Inspired and guided by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s (RPI) radical innovation research study (sponsored by the Sloan Foundation and the Industrial Research Institute), the RI Group has been at the forefront of innovation for over twelve years. The company was formed in 2001 upon the release of the book “Radical Innovation – How Mature Companies Can Outsmart Upstarts” and continues its contributions to establishing innovation as a management discipline with the latest book “Grabbing Lightning – Building a Capability for Breakthrough Innovation”. The team is composed of the authors, featured executives who have led new business development programs and an organizational psychologist.

What We Do: Implementation Experts and Custom Designers

The RI Group helps companies to address the challenges of adopting a disciplined approach to innovation to drive organic growth and corporate renewal. We do this by working through implementation issues associated with the structural, organizational and management requirements for new business creation. By focusing on strategic clarity and uncertainty reduction during project discovery and incubation, projects transition smoothly into the new product development process.

World-class consulting programs have been developed in partnership with Fortune 1000 companies and others across a number of industries. Innovation Roadmaps™ are created to enable these companies to develop strategic intents and implementation plans for growth. While the innovation principles for success are universal, no roadmap is identical as it needs to be tailored to the unique requirements of individual companies.

Key Issue: Institutionalizing Innovation

RPI and St John’s University recent research findings have determined that investment in R&D alone will not lead to improved performance outcomes. On the other hand, investing in innovation capability development does by providing a mechanism for transforming R&D discoveries into tangible market value. In turn, the longevity of innovation programs is increasing, as companies learn how to bring more discipline to innovation management.

Our Successes: Clients’ Successes

Through the RI Group’s Innovation Roadmap™, our clients have successfully enabled entrepreneurial and dominant operations cultures to co-exist, repositioned the company for sustained growth, increased revenue contributions in Divisions (2 to 3 times), accelerated the lifecycle of major innovation projects (25-33% and greater) and improved the bottom line in one Division enough for a Corporate CTO to take notice!

Embracing Radical or Breakthrough Innovation and Other Types of Major Innovation

Major innovation is a pre-requisite to drive growth during these uncertain times and fundamental to business rejuvenation and critical to survival in mature or declining industries. Incremental innovation and cost cutting measures are not sufficient to sustain company growth and prosperity. While many large, established companies have used acquisitions and external incubators to fuel their growth, internal engines of growth have been often neglected. This is largely because the management processes associated with highly uncertain ventures are so dramatically different from what companies have in place for incremental innovation. Major Innovation can and should be done within the context of the company; large, established firms can develop competencies in this highly profitable arena. Companies simply need to learn how to do this well!

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RI Group Overview and Critical Success Factors presentation