There are well known innovation strategy and leadership archetypes beyond incremental innovation (also known as spiral staircase):
- Experimenters who put available ingredients into a lab reactor or cauldron to see what happens
- Builders and growers on fertile fields of adjacent businesses
- Hunters of outside innovations, trying to catch up eating others (“pacman style”)
- Explorers, going the extra mile and risk to develop radically new ideas
An internal focus is often associated with a technology driving strategy while externally focused strategies work on the discovery of needs and markets.
Stratety and strategy type, fit/gap, aspiration and capabilities are discovered during an innovation assessment.
Example: innovative mechatronic firm is struggling to “see” innovations in software and networked sensors. Which strategies could be useful get into H2/H3 projects?
Innovation strategy and leadership style are clearly defined by the innovation framework (e.g. innovation360, lean innovation, etc.) used.
