Most technology entrepreneurs believe that their innovation has utility, is superior to competition and creates great value for potential customers. After all, they came up with the idea, likely toiled for years developing the concept and possibly even left lucrative corporate careers behind in order to productize (and hopefully monetize) their grand innovation. “Discovery is […]
Market Analysis & Value Proposition: Is Your Hockey Stick Real?
Nearly all early stage business plans have some form of exponential or hockey stick shaped growth plan. Whether an early stage company or an established enterprise, how does an investor or company executive know whether that growth plan is outrageous hyperbole or representative of the opportunity and worthy of increased investment? There are two important […]
De-Risking Adoption of Innovations: Market Risk
In the life sciences, the value of any asset under development (e.g., novel therapeutic, diagnostic, platform technology, or health analytics software) will be mainly a function of risk – because cash flows from successful products can be fairly well benchmarked for a given category [1]. As an investor, entrepreneur, or manager in a growth-stage venture, […]
Does It Deserve to Be Called Innovation? Does It Really Matter?
Innovation means different things to different people. The definitions range from simply a new idea or invention to bringing that idea to life in a market or even restricting the definition to include only those things that achieve significant change in the world. We often think of innovations as things we couldn’t have imagined before […]
Micromanaging Innovation
I recently read a fascinating article on a social media site entitled “Micromanagers: Flushing Companies Down the Toilet, One Detail at a Time”(1). While the article is very thought provoking at a company level, the adverse effects of micromanagement on innovation is even more pronounced. After nearly 30 years in leadership roles in product development […]