Innovation is the practice of helping organizations’ identify new technologies and create ideal business processes. We trust how you can make innovation a key business process and outlines the different approaches you can take.
Technological innovation is the process where an organization (or a group of people working outside a structured organization) embarks in a journey where the importance of technology as a source of innovation has been identified as a critical success factor for increased market competitiveness.
Incremental Innovation
Incremental Innovation is the most common form of innovation. It utilizes your existing technology and increases value to the customer (features, design changes, etc.) within your existing market. Almost all companies engage in incremental innovation in one form or another.
Examples include adding new features to existing products or services or even removing features (value through simplification).  Even small updates to user experience can add value.
Disruptive Innovation
Disruptive innovation, also known as stealth innovation, involves applying new technology or processes to your company’s current market. It is stealthy in nature since newer tech will often be inferior to existing market technology. This newer technology is often more expensive, has fewer features, is harder to use, and is not as aesthetically pleasing. It is only after a few iterations that the newer tech surpasses the old and disrupts all existing companies. By then, it might be too late for the established companies to quickly compete with the newer technology.
Architectural Innovation
Architectural innovation is simply taking the lessons, skills and overall technology and applying them within a different market. This innovation is amazing at increasing new customers as long as the new market is receptive.  Most of the time, the risk involved in architectural innovation is low due to the reliance and reintroduction of proven technology.  Though most of the time it requires tweaking to match the requirements of the new market.
Radical innovation
Radical innovation is what we think of mostly when considering innovation.  It gives birth to new industries (or swallows existing ones) and involves creating revolutionary technology.  The airplane, for example, was not the first mode of transportation, but it is revolutionary as it allowed commercialised air travel to develop and prosper.
The four different types of innovation mentioned here – Incremental, Disruptive, Architectural and Radical – help illustrate the various ways that companies can innovate. There are more ways to innovate than these four.  The important thing is to find the type(s) that suit your company and turn those into success.
