When it comes to innovation, a company can achieve it by doing incremental innovative changes or they can innovate rapidly aiming for a breakthrough in the market. Rapid innovation might not be a dominant activity for most companies, however, it is vital for many to stay competitive in the market.

A company that has identified the need for rapid innovation, can pursue it by creating a new offer in a new market to their non-customers. In order to make this new offering, the company should invest in research.

One of the challenges here for most companies lies in a deeper understanding of unfamiliar territory without being limited by the existing knowledge assets about the core business. So, the best way to achieve breakthrough, the company should rely on a completely new team that would function independently within the organizational ecosystem and perform innovation activities towards the existing business. This team of diverse experts discovers and analyzes customer needs and new market trends, runs tests and experiments to propose the most favorable ways for the company to innovate in a transformative way. In case when it’s difficult for a company to form or hire a “team of transformational innovation” due to budgeting or other administrative reasons, hiring an independent consultant that will explore other markets and propose a new unique offering to a company, might be an option.

By investing in an external expertise the company must understand that most of the time the result of their work won’t be correlated directly with the company's profit and economic metrics. This team’s experimental workflow aims to uncover enough knowledge about the possibilities where the company could potentially grow, and offer a strategic plan to perform that. Those companies who adopt the strategies towards building an innovation portfolio, will persist on the market and experience sustainable growth.

• If you’d like to discuss your company’s innovation strategy and looking for help, contact me: hello@mariashanina.com