Inspiring and implementing the innovation mind‐set

Companies attempting to regenerate themselves through the introduction of successful new products must first instill an innovation mind‐set in their management. This is a leadership challenge, and it's a formidable one. Just being a “me‐too, better‐than” product or service developer isn't going to work anymore. In 1991, as one of the many research initiatives that we regularly conduct at our firm, we did a study on new product and service practices at companies in the Midwest. When the study's most successful respondents — those that had generated at least 20 to 25 percent of their revenues from new products — defined their total portfolio of products that had been launched over a five‐year time period, 39 percent of these new products were either new to the world or new to the company. In contrast, the rest of the respondents' new‐to‐the‐world and new to‐the‐company products represented only 23 percent of their total portfolio.