Innovation Management

Innovation is steered, not left to chance

Innovation is not a creative flash of genius, but a systematic process of risk minimisation and opportunity maximisation. Professional innovation management in IT balances the care of the core business with the exploration of radically new technologies.

We use structured frameworks to ensure that innovation budgets do not seep into hype topics, but are specifically invested in technologies that support tomorrow's business model.

graph TD
    subgraph H1 [Horizon 1: Core Business]
        A[Optimization & Efficiency]
    end
    subgraph H2 [Horizon 2: Growth]
        B[New Markets & Services]
    end
    subgraph H3 [Horizon 3: Future]
        C[Radical Innovation]
    end
    H1 -->|Resources| H2
    H2 -->|Insights| H3
    H3 -->|Scaling| H1

Anti-Patterns: Innovation Killers

• Innovator's Dilemma: The fear of cannibalising the successful core business through new technologies.
• Innovation Theater: Setting up isolated innovation labs whose results never find their way into the real production system.
• Hype-Chasing: Investing in technologies (e.g. Blockchain, Metaverse) just because they are prominent in the media, without any connection to the actual business model.

The 3-Horizons Model

1. Horizon 1 (Maintain and Extend): Continuous improvement of current systems (indicative benchmark: approx. 70% of resources). Goal: efficiency and cash flow.
2. Horizon 2 (Nurture): Building new business areas based on known technologies (indicative benchmark: approx. 20% of resources). Goal: future growth.
3. Horizon 3 (Explore): Exploring fundamentally new paradigms (indicative benchmark: approx. 10% of resources). Goal: learning and risk validation.

The Process: Build-Measure-Learn

Innovation happens through hypothesis-driven experiments (PoCs / MVPs). Every experiment must have clearly defined exit criteria (Fail Fast) to immediately redirect resources when results fall short.

FAQ

Can we afford innovation when we have so much to do in the core business?

Without experiments outside the core business, strategic options narrow when market or technology shifts. Without Horizon 2 and 3, the core business risks being disrupted by new market participants.

How do we measure the success of innovation in early phases?

Not via ROI or revenue, but via learning metrics (Innovation Accounting): "How many hypotheses have we validated?" or "How much have we learned about the needs of the target group?".

References

• Vakmedianet The Corporate Startup. Tendayi Viki et al. on innovation management in established companies. (2017). thecorporatestartupbook.com
• Crown Currency The Lean Startup. Eric Ries on systematic experimentation. (2011). theleanstartup.com
• Harvard Business Review Press The Innovator's Dilemma. Clayton Christensen on the failure of established companies. (1997). store.hbr.org