Innovation toolbox
An invention does not become an innovation until its commercial potential is developed – a process with many steps which may extend over years. There is always a better way to do business, and everyone, at one time or another, can benefit from the knowledge gleaned from innumerable other projects like theirs.
This area of the site is designed to provide you with a ‘toolkit’ of skills that will help you maximise the opportunities available to profit from creative ideas, and assist you in achieving seven essential goals in commercializing an innovation:
- To put in place the machinery for continuous and habitual innovation, and the retention of these for future implementation
- To craft a compelling business model to accompany implemented innovations
- To manage the complements, as well as acquire the necessary competences and assets (together these comprise your capabilities) to exploit your innovation
- To craft an intellectual property strategy that will erect effective barriers to competition in your chosen market(s)
- To devise and continuously adapt your entrance strategy to make the most of your capabilities
- To effectively manage the creative individuals necessary for your innovation to succeed
- To accurately value your innovation and its business model, and determine the risk of the venture (– both will be demanded by potential investors)
Workout | Goal | Skills |
Workout #1 | Create an innovation that meets predefined specifications | Assumption reversal |
Workout #2 | Redesign a successful product or service | Attribute segmentation |
Workout #3 | Assess the potential of an innovation | Quiz Consumption chain analysis Feature mapping |
Workout #4 | Design a video game console | Using morphological boxes to create a business plan |
Workout #5 | Understand real-time brainstorming | Groupwork [NB: This is a group activity] |
Workout #6 | Define an entry strategy | Creating a vision Business planning Milestone setting Customer identification Combatant identification |
Workout #7 | Breathe new life into an old product | Re-differentiation Re-segmentation |