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Accelerating Ideas to Market The “new” innovation model is fast and agile, collaborative and networked,
reducing risks whilst increasing impact … Extract from “Creative Genius: The Innovation
Handbook for Business Leaders” by Peter Fisk, published in 2012.
Whilst “new product development” includes the word product, innovations can of course take
many forms beyond products. However, most companies have traditionally focused on tangible
objects as their focus of innovation, and the process for developing ideas into commercial
solutions.
It is, of course, tempting to turn an NPD process into a highly rigorous, controlled process –
seeking to improve consistency, speed and effectiveness. Whilst it may indeed achieve this,
there is a fine balance between specifying such a process in detail, and giving people in the
organisation space to use their creative flair, to look beyond the conventions, and seek to create
something more radical and different than before
HP DeskJet 5000
printer
Chrysler
Concorde car
Boeing 777
aeroplane
Number of parts
35
10,000
130,000
Development time 1.5 years 3.5 years 4.5 years
Development
team
100 people 850 people 6800 people
Development
costs
$50,000 $1 billion $3 billion
Sales price $365 $19000 $130 million
Sales volume pa 1.5 million 250,000 50
Sales lifetime 3 years 6 years 30 years
Development
costs as % lifetime
sales
3% 3.5% 1.5%
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Rocket ships
NASA has had a significant influence on the evolution of product development in business, and
particularly in traditional innovation leaders such as 3M. In the 1960’s the US government’s space
agency introduced its “phased project planning” approach in order to manage large-scale,
complex projects.
NASA use four phases – analysis, definition, design and operation – and checkpoint reviews were
incorporated to ensure that problems and errors could be addressed as early as possible. The
NASA process, as illustrated by Peter Morris in “The Management of Projects” is still commonly
used today, in a scaled down form, as the blueprint for “stage gate” NPD processes.
Of course business needs to ensure that its developments lead to commercial success, and
Branson’s development of space travel at a fraction of the cost or time shows how a more
commercial approach can also lead to better technical results. Compared to NASA’s approach, a
business would typically start with an overall development strategy, spend more time on idea
generation and evaluation, and ensuring that the solution is effectively launched and applied in
the marketplace.
Stage gates
Robert Cooper, author of “Winning at New Products” was perhaps most influential in defining the
“stage gate” idea to launch process used by most companies. He more broadly categorised the
NPD process into three main phases:
1. Pre-development : Development of an NPD strategy, idea generation, screening and
evaluation and business analysis
2. Development and testing: Development, prototyping and adjusting
3. Commercialisation: Market planning, market entry, managing and improving
What he encouraged over time, was more focus on the commercialisation aspects – not seeing
launch as an end-point, but in many ways the starting point of solving a customer’s problem.
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Cooper himself realised that the process needed more flexibility to embrace creative thinking,
and to deliver something new. He added his 4Fs to the stage-gate model – fluid stages which
might overlap, fuzzy gates which might not always make black and white decisions, focus on
business priorities and best opportunities, and staying flexible.
In fact each phase of development can require a different approach, not only in terms of process
but in terms of team composition and culture. Zien and Buckler observed three “microcultures”
of innovation:
Fuzzy Front End – experimental and chaotic, ambiguous and uncertain, lacks structure but
is
an excellent opportunity for individuals to establish themselves and influence the project
Product Development Process – disciplined and focused, quantitative and controlled,
underpinned by a clearly defined process delivered through teamwork
Market Operations – clear and commercial, task is to effectively produce and launch the
development, and make it a success in the market, requiring significant people.
Innovations, large and small follow a similar process, although the ways in which they work
through the different phases depends on the scale of innovation anticipated or demanded.
Incremental innovations Breakthrough innovations
Timeframe
Short-term
1-2 year impact
Developed within year
Longer-term
3-10 year impact
Developed in 1-3 years
Insights Evolving
Systematic
Anticipated
Discontinuities
From anywhere
Unexpected
Solutions Improvements
Conventional
Significant
Discontinuous
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Cosmetic Game changing
Process Formal
Certainty
Stage gates
Exploratory
Uncertainty
Improvised
Team Functional owner
Cross-functional team
Skills to do
High level sponsor
Dedicated team
Skills to think and do
Resources Functional
Conventional
Part of business as usual
Partners and networks
Diversity of talents
Outside normal business
Business case At start
Defines costs and returns
Agreed and budgeted
Evolves as progress
Goals for value creation
Funding by stages
Incremental innovations would be developed quickly with a short-term impact, largely based on
existing insights with a standardised process. At the opposite end of the spectrum, breakthrough
innovations would take much longer to reach market, but with a more enduring impact. The
solutions would be more unique and disruptive, and so would the process for developing them,
requiring much more improvisation and leadership internally as well as in the market.
