The Four Lenses of Innovation: A Power Tool for Creative Thinking

The next big thing for

your business

The billion-dollar question is this: Which wave (or waves) are you and your company riding? What are you actually doing about the disruptive trends and discontinuities that have the potential to reshape your industry? Are you already harnessing the power of change to create exciting new value for customers, refresh or replace your current business model, stay relevant in a hyper-accelerating world, open up completely new growth opportunities, and reinvent the competitive rules before somebody else does? Are you figuratively up there on the surfboard, with the wind in your hair and the salt water spraying all around you, on the crest of the next big wave? Or are you lying on the beach in the sunshine while, out on the ocean, a monstrous, 100-foot-high tsunami is thundering toward you at 500 mph?

Let’s consider one of today’s hottest trends—wearable technology—which is projected to be worth at least $70 billion globally by 2024.⁶⁴ In just the next four years alone, analysts expect sales growth of around 500 percent.⁶⁵ Major tech companies like Google, Samsung, Sony, and more recently, Apple, are putting a lot of focus on this emerging opportunity arena. But what implications does this trend have for your own business? How might you take advantage of the increasing momentum—and the new technical possibilities—to drive radical innovation in your industry?

The potential applications of smart watches, smart glasses, smart wristbands, wearable cameras, ...