Appunti leadership e innovation

Innovation

Innovation: new product on the market. There has to be at least an economic transaction to be an innovation.

Types of innovation

Innovation of meaning: buying a product for a new reason, not a new feature.

Technology push innovation: innovation related to the introduction of a new technology.

Market pull innovation: the market requests something and an innovation addresses this need; the main driver of innovation is answering the market by identifying and answering latent needs.

Incremental innovation: small improvements in existing products or operations.

Radical innovation: change of meaning or change in technology functionality.

• Architectural innovation: combines existing technologies to provide a new product/service.
• Discontinuous innovation: radical advances that may change the competition in an industry.

Component innovation: innovation of a component in a system.

Technology epiphany: combination of existing technologies to enable a new meaning of a product.

Models and theories

S-shaped curve model: represents the evolution of technologies with respect to a single technological parameter over time, where the technology inevitably converges towards an asymptotic limit over time. When a new S-curve is born, the old one does not simply cease to exist.

Dominant design: not always the best, but often only the supposed best solution for a problem. It serves the need of the majority of the market and it is the winning architecture. Inferior performances are not related to the fact of being the dominant design or not. Summarizes innovation by previous products and becomes the archetype of the product in the user's mind.

User need analysis

• Questionnaires/interviews -> what people say
• Focus groups -> what people say
• Ethnographic research -> what people do
• Beta testing/lead user analysis -> what people make/want

Adam’s model classification

• Operational optimization: a firm optimizes their processes alone in order to get a sustainable innovation, doing the same things better.
• Organizational transformation: a firm adopts a new business model which allows them to implement a sustainable innovation alone, doing good by doing new things.
• System building: multiple actors work together to develop a sustainable innovation which cannot be achieved without collaboration, doing good by doing new things with others.

Sustainable business model archetypes of Bocken

• Adopt a stewardship role: pro-actively engaging with stakeholders to ensure their long-term health and safety.
• Repurpose for society/environment: prioritize environmental benefits over economic ones through a close collaboration between the firm and local communities and other stakeholder groups.

Platform: set of components, along with the linkages.