Conventional wisdom dictates that most innovations fail – think New Coke, Microsoft’s Zune, and the Facebook phone – but these cautionary tales haven’t slowed the speed of innovation. If anything, the pace has accelerated: think how quickly society went from a bulky bag phone to the powerful, pocket-sized computers we know as “phones” today.
Increasing the speed of innovation can yield many benefits: faster product development cycles, increased customer loyalty, and streamlined business practices to name a few. But innovation doesn’t come cheap – and it can’t come at the cost of other mission-critical tasks. How can enterprises accelerate the pace of innovation without compromising other priorities, or becoming a cautionary tale?
Open technology can help speed the ability to innovate because it offers the benefits of a skilled global community of developers, frees organizations from the release schedules and limitations of closed-source technology, and permits disruption. Open solutions even provide the ability to fail – that is, to rapidly prototype new products or approaches – without a negative impact on the business, or the risk typically associated with such endeavors.
When enterprises have the power to self-disrupt, they can create market opportunities rather than wait for them. According to Gartner, “…disruption has moved from an infrequent inconvenience to a consistent stream of change that is redefining markets and entire industries.” This type of disruption also creates challenges for competitors and, best of all, does not consume an organization’s existing revenue base.
I used to be the Senior Content Strategist for Boundless Spatial, which was acquired by Planet in 2018. A number of blog posts I wrote for Boundless are now lost to the ether. Some of those posts cover general-interest technology topics, and from time to time, I’m republishing them here.
SARAH SHEEHAN 