Incremental innovation

The following link points to a great example of an incremental innovation. It shows the evolution of the Mastercard brand mark. You can see also that there is one radical innovation, in 1969.

Notice that there is no mention of sustaining/disruptive innovation in this post because these "types" of innovation work at the level of the firm. In other words, they refer to the firm's strategy.

innovation management in Asia

Labelling innovations

When price tags were first introduced they were considered innovations. But what type of innovation were price tags? They were certainly not incremental (evolutionary/continuous) since they changed the way people bought and sold goods in quite a dramatic way (previously, people had to haggle). Nor were they disruptive as encumbent players at the time could easily switch to these little bits of paper. I'd say that they were a sustaining, radical business-model innovation.

Asking customers in a store to get his or her own food off the shelves, which is what we do in supermarkets, was also considered "weird" in the days when people were used to a store assistant doing it for them. What type of innovation was this? There are three dimensions that need to be considered when identifying an innovation:

1. Was it disruptive or sustaining?

2. Was it incremental (evolutionary/continuous) or radical (revolutionary/discontinuous)?

3. Was it a product, process, service, business model, value or market innovation? (You could add endless others to this list: for example, brand innovation.)

It's not easy labelling innovations, but it's useful to consider sustaining and disruptive innovations separately. Any thoughts on this?

[Link] This show, Culture Shock, from the BBC is great if you're interested in hearing about various unusual ideas from around the world.

innovation management in Asia

What to innovate and when?

If you're from the United Kingdom, you've probably had your fair share of crisps (chips in the United States): Cheesy Onion, Prawn Cocktail, Smokey Bacon etc.

This article about the "crisp wars" in the United Kingdom by John Kay, British economist and author of The truth about Markets (Culture and Prosperity in the United States), is interesting as it highlights the importance of knowing what to innovate during the various stages of a product's life cycle. I love articles like this that consider less well-known industries.

Innovation, talent and education

Sir Ken Robinson contends that all children have talent; and that those talents are squandered "pretty ruthlessly" by education systems. This is a must-view talk if you are in any way interested in education, innovation and creativity. It's also extremely funny in parts.



Taiwan news: The Taipei Times reports on the Next Consortium, a group of Taiwan-based companies from varied industries. The purpose of this group, according to the article, is to exchange ideas in order to encourage innovation. The entry fee to this consortium is US$30,000, thereby excluding most small- and medium-sized enterprises, who accounted for 97.83% of all firms in Taiwan in 2003*. Small- or medium-sized is defined here as companies with fewer than 200 employees.

Maybe these neglected SMEs could do one of my innovation courses?

Asus, a Taiwan-based OEM/ODM firm that is also trying to establish its own brand, has threatened to sue some of the local Taiwan newspapers and fire its own staff if they disclose any information about its OEM customers. Sony's PS3 will be manufactured/designed by Asus in Taiwan and China.


* Source: Small and Medium Size Enterprise Administration, Taiwan Ministry of Economic Affairs


innovation management in Asia

Too much emphasis on the next big thing

If you want to make your firm more innovative, sometimes it's better to concentrate on what your firm is doing now, and make it better, rather than look for the next big thing. This is especially true if you are working in service industries.


Answer to ball puzzle: Throw the ball straight up in the air and it will come back to you.


innovation management in Asia

Innovation definitions

There are a lot of divergent views as to what innovation actually is, and it can be hard keeping up with all the definitions that appear on the Web, in books and in journal articles these days. Here's a relatively new one from an article in the MIT Sloan Management Review:

" . . . the creation of substantial new value for customers and the firm by changing one or more dimensions of the business system."

The authors of this article, Mohanbir Sawhney, Robert C. Wolcott and Inigo Arroniz, state that there are 12 dimensions along which firms can innovate. This view of a product/service as being made up of multiple dimensions is really useful because it can help identify those areas that require innovation and those that do not.

Look at barber shops and hairdressers as an example of how innovation can occur in the wrong place. These places should be open in the evenings when people are finished work, but many of them still close at 5:30, 6:00 or 7:00. Pretty frustrating getting a haircut at times. The innovation here should be along the "when" dimension, not the product/service itself (the "what") -- I am already really happy with Veronica's cutting skills. And are customers expected to pay for that "innovative" new decor?

You can see here how useful it is to look outside your own industry and learn from other industries. Barber shops can learn from convenience stores. But don't stop at searching outside your own industry for ideas, try looking outside your region or country. The idea of looking outside your industry is nothing new, but is it actually happening in many firms?



innovation management in Asia