The “new” innovation model
Over time NPD has become more dynamic – from linear and sequential to parallel and
integrated, from a relay race to a team game with more feedback loops and connections. In
addition to more focus on the front end of innovation – to generate better ideas – innovation is
now much about what happens in the market after launch – known as in-market innovation.
The evolution of the NPD process can be summarised as
1. Technology and product push (linear process with emphasis on technical-based R&D,
driven by the emergence of new possibilities)
2. Customer and market pull (linear process with emphasis on marketing and customer
insight, driven by demand more than possibility)
3. Push and pull (sequential process with feedback loops balancing push and pull,
becoming a creative matching process)
4. Open and Collaborative (parallel processes with joint teams including partners and
customers working together)
5. Networked (parallel processes in open structure involving a wide range of partners,
innovation exchanges, crowdsourcing and co-creation)
The “new” innovation model is customer-centric, collaborative and networked … solving
problems together with customers, with partners, with experts … where the best ideas can
emerge from anywhere … where ideas become the new tradable currency of business … where
innovative solutions are diffused across wide networks or uniquely one to one … and where
small companies are equal to large organisations, and sometimes at an advantage.
© Peter Fisk 2012
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Peter Fisk is a bestselling author, expert consultant and inspirational speaker, combining the
most inspiring ideas and practical action.
He works with business leaders in every part of the world, making sense incredible change,
learning from a new generation of brands and business, digital and physical, large and small …
inspiring and enabling you to innovate and win in the exciting new world of business.
Peter is CEO and Creative Director of GeniusWorks, a strategic innovation business based in
London and Budapest, Istanbul and Dubai, that works with senior management to “see things
differently” – to develop and implement more inspired strategies for brands, innovation and
marketing. Gamechanger is a strategy accelerator for leadership teams, Innolab is a facilitated
innovation process based on deep customer insights and creative thinking, and BrandOptima is a
platform to develop better brands and brand portfolios.
His next book is The Gamechangers …about the new generation of businesses - from Alibaba to
Zipcars, Abercrombie to Zynga - who are transforming markets with bolder brands, smarter
innovation and clever marketing. They play by different rules, embracing the growth of
emerging markets and power of digital networks, human design and social entrepreneurship,
and they win with better results.
His previous books included Creative Genius brings together entrepreneurs and artists, rockstars
and rockets scientists, in "the essential guide to innovation for leaders, visionaries, and border
crossers". Marketing Genius explores the left and right-brain approaches to competitive success
(translated into 35 languages), Customer Genius describes how to build a customer-centric
business, Business Genius is about inspired leadership and strategy, whilst People Planet Profit
explains how to grow, and be good.
Peter grew up in the remote farming community of Northumberland, in the North East of
England, and after exploring the world of nuclear physics, joined British Airways at a time when
it was embarking upon becoming “the world’s favourite airline” with a cultural alignment around
customers.
He went on to work with many of the world’s leading companies, helping them to grow more
profitably by becoming more customer-centric in their structure, operations and leadership. He
works across sectors, encouraging business leaders to take a customer perspective, and
learning from different types of experiences. His clients include American Express and Aeroflot,
Coca Cola and Cooperative Bank, HSBC and Lastminute.com, Marks & Spencer and Microsoft, O2
and Orange, Philips and Red Bull, Shell and Tata Steel, Teliasonera and Turkcell, Vitra and
Virgin, Visa and Vodafone.
He was also the transforming CEO of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, the world’s largest
marketing organisation. He led the strategic marketing consulting team of PA Consulting Group,
was MD of Brand Finance and partner of The Foundation, before founding his own business, the
Genius Works. He was recently described by Business Strategy Review as “one of the best new
business thinkers” and is in demand around the world as an expert advisor and speaker. Find our more at www.theGeniusWorks.com
