Innovation covers many contrasting realities in companies. There are three possible definitions.
Maintenance innovation, known as incremental innovation. Its aim is to preserve and consolidate the company's position with customers who are prone to fatigue and eager for renewal. It has been practised for decades, in consumer markets for example. The best organisational models are based on a culture driven primarily by customer knowledge combined with creativity, and on a structure of specialised teams that provide data and methods to product managers.
It is on this basis that qualitative marketing (anthropological, psychosociological, etc.), then user-centric approaches, the Design Thinking have flourished. Incremental innovation, based on consensus and the convergence of opinions, can also involve the continuous improvement of production processes.
Performance innovation, or disruptive innovation. It is motivated by the desire to outperform or keep the competition at bay by introducing a sustainable competitive advantage, or to improve the company's performance by breaking with its production or marketing habits. Once seen as cyclical, triggered by the emergence of external events, technical inventions or new regulations, it is now seen as a daily necessity if companies are to survive in an increasingly competitive world.
Disruptive innovation requires a culture of innovation at the operational decision-making levels of the company, i.e. an ability on the part of middle management to take measured (and measurable) risks in order to offer a new solution that significantly broadens the customer base, improves or increases profit in the long term by optimising the value chain, or directs structural investment towards a sustainable technology.
In this model of innovation, favoured by the cross-fertilisation of ideas, networks and information brought about by the Internet, companies tend to rely on Innovation Departments, whose mission is to observe the sector in order to identify opportunities (including by getting closer to start-ups), to promote methods and processes for managing innovative projects, and to help teams take the risk of calling into question an existing situation that is imperfect but comfortable, in favour of a desirable situation that is more uncertain.
In large companies, disruptive innovation means...
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About the author : Édouard Le MaréchalIn 1996, he founded Tangenciels, a consultancy specialising in innovation and transformation. He developed the Butterfly Process©, the first innovation method to enable people to innovate in an uncertain context. He published "Innovating in the Age of the Butterfly" in 2017, and also runs a blog (lagedupapillon.com).
