Strategic Fit

You have a new, great idea but does it have a strategic fit with your organization? This is a question you need to be asking before you go down the route of development and commercialization; an idea that doesn\’t fit strategically with your organization could cause long term problems.

Appropriate Resources and Capabilities

It’s about making sure you have the appropriate resources and capabilities to support and execute your intentions. Resources are used in the input and development of the product or service. Capabilities are to do with what the company is able to do, what it has learned over the years.

For example, some great idea to increase fuel efficiency in an engine may be a perfect fit if you work for or run a vehicle manufacturing organization but it’s likely to not be as great if you work for or lead a software development house.

The above example is kind of obvious but there are many ideas that are suggested within organizations where the ability for the idea to fit or not is less clear. Careful consideration and evaluation need\’s to be undertaken before continuing.

Choices if Not a Great Fit

So what are the choices if you decide that your great idea doesn\’t fit with the strategy of your organization? Well just from the fact that you believe it to be a great idea suggests that it could create value for someone or some organization and therefore it also has the potential to create profit. In the wrong hands, this potential to create profit is less likely.

There is also more risk to an organization which chooses to proceed with the development of innovation in a market/environment in which they are unfamiliar.

There are a number of choices you can make…

1. Push the idea to one side, forget about it and move on
2. Create a new organization to develop it
3. Go into a joint venture with another organization who has competencies and resources that can complement the idea.
4. License it to some organization that can move the idea forward

Go To Innovation Management 

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