and distribution methods – faster than their competitors. Innovation is above all spurred by entrepreneurial action, aimed at creating value through the application of knowledge.

Yin-Yang of Value Innovation

New Systemic Approach to Innovation

Until recently innovation has been seen principally as the means to turn research results into commercially successful products, but not all research leads to innovation and not all innovation is research-based. Innovation is systemic.

It arises from complex interactions between many individuals, organizations and their operating environment. Firms which are successful in realizing the full returns from their technologies and innovations are able to match their technological developments with complementary expertise in other areas of their business, such as manufacturing, distribution, human resources, marketing, and customer service... More

Steve Jobs' 12 Rules of Success

10. Innovate. Innovation distinguishes a leader from a follower. Delegate, let other top executives do 50% of your routine work to be able to spend 50% your time on the new stuff. Say no to 1,000 things make sure you don't get on the wrong track or try to do too much. Concentrate on really important creations and radical innovation. Hire people who want to make the best things in the world... More

3 Strategies of Market Leaders

The market leader is dominant in its industry and has substantial market share.

3 Strategies of Market Leaders

If you want to lead the market, you must be the industry leader in developing new business models and new products or services. You must be on the cutting edge of new technologies and innovative business processes. Your customer value proposition must offer a superior solution to a customers' problem, and your product must be well differentiated... More

Creating Customer Value: 9 Questions

Different Forms of Innovation

Until recently innovation has been seen as the means to turn research results into commercially successful products or services. Today, while research keeps playing its critical role as a major contributor to innovation, many new forms of innovation have emerged. They include system's approach to integration of new technologies and processes from other fields, new business models and ways of doing business, and new ways of reaching and servicing customers.

Innovation can have different:

• focus: technology, organization, or external relationships,

• types: incremental or radical, and

• sources: technology transfer or development of new business models/concepts.

Technological Innovation Alone Is Not Enough

Facing a tidal wave of global economic, technological and social change, you are not going to survive in the new rapidly globalizing economy through technological innovation alone. If you are going to withstand relentless global competition, you need to radically change the way of doing business.

Strategic Innovation

Strategic Innovation is the creation of growth strategies, new product categories, services or business models that change the game and generate significant new value for customers and the corporation...  More

16 Ways to Avoid the Hassle of Commercializing University Technology

By: Terry Collison

If you have a technology policy and a procedure, make sure nobody in the university community actually understands what it is. Complexity is good... More

Blue Ocean Strategy: 6 Principles

Blue Ocean Strategy is about revolutionary value innovation.

The six principles drive the successful formulation and execution of Blue Ocean Strategy. These principles attenuate the six risks... More

The Art of Innovation: 9 Truths

By: Guy Kawasaki

1. Jump to the next curve. Too many companies duke it out on the same curve. If they were daisy wheel printer companies, they think innovation means adding Helvetica in 24 points. Instead, they should invent laser printing. True innovation happens when a company jumps to the next curve – or better still, invents the next curve, so set your goals high... More

DOs and DON'Ts of a Successful Innovator

By: Peter Drucker

DOs: Start small – try to do one specific thing...

DON'Ts: Don't undershoot, or you will simply create an opportunity for competition... More

Creating a Culture for Innovation

The question for leaders today isn’t if culture is important for success but how culture can drive successful innovation – and what, specifically, leaders can do to influence the kind of culture that leads to behavior that’s truly innovative... More

Inspirational Leadership: 10 Roles