Applying Visual Frameworks to Optimize Innovation Strategy

Abstract

All companies have goals or targets as well as projections for various metrics. External and internal environmental factors, more often than not, push a company off course. This tendency, when a company strays from the optimal projected path, is called the Path/Goal problem. In the course of this paper, a framework will be constructed for managers to visualize their current position and path, with regard to their goals, competitors and environment. The framework will also provide insight for making decisions and crafting strategy. Furthermore, this paper will discuss and quantify when a course change (pivot) should be considered by evaluating the nature of the distribution of possible outcomes at any given point in time. The framework will then be used to contrast incumbent firms versus new entrants to a market as well as continuous versus discontinuous technological innovation strategies. More importantly, the framework will demonstrate how these situations relate to a company’s path toward their end goal. The final discussion will focus on strategies as well as their implications and risks with the goal of helping managers not only understand their situational environment, but also the implications of their decisions.

Keywords- Agility; Bang the Corner; Continuous Innovation;
Corporate Inertia; Course Change Coefficient; Course Correction;
Discontinuous Innovation; Disruptive Innovation; Environmental
Conditions; Environmental Volatility; Environmental Factors;
Evaluation Cycle Time; Framework; Goal; Goal Boundary Plot;
Incremental Innovation; Incumbent Firm; Innovation; Innovation
Strategy; Middle of the Road; New Entrants; Optimization;
Outcome Boundaries; Outcome Distribution; Strategy;
Technological Innovation; True North Plot; Visual Framework;
Zeta;