Creating Bold Innovation in Mature Markets

For many firms operating in mature markets, there are only so many sources of growth open to them, which is why launching unique, superior products with a compelling value proposition is so vital. Yet company surveys show that bold innovation is down, while improvements and modifications to existing products are up. This only serves to maintain existing market share, rather than grow it. To succeed in bigger, bolder innovation, five vectors need to be in place: (I) having an innovation strategy that focuses your development efforts on opportunity-rich strategic arenas, much like Corning and Apple had; (II) fostering the right climate and culture for innovation, driven by senior executives, as found at Grundfos and 3M; (III) setting up a proactive idea generation, capture and handling system, as at Swarovski; (IV) having a next generation, idea-to-launch process designed to handle large, complex and bold development initiatives, as at HP; and finally, (V) using the right project selection methods, as at BASF and Procter & Gamble. Bold innovation is not easy, but it?s not out of reach either. The examples and illustrations provided in this article model the way.