Innovation Profile



You are invited to participate in a survey of innovation profiles. For your participation, you will receive a free innovation profile for the organization you described and a copy of the overall results of the survey. Go to Innovation Profile Survey.



There are two descriptors of innovation – nature and class. Nature describes what the innovation affects – product, process or procedure. And class describes haw large the departure of the innovation is from what existed before – incremental, distinctive or breakthrough. A product innovation is a change in how things interact with other things. A process innovation is a change in how people interact with things. And, procedure innovations are changes in how people interact with people. A breakthrough innovation is a radical change form the past. A breakthrough innovation changes the paradigm. It can result in the proliferation of many distinctive and incremental innovations. A distinctive innovation is like the breakthrough only different. A distinctive innovation still works within the paradigm created by the breakthrough. Incremental innovations are small changes to distinctive innovations.



When, these two different descriptors of innovation are combined in a matrix, nine different types of innovation can be described from incremental procedure to breakthrough product innovations. The innovation profile is a pattern of these nine different types of innovation. An innovation profile represents the innovation tendencies of an organization. It is not absolute, but relative and it does not describe how many innovations the organization will create.



What does an innovation profile indicate about an organization? If the pattern of innovation indicated in the innovation profile reflects what the market wants, then the organization is likely to be effective. If the pattern of innovation in the innovation profile is sharply focused, i.e., focused on a few of the nine different types of innovation, the organization is likely to be efficient. If it has a broad distribution of innovation types, it is likely to be inefficient. If the market has a broad distribution of innovation requirements, then a strategy of meeting only some of these needs may be more efficient.



If the innovation profile is not what the market requires, then an innovation road map is required, i.e., how to change the organization, the steps to be taken, in order the change the innovation profile.



It is the resources of the organization and the organization’s enablers that determine how innovative the organization can be. But, that’s another story I’ll leave that to later.



In addition to this blog, we will be writing about these aspects of innovation in our web-based magazine – The Innovation Road Map. Send me an e-mail and I’ll send you instructions on how to view the first edition free.



Paul Schumann