« Upcoming Conference: Voice of the Customer |
Main
| Selling To Nonconsumers (IS, Chapter 4) »
November 24, 2003
The Limits Of Predictability In Innovation
Posted by Renee Hopkins Callahan
I hadn't gotten around to contacting the authors of The Innovator's Solution to tell them of my blog project on their book -- but they appear to have found it anyway! I received an email today from co-author Michael Raynor, who says (emphasis mine):
[I liked your] correct and measured response on Nov. 4 to Mark Federman's comments -- which were themselves thought-provoking and helpful. In your comments you quoted note 11 of Chapter 1. I'd direct you also to note 14 of chapter 1 -- in which we observe that, in our view, the limits of predictability in innovation have yet to be limned, and the significance and impact of any residual uncertainty are profound issues of enormous importance. Clayton and I are ambitious and hopeful with respect to how far back we can push the veil of ignorance surrounding successful innovation, but we're not dogmatic about just how far it can be pushed. We figure the only way to find out is to try.
The discussion of whether you could really predict innovation results seems to have died down. But it's important, not the least because in some ways it marks the division between companies that support innovation and those that don't.
How much prediction will we ever be able to apply to the innovation process? How a company's leaders answer that question probably also determines how much of the company's current assets its leaders are willing to devote to the innovation process, and how much they feel the company's future prospects depend on successful innovation.
Comments (0)
| Category: Clayton Christensen
- RELATED ENTRIES
- › Innovation Of A Tradition
- › We Hear Them, But Do We Know What They're Saying?
- › Farewell from Renee -- but check out the new IdeaFlow blogroll!
- › Supernova 2007 blog conversation: It's all about innovation and value
- › Innovation Bloggers Virtual Forum cancelled!!!
- › Join us at the first-ever Innovation Bloggers Virtual Forum, Thursday, April 26
- › Jack’s Notebook: A Business Novel of ‘Deliberate Creativity’
- › Models for crowdsourcing -- now, FLIRT
Renee Hopkins Callahan started IdeaFlow and serves as chief blog-wrangler. She is 
