What we learned: the chal­lenges of dis­rup­tive inno­va­tion

The com­pa­ny has been a pio­neer in new tech­nol­o­gy devel­op­ment since 1990, when it sup­port­ed the mar­ket intro­duc­tion of a world-patent­ed mechan­i­cal igni­tion device. Despite the inno­va­tion, the project failed due to sev­er­al fac­tors. The emer­gence of new­er, more effi­cient elec­tron­ic-based igni­tion devices ren­dered the company’s mechan­i­cal solu­tion obso­lete. Addi­tion­al­ly, the pro­posed tech­nol­o­gy dis­rupt­ed exist­ing sup­ply chains in the auto­mo­tive indus­try and among spark plug man­u­fac­tur­ers, lead­ing to resis­tance and hin­der­ing adop­tion. The project also faced the “not-invent­ed-here” syn­drome, where poten­tial part­ners and cus­tomers pre­ferred estab­lished tech­nolo­gies over the company’s nov­el solu­tion.

From this ear­ly set­back, the com­pa­ny learned the chal­lenges of dis­rup­tive inno­va­tion and the impor­tance of con­sid­er­ing mar­ket dynam­ics and resis­tance to change. Con­se­quent­ly, the com­pa­ny evolved strate­gi­cal­ly from a con­sult­ing firm focused main­ly on eco­nom­ics and mar­ket­ing, includ­ing mar­ket research, to an inde­pen­dent Pro­fes­sion­al Ser­vices firm. This trans­for­ma­tion allowed the com­pa­ny to broad­en its exper­tise and ser­vices to cov­er a wider range of busi­ness dis­ci­plines.

“Rest­less­ness is dis­con­tent — and dis­con­tent is the first neces­si­ty of progress. Show me a thor­ough­ly sat­is­fied man — and I will show you a fail­ure.” Thomas A. Edi­son

Today, IBPM offers a com­pre­hen­sive suite of pro­fes­sion­al ser­vices, includ­ing finance, busi­ness process man­age­ment, inter­na­tion­al busi­ness devel­op­ment, roadmap devel­op­ment, financ­ing and sub­sidy acqui­si­tion, and mar­ket access strate­gies. The com­pa­ny spe­cial­izes in the ener­gy & envi­ron­ment and bio-based econ­o­my sec­tors, using its exper­tise to help clients nav­i­gate the com­plex­i­ties of these dynam­ic indus­tries and achieve sus­tain­able growth.

Our ini­tial for­ay into new tech­nol­o­gy (cir­ca 1990) – a patent­ed mechan­i­cal igni­tion device – failed. Fac­tors includ­ed:

• Supe­ri­or­i­ty of emerg­ing elec­tron­ic tech­nolo­gies.
• Dis­rup­tion to the estab­lished car indus­try and spark plug sup­pli­ers.
• Resis­tance to exter­nal inno­va­tion (“not-invent­ed-here”).

This ear­ly project exem­pli­fies com­mon pit­falls: late entry, dis­rup­tive impact, and resis­tance to exter­nal ideas.

“If you always do what you always did, you will always get what you always got.” — Albert Ein­stein

Evolv­ing from a con­sult­ing firm focused on eco­nom­ics and mar­ket­ing, IBPM now oper­ates as an inde­pen­dent Pro­fes­sion­al Ser­vices firm. We spe­cial­ize in finance, busi­ness process man­age­ment, inter­na­tion­al busi­ness devel­op­ment, financ­ing, and access­ing new mar­kets, par­tic­u­lar­ly in ener­gy & envi­ron­ment and the bio-based econ­o­my.

IBPM: Inno­va­tion and Busi­ness Process Man­age­ment Inno­va­tion, often com­plex and col­lab­o­ra­tive, can be effec­tive­ly man­aged by apply­ing Busi­ness Process Man­age­ment (BPM) prin­ci­ples. While tra­di­tion­al Tay­lorism frag­ment­ed work, process ori­en­ta­tion empha­sizes inter­con­nect­ed activ­i­ties. BPM encom­pass­es design­ing, admin­is­ter­ing, and ana­lyz­ing busi­ness process­es for improve­ment. View­ing inno­va­tion as a spe­cif­ic busi­ness process allows orga­ni­za­tions to map its stages, estab­lish met­rics, opti­mize, fos­ter col­lab­o­ra­tion, and lever­age tech­nol­o­gy, ulti­mate­ly enhanc­ing inno­va­tion efforts.

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