Serendipidity in business innovations
Business Week has a nice article on the need for adaptive business design, i.e. business models, citing examples like Iridium, Friendster or the Segway. Yes, some innovations don’t take off as intended at first, but can be repurposed in creative new ways (sometimes even accidentally). Here, identifying new markets is one alternative, as Henry Chesbroughs holds:
“If these [new] technologies weren’t taken to market, their owners may never have found that better use,” […] “Innovators need to learn how to play poker in pursuing these technologies, rather than playing chess, where the objectives and possibilities are clearly defined at the outset.” In other words, it’s necessary to restrategize as the game of marketing and selling a new product changes with the marketplace, rather than try to keep up with rigid, preset expectations and tactics. Not to mention the adage, if at first you don’t succeed, try, try, again.
