In the last two blogs, we explored various aspects of innovation and the large enterprise. This is a critical discussion as we need to deliberately and actively increase the rate of innovation by large enterprises, and a passion of mine where I spend most of my days, in large enterprises around the globe.

The 3rd aspect of innovation and the large enterprise is developing brand new products and innovation. This is the hardest to achieve because it means the enterprise has to identify new product lines, develop market communication and competitive positioning, build the product(s), introduce to the market and risk success/failure to name a few reasons. Compared to betting on the same-old sure thing, WOW – this is going to take tons of effort, right?!

One of the key factors of resistance to disruption and innovation is the fact that new products at the start DO NOT have large revenue potential and will take time to develop. The large enterprise delivery-mindset (focused on building and selling a lot of the traditional product line), makes innovation difficult to achieve. In Part I and II blog posts, I discussed how the delivery-mindset can generate new product ideas (based on existing product lines), but rarely have we seen game changing, non- “me-too” innovation from a delivery oriented mindset! To the extent that we don’t reward innovative thinking in companies and push for tighter focus and narrower vision, we are essentially killing our shots to be innovative.

Sure there are risks: Which new products to focus on, how to motivate people to buy into my idea, how to get funding, risks of failure and the list goes on. However, extremely strong upsides such as potential massive market share gain, new revenue sources, changing from the “me-too” culture to “WOW-watch-me” culture of innovation, and more. I also want to point out human factors: more inspired staff, higher retention rates, strong recruitment capacity (especially in the tech market today) and overall very high levels of energy and inspiration, which put the company in positive over-drive!

Many cultural and political factors need to be taken into consideration during this process. A few top level guidelines include that large enterprises have the customers, the market trust and the funding capacity. These are the 3 most critical elements of a startup. So, here is the scoop folks: YES, entrepreneurship is TOTALLY possible in large companies and happens all the time. We just need to do much more and promote the culture of disruption and innovation. And NO: Startups are not the only ones who can innovate!

In Chip’s article, he brings good elements to light,(though unless you subscribe to Forrester it’s hard to read the links.) I agree though that if we don’t innovate we will die. Sometimes a slow and painful death like Kodak, Xerox and Nokia. Or think of HP today??! With the ProVoke Methodology, we work step by step on all the ways of exploring various innovation in large enterprises. It’s key that we focus on ‘execution’ of innovation vs. just the discussion of innovation. Let’s walk the walk, rather than talk the talk, right?

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To succeed in this 3rd type of innovation, let’s identify innovation ideas using the ProVoke Methodology beginning with Step 1, get the customers involved and start effectively build many prototypes, and aggressively thinking ‘proactively’ to define new markets and offerings.

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Let’s make it happen versus waiting for the customer to ask for the innovation. Let’s take some fantastic risks! Please note that this is in parallel to delivery, so delivery DOES NOT stop when we innovate. From these actions will emerge the new product ideas that will allow us to develop new products and offerings so we can innovate at a rapid rate.

Possible: Yes.

Easy: Hell No!

Takes time? Yes.

Necessary: Absolutely crucial.

Let’s innovate to thrive!