Business Venture and Types of Innovation

- Overview

There are three main types of innovation: evolutionary, revolutionary, and disruptive. Evolutionary innovation focuses on incremental improvements and is the backbone of most businesses. Revolutionary innovation creates unexpected inventions that fuel both evolutionary and disruptive innovation. Disruptive innovation creates something completely new and amazing, generating new values and overtaking existing markets. 

Disruptive innovation describes the process by which a product or service takes root in simple applications at the bottom of a market - usually by becoming cheaper and more accessible - and then moves upmarket, eventually displacing established competitors.

Understanding these types of innovation helps teams figure out their goals and where their products fit in the market. 

- Revolutionary Innovation vs. Evolutionary Innovation

A revolutionary innovation refers to a radical, disruptive change that significantly alters an existing market by introducing a completely new concept or technology, while evolutionary innovation involves incremental improvements or adaptations to existing products or processes, often based on customer feedback and aimed at enhancing existing features rather than creating something entirely new. 

Key Differences:

• Impact: Revolutionary innovation can completely transform a market or industry, while evolutionary innovation gradually improves upon existing solutions.
• Risk: Revolutionary innovations carry a higher risk due to their radical nature and potential for market disruption, whereas evolutionary innovations are generally considered less risky.
• Customer Expectation: Revolutionary innovations often address needs that customers may not even be aware of yet, while evolutionary innovations focus on meeting current customer demands.
• Development Process: Revolutionary innovation often involves significant research and development, potentially requiring new technologies or approaches, while evolutionary innovation builds upon existing knowledge and technology.

For examples,

• Revolutionary Innovation: The introduction of the personal computer, the smartphone, or the internet.
  
• Evolutionary Innovation: Upgrading a smartphone camera with better resolution, adding new features to an existing software program, or improving the fuel efficiency of a car model.

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- Disruptive Innovation

Disruptive innovation is a process where a new product, service, or business model starts at the bottom of a market and eventually displaces established competitors. It's characterized by its ability to transform existing markets or create new ones. 

Disruptive innovation can be applied to many industries, including healthcare. For example, telemedicine and wearable health devices have transformed healthcare by making it more accessible, efficient, and personalized.

Here are some key characteristics of disruptive innovation:

• Smaller companies: Disruptive innovation is often carried out by smaller companies with fewer resources.
• Low-end disruption: A company can enter a market at the bottom by using a low-cost business model.
• New-market disruption: A company can create a new market segment by serving an underserved customer base.
• Different value drivers: The primary value drivers for disruptive innovation are different from those of established companies.
• Gradual process: Disruption is a gradual process that takes time and doesn't happen overnight.