Market Your Way to Growth: 8 Ways to Win

4 Grow by Innovating New Products, Services, and Experiences

Most innovations fail. And companies that don't innovate die.

—Henry Chesbrough

How much innovation has taken place in your organization in the past five years? Did you launch any new products or services? Were they major or minor? Did you invent a new way to run your business? Did you invent any new marketing techniques to sell to your market more effectively?

Apple would answer these questions positively, as would Samsung, Google, IBM, 3M, Caterpillar, and others. They all know that not to innovate is to stagnate. A company that does not innovate becomes stale to its customers, distributors, and suppliers—and it becomes stale inside, too. Its people feel unenthused.

We frequently hear the refrain, “Innovate or die.” The dilemma inherent in this is that if we innovate, we will fail some or much of the time. Some companies understand this and persist in feeling that one great innovation success will pay for a number of innovation failures. The solution is in the numbers. Of course, the real solution is to innovate smartly and not fail.

We can learn a lot from the companies that have built innovation into their DNA and have established an organizational culture that encourages and rewards innovation. The 3M Company, a diversified multinational operating in 60 countries and producing innovative products in adhesives, abrasives, medical products, electronic circuits, optical film, and many other categories has developed ...