Strengthen Business Model Focus – Interactive Tool

The nature of innovation is often misunderstood. The business literature (and startup community) often celebrate and focus on disruptive innovations that bring something completely new to the market. In contrast, many businesses focus on iterative innovations that seek to catch up with the competition. In between these trends falls another (of many) available strategy that focuses on adding a new (but non disruptive) product/ service offering to an existing asset.

The question is not which one is more valuable to the business but which one is more valuable to the customer?

Emphasis should be on strengthening existing assets and competencies before launching into a new space. Some forego this step and have been rewarded but more have experienced upset and lost everything. The lesson here is to ‘look before you step’ or run the risk of launching a project without the supporting foundation.

Define Innovation

What is innovation? How is it defined? This task begins answering some of those questions.

Test

What is the purpose of Innovation? 

Next, test your knowledge on the definition and purpose of Innovation.

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Applying Innovation to Business Strategy

Next, learn more about how Innovation and strategy are connected.
 
Applying Innovation

Identify the Ten Types of Innovation

This task tests your memory of the previous presentation to discover how many types of Innovation you remember. The cited book is a great resource for those interested in digging deeper into the subject of Innovation types.
 
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Key Tools & Terms in Strategy Deployment

This next exercise acquaints the reader with the different models and concepts often cited when developing business strategy. Although the definitions often yield insight into these resources additional research may be necessary. A great number of resources are available through your local small business administration. Additional articles and resources are also available through the Innovate Vancouver bookstore.
 
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Strengthening Your Business Model: The Next Steps

This planning tool builds upon the previous (business model planning) to explore the relationship between Innovation and the Business Model framework. What Innovations are within reach? Which ones are considered to add the most value by the business’ customers?
 
Strengthen Your Business Model

Next Steps

The following accordion outlines the first 4 steps of the strategic plan generator. Step 4 includes additional steps to build out your strategic innovation plan. Click on each step below to expand and learn more about each section.

Next Steps