What is an innovation opportunity?

When you have a position in the organization, then think out of the box, discuss with your supervision, take your colleagues on board and pursue the the strategy to do something new which is beneficial to the organization - this is innovation opportunity.

There could be several other ways also to hunt for innovation opportunity

Thanks for inviting

The opportunity to innovate when the company has a broad horizon and has long-term targets and an ambitious stable plan and its high management alwyas have the desire for development and excellence, especially if the company's product or service is attractive to the active and creative minds.

But the general atmosphere must be ripe for all these things, which means  the desire to innovate will not be generated in traditional or unbalanced companies, or inexperienced or low-potential, and even if the desire to innovate in these circumstances will produce nothing but frustration in the end 

When you are the decision maker then you should take steps other than ordinary. 

The process of translating an idea or invention into a good or service that creates value or for which customers will pay. To be called an innovation, an idea must be replicable at an economical cost and must satisfy a specific need.

The 7 Sources Of Innovative Opportunity

The 7 sources of innovative opportunity were listed by Peter Drucker in his book “Innovation and Entrepreneurship. If you’re unaware, Peter Drucker is considered one of the truly great management consultants. He wrote 39 books and is considered a seminal thinking in the field of management.

The following are his 7 sources of innovative opportunity.

The Unexpected

The market place is the number one area to look for opportunities. A good manager should be constantly studying the market. Is a particular product or service in greater or lesser demand than anticipated? Why? Is there a way we can exploit this unexpected success? What has to happen if we want to convert this success into an opportunity?

The Incongruity

There is a discrepancy between what is and what should be. This is a key to developing wildly successful businesses but it’s tricky. Facebook is a company that nailed it. Prior to the social network’s prolific rise Myspace was the dominant player, but it had its downfalls.

Facebook wisely noted what Myspace was vs. what should be and built that platform. The end result? A company that just had an IPO versus. one that has fallen off considerably.

One of the best places to look for incongruity is in your own customers. Their complaints and unmet wants are all the hints you need.

Process Need

Process need involves identifying your company’s process weak spots and correcting or redesigning them. This is a task oriented solution meaning that the source of innovation comes from within your existing capabilities and ways of doing business – not the market.

An example might be a restaurant that identifies that people wait too long for their entrees and so decides to hire another chef to speed up creation times.

Essentially your company will want to look for all weak links and eliminate them.

Industry and Market Structure Change

Your industry and the market are in continual flux. Regulations change and some product lines expand while others shrink. Firms should continually be on the watch for this.

One example is deregulation. When a previously regulated industry becomes open there is historical precedence for companies that enter early to be very successful. Other things to watch out for are the convergence of multiple technologies and structural problems that occur from time to time (often immediately following an industry boom).

Demographics

We constantly see changes occur in populations, income levels, human capital (education) and age ranges. Smart firms are constantly paying attention to this.

When it comes to the baby boomers businesses have been following them constantly as they got older. At present they are one of the largest as well as the most affluent demographic groups with high levels of disposable income.

Combining demographic data with segmentation and targeting is a powerful method of accurately meeting a target market’s desires.

Changes in Perception, Meaning, and Mood

Over time populations and people change. The way they view life changes, where they take their meaning from, and how they feel about things also is modified over time and smart companies must pay attention to this in order to capitalize (and avoid becoming forgotten, a relic of ages past).

Here are two really good examples. First is a principle called “downaging” which refers to people who look at 50 as being 40. Industries have responded to this, most notably in the cosmetic and personal care industry which provides plenty of solutions to help these people look younger. Full industries are creeping up that make people feel younger. Have you spotted any lately?

Religion is another example. Across the world we’ve seen Islam and atheism rise. Companies should adapt as overall meaning changes in culture.

New Knowledge

As the speed of technological revolution increases there will be an ever increasing number of opportunities that open up. The internet has been the most notable one in the last couple decades but there have been a plethora of other industries and opportunities pop up as a result of this technological revolution.

New knowledge is about more than just technology though, it’s about finding better ways of doing things and improving processes. Your company should look to this new knowledge for ways it can improve incrementally.

Intel does this constantly and it’s a major part of why they’re the leading processor manufacturer today. Constantly paying attention to the latest in both academic research as well as investing heavily in their own R&D, the company has managed to find continual sources of innovation, driving its success.

Thanks for invitation,

"The Innovation Opportunity", is an expression used by the famous "Peter F Drucker", in his essay " The Discipline of Innovation" which issued in " Harvard Business Review", when he precisely explained that:

Quote:

 There are, of course, innovations that spring from a flash of genius. Most innovations, however, especially the successful ones, result from a conscious, purposeful search for innovation opportunities, which are found only in a few situations. Four such areas of opportunity exist within a company or industry: unexpected occurrences, incongruities, process needs, and industry and market changes.

Three additional sources of opportunity exist outside a company in its social and intellectual environment: demographic changes, changes in perception, and new knowledge.

Unquote:

Thanks

.......................Follower .........................

Regards

Hello,

this is an interesting question, I have made some research on this topic and I found the best answer from my point of view in the few lines below that I made a copy and paste,

Our interpretation of opportunities is based on an understanding of innovation in a business context, stressing perception and uncertainty during the choices involved in innovation processes. Based on Schumpeterian views of economic transformation, innovative opportunities refer to a set of different elements within the processes whereby actors identify, act upon and realize new combinations of resources and market needs to try to benefit from their future economic potential. To better understand and explain such processes, the proposed conceptualization of “innovative opportunities” consists of three elements: (1) economic value; (2) mobilization of resources; and (3) appropriability, which goes beyond existing types of opportunity conceptualizations found in the literature. The concluding discussion returns to the question of how this view of innovative opportunities modifies the existing understanding of innovation activities and industrial dynamics, and helps us identify new areas of research

Best Regards

Source: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13662710601130830