Surprising Truths About Incremental Innovations You Cannot Afford to Miss

Most people underestimate the power of incremental innovations. As a result, they fail to leverage these powerful innovations. Learn more about them and how to use them in your business. Here are a few of those truths form our weekly video series.

For those who would like to read rather than watch, the transcript of the video is below:

Transcript

Hi, I am Ankush Chopra. Let’s talk about the bread and butter of innovation

You know when people think of Innovation they think of big innovations like an electric car or a LED light. Something that is spectacular in nature.

Hardly anybody talks about a low sodium soup, or a slightly higher resolution digital camera.

But what people fail to register is that most innovation is of the incremental kind. That is where most companies make the most money. Large scale innovations like a fat-free oil are extremely risky and can lead to major losses. But an incremental innovation portfolio is your reliable friend that provides you with a consistent return.

Even more surprising is he the fact that people often think that large scale innovations are responsible for disruption. The fact is that even small, incremental innovations can lead to disruption of firms.

Taking a baseball analogy, hitting consistent singles and doubles is far more rewarding than hitting one or two home runs. Or If you are a Golfer, hitting a par or a birdie consistently is far more rewarding than hitting one hole in one.

You know Apple and Google won over Blackberry and Symbian because the latter could not compete on incremental innovations.

Did you know that the pioneer of the CT scanner technology, EMI had to exit the industry it created because it could not keep up with incremental innovations? Yes, EMI created the first CT scanner and lead the industry for many years but eventually fell by the wayside when it couldn’t keep pace with small innovations fo firms like GE.

In a nutshell, your business most often needs incremental innovations to thrive and survive over long periods of time.

All these findings that I shared with you are sourced from extensive literature in management science research. In fact, I synthesized that literature and distilled some actionable insights from it. I discuss all of that in my podcast linked below.