"Ten Types of Innovation" – From art to discipline with one of the world's most recognized frameworks

Published: 2 February 2015

Monitor Deloitte China proudly presents the Chinese version of “Ten Types of Innovation”. This is a first of its kind business tool book which provides guidance for visionaries of all levels and industries showing how to create breakthroughs when stakes are high and time is short.

The urgency for businesses and organizations in China to boost their innovation abilities has never been higher. Rising consumer expectations, urbanization, changing demographics, policy shifts, and increased competition are creating more demand for innovative business solutions. Innovation is not optional – it is imperative. Customers demand it; competitors will outflank you if you cannot achieve it; talented employees will not join your teams if you do not deliver it; and investors expect it.

Through empirical study and over 30 years of research and practical application, authors Larry Keeley, Ryan Pikkel, Brian Quinn, and Helen Walters wrote Ten Types of Innovation to share one of the world’s most recognized frameworks in the field of innovation—developed by Doblin, the innovation practice of Monitor Deloitte within Deloitte Consulting LLP.

The Ten Types of Innovation framework emerged from applying a proprietary research approach to more than 2,000 successful innovations, including Amazon.com, early IBM mainframes, the Ford Model-T, and many more. This analysis identified ten meaningful groupings or "innovation types" that provide insight into the innovation process. Ten Types of Innovation explores these insights to diagnose patterns of innovation within industries, to identify innovation opportunities, and to evaluate how firms are performing against competitors. The concept has influenced thousands of executives and companies globally since its discovery in 1998 and this book explains how to implement it.

Many people assume that innovation demands massive investments in R&D, astounding technological discoveries, and an unending stream of shiny new products with ever-better features and functions. Unfortunately, these are precisely the practices that produce staggeringly high rates of failure.  Firms that try to innovate fail to achieve a satisfactory return on their investments—by their own standards—96 percent of the time. This is powerful evidence that the typical approach to innovation is not working.

Doblin found that companies innovating across multiple types of innovation outperform the average company’s innovation efforts. A five year historical analysis of stock returns for the most innovative companies shows that on average they typically outperform the S&P index by more than 30%.

As the Chinese economy enters a new phase of development, disciplined approaches to innovation such as those presented in the Ten Types of Innovation will become necessary to sustain growth.Chinese companies like Tencent, Xiaomi, Haier and others have made progress developing innovations and expanding internationally. The Ten Types Framework helps business leaders understand why these companies have succeeded where others have failed.

"China is on the cusp of a transformational innovation revolution" said Sheryl Jacobson, Partner, Monitor Deloitte China. "The country's large, sustained investments in R&D, patent development, and education have built a powerful innovative capacity." China's R&D expenditures have exceeded US $200 billion representing an increase of over 10 times in the last decade. As a percentage of GDP these expenditures have more than doubled in the last decade going from 1% of GDP to over 2%. The U.S. R&D to GDP ratio is about 2.8% by comparison.

Patent grants for Chinese inventors and companies have increased from approximately 50,000 in 2005 to over 200,000 in 2013.Yet translating this added capacity into the ability to innovate breakthrough offerings is not a straightforward process. Of the world's 100 most innovative companies recently identified byFortune magazine, only six were Chinese. There were no Chinese companies in the top 20.

"Companies in China need a systematic approach and, more precisely, a disciplined science to guide business executives’ approach to innovation," said Jacobson. "Ten Types of Innovation provides this tool. We are happy to launch the Chinese version now as Chinese companies and MNCs operating in China seek to bolster their innovative capabilities to compete more effectively both domestically and internationally.”

David Martin, Managing Partner, Monitor Deloitte China said, “Generating innovation is not about pouring money into R&D and hoping for breakthroughs. Extremely innovative companies like Apple and Google actually spend surprisingly little on R&D—relative to the returns their investments generate.” Using the right methods can dramatically increase innovation hit rates. Successful innovators innovate beyond products.

Ten Types of Innovation is a practical and tangible tool that will help executives and managers develop and implement approaches more successfully in any context, industry or market. Learn more about the Ten Types of Innovation at http://www.doblin.com/tentypes/