Creativity is sexy, but the real problem is the shockingly high mortality rate of healthy new products or services.
There usually are more good ideas in even the stodgiest organization than can possibly be exploited. The real problem is the shockingly high mortality rate of healthy new products or services. And like yesterday’s infant mortality rate, the mortality rate of new products and services is totally unnecessary. It can be reduced fairly fast and without spending a great deal of money. Much of it is simply the result of ignorance of the entrepreneurial strategies. The right entrepreneurial strategy has a very high chance of success.
There are four specifically entrepreneurial strategies aiming at market leadership: being “Fustest with the Mostest“; “Hitting Them Where They Ain’t“; finding and occupying a specialized “ecological niche (tollbooth strategy, specialty-skill strategy, specialty market)”; and changing the economic characteristics of a product, a market, or an industry. These four strategies are not mutually exclusive. One and the same entrepreneur often combines two, sometimes even elements of three, in one strategy. Still, each of these four has its prerequisites. Each fits certain kinds of innovation and does not fit others. Each requires specific behavior on the part of the entrepreneur. Finally, each has its own limitations and carries its own risks.
ACTION POINT: Be systematic in exploiting innovative ideas, remembering these four strategies for success.
Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurial Strategies (Corpedia Online Program)
* Source: The Daily Drucker by Peter F. Drucker