Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's (RPI) Phase I study results concluded in 2000 that companies require an innovation hub, or network of hubs, to manage the radical/breakthrough innovation system. In addition, there are four uncertainties (technical, market, resource and organization) to manage, not two (focus of previous research was on technical and market only), and seven management challenges to overcome for successfully implementing radical innovation in mature companies.

As a result, the innovation system is highly complex and requires a surrounding infrastructure to build a systematic and sustainable organizational capability that encompasses strategy, leadership, system and culture dimensions. Further, the principles and practices developed from the radical innovation research apply equally to all forms of innovation beyond incremental, due to the higher levels of uncertainty that these innovation projects experience.

Phase II research findings and industry experiences suggest companies continue to struggle with building an effective organizational capability for managing higher uncertainty innovation projects as follows:

1. Companies do not have effective management systems for higher uncertainty innovation and often use incremental innovation approaches that do not work.
2. While companies are experimenting in this space, it is with insufficient knowledge, resources and levels of executive commitment.
3. This lack of investment in portfolio management systems is jeopardizing the effectiveness and very survival of innovation programs targeted at growth and renewal.
4. As a result, sustainability of these innovation programs is a fundamental issue that most corporate venturing managers face.
5. Many companies still do not have an Innovation Hub™ in place and, for those that do; they are struggling with defining its role and responsibilities and building organizational legitimacy.
6. Companies do not understand their relative level of system maturity across the innovation continuum in the seven areas that are critical for developing a sustainable capability:
1. Mandate and scope of new business development initiatives;
2. Culture and leadership;
3. Organization structure and interfaces;
4. Governance and decision-making;
5. Requisite skills;
6. Learning based processes and tools;
7. Appropriate metrics and rewards.
7. Early in the life of building an innovation capability, an implementation assessment needs to be undertaken to define clearly the role of the Hub and the requirements for a legitimized management system in order for accelerated learning to take place so that these programs can build the strategic relevance to survive.

With appropriate Innovation Hub™ direction and an effective management system in place to manage across the innovation continuum, companies will be able to:

1. Make breakthrough innovation strategically relevant to corporate growth and renewal;
2. Maximize returns from breakthrough innovation investments;
3. Accelerate learning to realize these returns more quickly;
4. Reduce time to market from discovery to commercialization;
5. Manage a portfolio of diverse innovation projects;
6. Enable conflicting cultures of breakthrough innovation and operational excellence/customer intimacy to co-exist; and
7. Prepare their leadership teams for the chaos, uncertainty and change associated with breakthrough innovation.
   

For additional learning, please read the following contributions in our Journal:

Strategic

Portfolio

Project