Download PDF By David Matheson, SmartOrg Breakthrough innovation takes an organization out of its familiar comfort zone into a realm of uncertainty. Unlike incremental innovations into existing product domains and markets, where the behavior of technology and customers is well understood, breakthrough innovations entail using new technologies, selling to new kinds of customers, or both.

Download PDF By David Matheson, SmartOrg At first blush, you’d think that Decision Analysts have a lot to contribute to innovation. Innovators face tremendous uncertainty; Decision Analysts are experts at making decisions uncertainty. However, Decision Analysts and Innovators look at the world differently. Decision Analysts are deliberative and facilitative: they take time to carefully think

Download PDF By David Matheson, SmartOrg In the beloved classic children’s book Millions of Cats by Wanda Gag, an old man and an old woman decide to get a cat to be their companion. The Old Man sets out to find a pretty cat, and he comes across a valley full of… “…hundreds of cats,

Download PDF By David Matheson, SmartOrg Most portfolio evaluations I get involved in take a close look at innovation. Often there is a special innovation group responsible for the new, the wild, and the odd. The group names vary: common ones are “Ventures” or “Innovation” or “Central R&D.” There are great hopes for this group

Download PDF By David Matheson, SmartOrg The cost of an opportunity is, of course, the sum of the resources required to pursue a selected opportunity. Usually it is straightforward to add up this cost, although for innovation opportunities, uncertainties may make some part of the cost unforeseeable. However, when we consider the cost of an

Download PDF By David Matheson, SmartOrg The Question of Efficiency This article addresses the last of the four critical questions for strategic portfolio decisions (see below), efficiency. The prior three questions — sufficiency, significance and renewal — are fundamentally questions of effectiveness, which must always proceed the question of efficiency. “There is nothing so useless

Download PDF By David Matheson, SmartOrg August’s ValuePoint introduced the Four Critical Questions for Decision Making in Strategic Portfolio Management (see below), and September’s edition examined the Sufficiency and Significance questions. In this edition, we’ll look at Renewal. All businesses die. Every business is slowly sliding into lower value, towards commoditization or obsolescence. Every one,

Download PDF By David Matheson, SmartOrg August’s ValuePoint introduced the Four Critical Questions for Decision Making in Strategic Portfolio Management (see sidebar). In this edition, we’ll look at two questions about Sufficiency and Significance. Sufficiency The Sufficiency question asks, “Do we have enough to achieve our goals?” In particular, is there enough potential in the