The Balance Of Innovation In The Digital Age
Achieving a balance between traditional business and new innovative influences is a challenge that many companies face. A rich vocabulary of disdain often exists from “innovators” towards “traditionalists,” including: bureaucratic, robotic, rigid, ossified, staid, dull, decaying, and just plain old. Balancing how to restructure existing services or products to meet the changing needs of customers and moderating the exchanges between “traditionalists” and “innovators,” companies must learn how to simultaneously bet big and small within an innovative culture.
Does Big Bet Vs Small Bet Innovation Still Matter?
Successful innovators know capital risk needs to be spread. To this end, most innovators will often use an “innovation pyramid” to outline and determine the right balance between the two solutions. Within the pyramid, big bets are placed at the top and often receive the highest level of investment, while the smaller or safer bets form the base. Through this approach, the small bets, also known as incremental innovations, will typically make up to 90 percent of a company’s development portfolio. However, while these small bets are often the safest option, they rarely produce the same competitive advantage as the big bets.
