6 Strategies to Drive Product Innovation in Your Company
If we interview all CEOs in a given room right now, innovation will be the most commonly mentioned word. Reality, however, is different.
While, almost 80% of senior executives rank innovation as a top-three priority for their companies, according to a Boston Consulting Group’s global survey of 1,000 managers from a wide variety of industries and locations, the majority of companies that pursue innovation prefer “incremental innovations”, which often involve minor improvements to existing products, as per a global consultancy company Deliotte’s 2023 Innovation Survey.
Even more, the latter survey shows that only 9% of companies pursue “disruptive innovations”.
Percentages get much better when it comes to innovating complementary new products and services, with 36% of companies surveyed report working on new creations, with the majority heavily focusing on Artificial Inteligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT).
Regardless of how executives define product innovation in their work, the trend is very promising. BCG’s survey found that 66% of executives plan to increase their innovation spending, with 42% expecting to boost it by more than 10%.
For any CEO or executive, this is a strong sign to jump on the wagon, however, the road comes with a few roadblocks.
Common challenges to product innovation
Going in relatively blind tops the list of concerns. Most intel still can’t fully quantify demand for yet-to-be-created products. As per BCG’s survey, 25% of respondents indicated “Uncertain demand for new goods or services” as their main obstacle to innovation.
Responders to the Deloitte survey highlighted a different set of obstacles including financial limitations, cultural resistance to change, lack of technical skills needed, legal roadblocks, and operational challenges.
Five types of innovation in business
There are three main types of innovation: radical, incremental, and discontinuous innovation. However, there are a variety of sub-categories of innovation that are worth mentioning.
1- Radical innovation
Radical innovation involves massive changes to a brand, its primary product, or the creation of an entirely new product. Last year the three most innovative companies were: Apple, Tesla, and Amazon.
However, Samsung has broken a couple of significant ceilings the previous year. The company invested over $17 billion—9% of annual sales—on R&D, making it one of the world’s largest spenders on innovation. Samsung was granted 6,300 U.S. patents in 2022 alone.
2- Incremental innovation
This type of innovation involves minor and gradual improvements to existing products. This can look like an additional sensor in terms of hardware, an AI summary or AI diagnostics for software.
This is the most common theme in Sales-as-a-Service (SaaS) companies. They offer a core product or service and continually add new features and upgrades.
3- Modular innovation
In a way, modular innovation can be considered a subset of incremental innovation. It involves changing or even replacing the core components of a product or system, without altering the structure of those components. The purpose is to make the product operate better or in a new way.
4- Architectural innovation
This type of innovation impacts the architecture or configuration of a product, system, or service.
Architectural innovation focuses on improving how a product’s core components interact with each other. The impact of architectural innovation tends to be more significant than modular innovation, although it’s not always radical.
5- Discontinuous innovation
This type of innovation has some overlapping features with radical innovation. It encompasses the implementation of a fundamental change from an existing product or technology. Discontinuous innovation is disruptive, rendering other solutions obsolete; hence helps the company scale and at the same time affects how the market operates as a whole.
Netflix is a great example of discontinuous innovation. The company first began as a DVD-rental service, delivering DVDs by mail. This offering was a radical innovation compared to what Blockbuster’s physical stores offered.
However, when Netflix launched its on-demand streaming service, it created a disruptive, discontinuous innovation. It rendered Blockbuster’s services obsolete.
Further reading: Innovation vs. Risk Aversion: How Non-Techs Can Strike the Right Balance?
How to drive product innovation and development
There are several ways to achieve true innovation whether in your core product, service, software, or when creating an entirely new product.
Foster an innovation-focused work culture
Creating a healthy corporate culture that invites and supports product innovation is an important start to your strategy.
Google is a great example of innovation and corporate culture. The tech giant encourages team members to be creative, take risks, and explore ideas.
Innovation, collaboration, and ideation begin with your team members. This gives your business a variety of opportunities to innovate in multiple areas of your market.
Employ design thinking
It’s easy to tout the advice of ‘listening to your customers.’ But what does that really entail?
By embracing a design thinking approach to their products and services, companies can hit two birds with one stone. They can become more customer-centric and drive better product innovation that takes them to new heights.
Not only will you be focusing on your customer, for whom you’re building and constantly innovating the product, but also achieving higher profits.
A 10-year McKinsey study found that design-led companies outperformed the S&P 500 by 219%.
Collaborate with partners
One way to overcome your team’s and resource limitations is through partnerships. These can be external entities like government organizations, tech startups, research institutions, among others.
Potential partners can offer new perspectives on market trends, evolving customer needs, or insights into your product innovation and development process.
Furthermore, collaboration can lead to faster innovation and application as well as better results.
Product innovation in the medical field relies heavily on pharmaceutical companies collaborating with universities and research institutes to develop scientific breakthroughs and solutions.
Explore new and emerging tech
Another way to enhance product development is to explore emerging technologies.
AI, large language models (LLMs), and virtual reality are just a few emerging technologies that companies are incorporating into their products to meet new customer and market needs as well as drive innovation.
Using emerging technologies can help you streamline operations, improve current product offerings, develop new products, or all the above.
Foster internal entrepreneurship
Besides building a culture that promotes creativity and exploration, empowering team members through intrapreneurship can boost innovation.
Intrapreneurship means letting your employees acts as entrepreneurs within your organization. Doing so allows them to propose ideas and develop products using the company’s resources – without impacting their daily activities or workload.
It’s similar to Google’s ‘20% of the time’ rule, which encourages team members to spend a 20% of their work week on projects they believe can help Google. Some of Google’s most successful products have emerged from this 20% rule, including Google News and Gmail.
Prioritize sustainability
Product development and innovation isn’t a one-and-done endeavor. It needs to be sustainable. Prioritizing sustainability in your broad product innovation strategy can benefit you in many ways.
On one hand, it can help you attract a new segment of customers, especially if sustainability involves socially responsible and eco-friendly practices. On the other, it ensures your innovation strategy is continuous and builds up on incremental and radical innovations along the way.
Further reading: Case Studies of Companies that Dared to Innovate
Drive long-term innovations
Other research by McKinsey found companies harnessing the essentials of innovation were able to generate economic profits that are “2.4 times higher” than their competition.
While ambition is essential, it’s equally crucial to align innovation efforts with available resources and strategic growth objectives.
By prioritizing the stability and future-proofing of your business, you can foster a sustainable innovation ecosystem. This involves prioritizing projects that align with core competencies, allocating resources judiciously, and measuring success not just in terms of short-term gains but also long-term impact.
By pacing yourself, making informed decisions, and nurturing a culture of experimentation, businesses can unlock a pipeline of groundbreaking products and services that drive sustained growth and competitive advantage.
Did you know that VALUWIT offers complimentary strategy consultation calls? Book a 30-minute consult today
