Getting Into the Swing of Things

Abstract

Since the mid-1990s, innovation has become the number one buzzword in academia as well as in business. The reason is simple. In a world with a growing customer defi cit and hypercompetition the ability to deliver new services and products — and even to reinvent the company itself — has become crucial for long-term survival. It seems self-evident, but has also been shown to be right by rigid academic research. In the software industry, for example, the annual failure rate has been found to be several times higher for companies with a low innovation rate, compared to those with a high innovation rate.² Similarly, in 2010, the international management consulting firm Arthur D. Little published a report about innovation excellence, showing that top innovators not only expand their existing businesses, but are also much more active in new business and new product development. Arthur D. Little also found ‘that the most innovative global companies achieve up to twice as many sales, as much as double the EBIT and take half the time to break even when they introduce new products and services, compared to the average company’.³

I haven’t failed. I’ve found 10,000 ways that don’t work.

Thomas Alva Edison, US inventor, scientist and businessman (1847–1931)¹