There was an interesting thread last week regarding which product or service introductions did - or did not - constitute "Innovation" within the recreational scuba diving industry. As you can imagine... there was a fair bit of debate. So I thought it might be useful to reset the conversation by establishing a common framework for the discussion by establishing criteria for evaluating what KIND of innovation any particular introduction represents... rather than trying to assign a binary is or is not measure of innovation.
Current thinking is that there are three types of innovation in business: Sustaining Innovation, Breakout Innovation, and Disruptive Innovation. (You can find specific descriptions of each here: All Innovations Are Not Created Equal ? AQUIS Strategic Marketing)
The key to determining which type of innovation any particular product or service represents is to look at the impact that its introduction has had on the scuba diving marketplace overall, rather than to evaluate the merits of the technology behind the introduction.
So, with a set of objective criteria to use to guide the discussion... how would you characterize various innovations in the recreational scuba diving industry? Any innovation has its merits, and all three types are important to any company or industry. But which have been Sustaining Innovations? How about Breakout Innovations? Does anyone believe that scuba diving has actually seen any Disruptive Innovations?
Who wants to start?
PS - I didn't want to clog up the forum here with all the detail about the three different types, but it might be useful to follow the link above for a quick read so as to keep everyone on the same page regarding the criteria for each. These are not MY criteria, but rather those used and discussed in the academic literature regarding business innovation.
Current thinking is that there are three types of innovation in business: Sustaining Innovation, Breakout Innovation, and Disruptive Innovation. (You can find specific descriptions of each here: All Innovations Are Not Created Equal ? AQUIS Strategic Marketing)
The key to determining which type of innovation any particular product or service represents is to look at the impact that its introduction has had on the scuba diving marketplace overall, rather than to evaluate the merits of the technology behind the introduction.
So, with a set of objective criteria to use to guide the discussion... how would you characterize various innovations in the recreational scuba diving industry? Any innovation has its merits, and all three types are important to any company or industry. But which have been Sustaining Innovations? How about Breakout Innovations? Does anyone believe that scuba diving has actually seen any Disruptive Innovations?
Who wants to start?
PS - I didn't want to clog up the forum here with all the detail about the three different types, but it might be useful to follow the link above for a quick read so as to keep everyone on the same page regarding the criteria for each. These are not MY criteria, but rather those used and discussed in the academic literature regarding business innovation.