Today’s Innovation Minute…
In the first video I introduced the FAST Innovation model: Focus, Ask, Shift, Test
Then I introduced the 5 D’s of Differentiation.
In the last video I introduced this framework:
Today I discuss how to shift your investments from core (and support) to differentiating as a way of increasing innovation ROI.
Be sure to watch the previous videos!
Transcription:
In the last video, I introduced a framework for being able to prioritize your innovation investments. And we looked at the fact that activities that we perform inside of organizations are either support, core, or differentiating. Today I want to dig a little deeper into this. And in particular, I want to focus on core versus differentiating.
One of the things we need to understand is that if we look at how companies invest in innovation, what I found is that in most cases 80% of their efforts are invested in things that are core not differentiating.
This means that you’re putting your most important time, energy, and resources into things which won’t even set you apart from the competition.
Now it doesn’t mean you don’t have to do these well, because if your core is not working innovation is not going to matter, but you don’t want to be doing your best work for things which are core. You want to be of the shift from 80% core to less, 70%, 60%, 50%, 20%, whatever it is so that you really truly innovating where you differentiate.
The more energy you put into differentiating activities, the more return you’ll get for innovation efforts.