The most innovative companies on earth are leaders in specific fields. Apple fuses technology with design, Facebook maintains a stable environment while IBM conducts research a decade in advance. Yet the market leader in business innovation remains Google as it fuses several strategies together. The founders of Google embedded a spirit of discovery and science in the company’s DNA itself. In addition, Google embellishes itself by making acquisitions of other innovative companies. A lot of the innovations are nothing but solutions to real world problems people face and thus were develop using a bottom-up approach. This includes Gmail, Google News and Ad Sense. Google X is an internal incubator focused on generating ideas and executing them. A tight feedback system has been created so that the company constantly tracks information from elsewhere.

Source:  https://hbr.org/2016/06/want-to-do-corporate-innovation-right-go-inside-google-brain

Due to the era of startups disrupting traditional big guns, several of these established enterprises are getting jittery. While they want to enhance their level of business innovation, they do not have the patience or ability to do something on their own. So they are outsourcing innovation in the form of Joint Ventures, M&As or even setting up incubators and accelerators rather than scaling up organically. Time and again it has been proven that such activities can only be seen as ad-ons, not as the main channel of innovation. The trend of larger companies supporting or establishing incubators or accelerator programmes has some benefits but cannot be seen as a substitute to organic creative growth. These incubators are seen as ready-made source of talent and creativity. The idea is that with some level of management training imparted, these accelerators can come up with cutting-edge innovations without the direct involvement of the company. These companies are aware of the extremely low success rates in innovations and thus do not want to directly invest time or effort in to it. This is a wrong mindset as innovation must be seen as an investment and not expense.

Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/brianquinn/2016/09/22/you-cant-outsource-innovation/#6d79cdc47aba

Ricoh has ensured that its business innovation practices stem from customer feedback and inputs. There are four ways in which customer insights have been leveraged for the same. First of all technology centre workshops have been organized. The European Technology Advisory Conference has been designed as the cornerstone of such events. Even non- customers are invited to participate in the e-TAC. Innovation focus groups have been developed where groups of customers with common interests have been administered focus group discussions. Collaborative innovation programmes have been launched as this has enabled Ricoh to move away from linear processes to the multi-dimensional ones. 

Source: http://innovationexcellence.com/blog/2016/08/23/customer-driven-innovation-at-ricoh/

Airbnb is today considered a genuine business disruptor with a market valuation of around US $ 25 billion. However, when their no-frills hospitality business started, it encountered several challenges. Their business innovation was rejected by several funding agencies until receiving first major seed fund from the Y-Combinator Incubator. It also provided access to investors and mentoring. As a pilot project, they went to a music festival in Austin, Texas. Over time, the founders realized there was a genuine demand in the market for their service. This they realized after coming into contact with customers. They even customized the product to some extent once they realized there were flaws in the initial planning. One of these was the payment in advance as deferred payments may lead to defaulting and brand value erosion. And their persistence paid off.

Source: http://innovationexcellence.com/blog/2016/08/23/innovation-lessons-from-airbnb/

The USA has been a leader at innovation in every conceivable field since the Second World War. While several reasons have been cited for this position of leadership, where the USA really has an edge over the others is unparalleled scientific development. And while private companies do play a role, the vast majority of this scientific leadership has emanated from public funds. Even some of Apple and Google’s business innovations owe their source to the public domain. There are several ways in which private can and do tap into such public fund sources. Private firms must closely track developments in public companies by monitoring scientific journals or nominating internal researchers to technology based seminars. Public- private partnerships or industry- academia linkages further increase the collaboration across the industry. IBM for example has had a long and fruitful history of working with academicians. In such ways the cultural divide needs to be bridged. This also helps exploratory research which does not start with a particular goal in mind. The gap between industry and academia sadly still persists and this needs to be closed fast. Academics and research firms are developing new products but it is taking substantial time to bring them to market.

Source: https://hbr.org/2016/04/innovative-companies-get-their-best-ideas-from-academic-research-heres-how-they-do-it

There is a crucial difference between the words displacement and disruption. Chinese firms have by and large so far been displacers rather than disruptors. The former condition is where a new firm defeats an older one in its own game due to scale reasons. The latter means that some new technology or business innovation has eliminated or reduced the business of an existing older firm. Chine apparel makers have reduced the cost and won over the textile industry in Europe while solar panel and wind turbine manufacturers have had a similar impact on Europe of displacement. But all that is changing. Xiaomi’s customers are pleased due to the weekly OS updates. WeChat could have been just a cheap Whatsapp rip-off but instead it has unique features and thus captured market in China. Haier’s operational efficiency means that it can transport its goods to market much quicker than others. Barring the Chinese entrepreneurial short-term attitude, such innovative business should flourish over the next few years.

Source: https://hbr.org/2016/07/how-chinese-companies-disrupt-through-business-model-innovation

Source: http://innovationexcellence.com/blog/2016/08/10/how-to-be-radically-open-minded/