Innovation Strategies: Survival of the Fittest
Stumble It!Alexander Kandybin, of Booz & Company, suggests consumer products companies need to look to the power of natural selection to break out of the incremental innovation trap.
Photo: Rufous hummingbird Tim Zurowski/All Canada Photos/Getty Images
"Think of it (Innovation) in evolutionary terms. Innovation is really a form of competition. Why do companies innovate? They innovate for only one reason: to outperform their peers, to create something that their peers don't have from which they can gain economic benefits. And because innovation is a form of competition, it's subject to the laws of evolution. If you look at the CPG sector from the macro perspective, what you'll see is lots of companies introducing lots of new innovations, and it will look like many random events. Those that really meet consumer expectations or change consumer expectations survive -- those that don't, die. Ultimately, the environment chooses which products work and which don't."
To read Survival-of-the-Fittest Innovation by Edward Baker
Each Think Differently is a short challenge to encourage us that there are always differently ways of framing any situation and is brought to www.bioteams.com by Peter Fryer author of the Trojan Mice blog.
Tags: innovation, natural selection
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