By: John Caddell
In this month's Harvard Business Review, longtime Harvard professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter discusses how companies continue to make the same mistakes in their innovation strategies and how these "classic traps" can be avoided.
One idea Dr. Kanter discusses is an "innovation pyramid" that describes how successful companies manage their innovation portfolio. Writes Kanter:
Companies can develop an innovation strategy that works at the three levels of...the innovation pyramid: a few big bets at the top that represent clear directions for the future and receive the lion's share of investment; a portfolio of promising midrange ideas pursued by designated teams that develop and test them; and a broad base of early stage ideas or incremental innovations permitting continuous improvement.
Initiatives can migrate from one level in the pyramid to the adjacent one--perhaps a midrange idea grows in importance so that it becomes a big idea, perhaps an early-stage idea shows enough promise to be promoted one level.
Many companies get stuck just at the top of the pyramid, or at the bottom. To successfully innovate you must have initiatives at all three levels.
Original Post: http://shoptalkmarketing.blogspot.com/2006/11/kanters-innovation-pyramid.html
Dear Dr. Kanter,
Your innovation pyramid visualization fits our product development operation very well. And it helped us solve a problem relating to the interaction between between Big Ideas and Midrange Ideas. It was a fundamental issue and yet we had not seen it. Thanks.
I'm writing to ask if you've covered another item in one of your books. The question is an organizational one. How do we integrate R&D efforts seamlessly into the Product Development process. Some our our people want to isolate this activity which, in my view, impedes Time to Market initiatives. I'd rather innovate real time.
Can you help a bit?
Thanks
Roger
Thanks, Professor Kanter. I've been a fan of your work for many years. Regards, John
Thanks for noticing my HBR article on Innovation and mentioning it on this blog. Keep up the great work.