Innovation Types - Part 5 - Sustaining Innovation

The following is Part Four of a discussion on some of the more popular innovation types including:

• Architectural Innovation - Part One
  
• Discontinuous Innovation - Part Two
  
• Disruptive Innovation - Part Three
  
• Radical Innovation - Part Four
  
• Sustaining Innovation
• Incremental Innovation

With each innovation type, I attempt to capture what the authors had written about their innovation type and break down the innovation type into the dimensions which are described in an earlier blog - 27 Questions to Ask When Analyzing Innovations. In addition, I ordinal scale each dimension from 0 to 5. With 0 indicating that the innovation type either is not dependent on a certain dimension or the answers to the questions are negative.

The innovation type that is covered in Part Five is . . .

Sustaining Innovation

• Author: Clayton M. Christensen
• Book/Article: The Innovator's Dilemma, The Innovator’s Solution, Seeing What’s Next

From The Author
Sustaining innovations are often confused with incremental innovations. They are not the same. Incremental innovations are small incremental improvements to a current product or process. Sustaining innovations can be incremental or radical improvements to a current product or process. Christensen and O'Connor among other authors refer to this type of innovation.

The Invention

• Element Change – 0 or 5
  Depending on whether or not the invention is incremental or radical, will depend on whether or not there is a dramatic change to the elements.

• Systems Change - 0 or 5
  Depending on whether or not the invention is incremental or radical, will depend on whether or not there is a dramatic change to the system.
  

• Performance - 0 or 5
  Depending on whether or not the invention is incremental or radical, will depend on whether or not there is a dramatic change in performance.
  

• Benefit - 0
  These types of innovations are not about offering a benefit that is desirable to non-consumers or over-served customers.
  

Commercialization

• Target Customers - 1
  Targets under-served and well served customers.
  

• Need Creation - 0
  Attempts to fully address current customer’s needs.
  

• Value Network/Industry Shakeup - 1
  Industries remain stable.
  
  Production systems tend to be the same, although a radical invention may require new equipment and systems.
  

• Market Size & Growth - 1
  Targets large current markets. Generally not high growth unless it’s a radical innovation.
  

In the next blog I will cover Incremental Innovation. I welcome your comments and thoughts.