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Why Innovative Ideas Fail

From Jeffrey Phillips writing for Blogging Innovation, here are "4 Reasons Why Innovative Ideas Fail."  I can attest to the list, having failed in all 4 ways and a few more besides.

According to Phillips, innovations fail in the marketplace based on one or more of four key issues:
  1. Ideas don’t solve an important problem for a customer.  Possible solutions: generate insights through scenario planning and Voice of the Customer research.
  2. Ideas take too long to get to market/Shifts in needs.  Possible solutions: flexible funding cycles not tied to a strict budget calendar and a well-tuned innovation process.
  3. Ideas underfunded or poorly launched.  Possible solutions: Do the "reveal" like Steve Jobs to create excitement around a launch.
  4. Ideas require too much work to adopt.  Possible solutions: understand the entire value chain, create bridges between existing and new with clear migration paths.
Thanks to Sam Basta, M.D. for the heads-up.

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