How Entrepreneurs Launch Innovation: Experimenting In-Market

In a previous post, "The Best vs. The Rest", I cited results of a best-practices study by the Product Development & Management Association.  In that study, in spite of compelling statistics regarding leading companies' ability to improve their new product practices, the rate of new product success has been stuck at 59% for the past 10 years.

In this post I'll discuss what I believe can be an important remedy for many companies: a more entrepreneurial approach to launching innovation.  While a lot of effort and focus has been put on creativity in the 'fuzzy front end' of innovation, few established companies have applied true entrepreneurial thinking to their market launches, especially truly new products/services that require awareness building and consumer education.

Compare this with how start-ups and small, entrepreneurial enterprises operate.  They innovate, get it into the market and evolve (living or dying by the result).  Along the way, they hopefully find a segment of the market for which their product/service creates excitment and word of mouth and build around it.   Maybe it's their critical need for cash flow, or maybe it's their mindset and bias for action.  Either way, this approach provides important lessons for companies of any size in launching innovation.

Kevin Plank and the Under Armour apparel brand provide a great example of an entrepreneurial approach to launching innovation.  Initially very much a basement operation, they certainly stumbled in the early going. But he got the product into the hands of professional athletes by way of the equipment managers.  He knew that they would appreciate the products performance and benefits.  He was right.  From the PR, testimonials and free-publicity these athletes provided, Under Armour has exploded into #2 on the Inc. 500 list and is now a major brand in performance apparel. 

By leveraging guerilla marketing tactics and direct marketing approaches in their launch of new product/service innovations, companies gain another critically important benefit.  The immediate feedback that these approaches provide allow a company to hone and perfect both their product and their message prior to major ramp up and spending. 

Even large companies like P&G are learning to innovate, adapt and evolve during their product launches.  In launching Mr. Clean AutoDry Car Wash, Dryel and other innovations, they are leveraging a web presence and DRTV to create initial awareness and confirm their marketing messages prior to mass retail rollout and national advertising support.

So if you're trying to get innovation launched successfully, rethink your approach and leverage the tactics used by entrepreneurs and start-ups: launch fast, fail early, adapt/evolve, win big.

Comments

[D Posadas]

No harm doing the innovation cycle this way, as long as we don't try it with the safety aspects of the product. Everything else can be improved using the Darwinian approach.

D Posadas, author
http://www.ricebowlandchips.com

[Mike D.]

Bengt,

Thanks for your comments. I do support RSS, but suspect the problem is in the URL. Because I'm using the hosted Typepad service, my actual url is http://venture2.typepad.com/innovationnet/ I also own the domain www.innovation.net and simply point this url to my typepad account. If you're having this problem I'm sure others are as well, so I'm going to look into it with Typepad.

Best regards,
Mike

[Bengt Järrehult]

You seem to have good points in what you are writing and I have read most of the books you recommend (Except Seth Godin - I will buy them)
However - I wonder why you do not have your blog as an RSS feed so I can subscribe to it into the Newsgator software I have in my Outlook. That would be so convenient

All the best // Bengt
Director Idea & Knowledge management SCA