Dec 22, 2022
3 Playing Fields in Dual Innovation Ecosystems Strategy
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When new technologies and competitors disrupt markets, many established businesses must exert significant effort to survive. Unpreparedness to produce new products and services during uncertain periods is one of the potential reasons of disruption.
Some businesses create alliances to minimize interruptions. Productive partnerships need the right people, processes, and organizational support — a whole ecosystem.
Creating a proper Innovation Ecosystem is crucial for assuring success and detecting and resolving conflict sources.
Conventional Innovation Management is insufficient to fulfill current demands. Dual Innovation has grown into a must for firms to compete effectively.
Dual Innovation refers to the process of growing current business models in novel ways while simultaneously creating entirely new business models. For such ambidexterity, businesses require an Innovation Management Model that helps them innovate more effectively and sustainably.
Dual Innovation is grounded on 3 Innovation Fields and 2 Strategic Action Directions.
These are the 2 strategic Action Directions:
1. Adapt — Modification of established core business or operating models.
2. Scale — Deepening of verified, far-reaching, or even disruptive Innovation ideas in order to have a substantial corporate impact.
The 3 Innovation Fields have been dubbed “Playing Fields,” and each has a unique set of requirements:
1. Playing Field 1 — Optimize the Core.
2. Playing Field 2 — Reshape the Core.
3. Playing Field 3 — Create the New.
The 3 Playing Fields are the result of Innovation’s link and effect on the main business. The closeness of the Playing Fields to the company’s primary activity, which is the foundation for their uniqueness, relates to:
· Business Model
· Technological capacities
· Implicitly, to time scale
Accounting, metrics, techniques, and tools, as well as organizational and individual needs, are other factors that contribute to the uniqueness of each Playing Field. An excellent Playing Field requires focused leadership and management.
The 3 Innovation Playing Fields differ in the following respects:
1. Playing Field 1 — Optimize the Core — involves a Centralized Ecosystem Strategy with specific problems/solutions, partnerships with connections to the predominant Business Model, an emphasis on assuring value, and a steady industry.
2. Playing Field 2 — Reshape the Core — requires a mixed Ecosystem Strategy, i.e. concurrent or sequential implementation of both Centralized and/or Adaptive techniques.
3. Playing Field 3 — Create the New — is based on the Adaptive Ecosystem Strategy, whose primary needs include partners with various capabilities, a focus on value creation, and adaptability with regard to industry ties.
The 2 streams of Innovation, Playing Fields 1 and 3, provide Playing Field 2 (Restructure the Core).
For innovation initiatives across all 3 Playing Fields to be successful, the appropriate partner Ecosystem must be selected.
Adaptive Ecosystems are suited for sectors in flux where there is a considerable lot of unpredictability and the general conditions have not yet been established.
In established markets and stable contexts, centralized ecologies are effective.
Adopting the most appropriate partner Ecosystem is achieved by correlating the distinct goals and motivations of the Playing Fields to the features of the 2 Ecosystem types.
Such integration generates the 3 management approaches for Dual Innovation Ecosystems listed below:
· Model 1 — Both, Business Unit Focus and Corporate Focus result in a unified Ecosystem.
· Model 2 — where Corporate Focus is only required due to a centralized environment.
· Model 3 — When a focus on the Business Unit is necessary for the Exploration of new ideas.
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To be competitive and sustain growth, we need to constantly develop new products, services, processes, technologies, and business models. In other words, we need to constantly innovate.
Ironically, the more we grow, the harder it becomes to innovate. Large organizations tend to be far better executors than they are innovators. To effectively manage the Innovation process, we need to master both the art and science of Innovation. Only then can we leverage Innovation as a Competitive Advantage, instead of viewing Innovation as a potential disruptive threat.
Learn about our Innovation Management Best Practice Frameworks here.
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