The BCG consultants Ringel, Baeza, Panandiker and Harnoss published the study “The Serial Innovation Imperative. The most innovative companies 2020”.

Facing turbulent and fast-changing markets, innovators need a well-tuned innovation system that can spot emerging product, service, and business model opportunities—and then rapidly develop and successfully scale them—over and over again.

Successful serial innovators get three things right:

  1. They “Walk the Talk”: Innovation success starts with commitment—making innovation a priority and investing decisively behind that ambition. And boldness—being willing to pursue opportunities beyond your core. While 60% of companies rank innovation as a top 3 priority, not all walk the talk.
  2. They Embrace the Benefits of Scale: Despite the conventional wisdom, larger companies pre-COVID-19 were not statistically disadvantaged on innovation versus smaller rivals. There are reasons to believe larger companies may now have an edge in developing winning products, services, and business models.
  3. They Calibrate Their Innovation Systems for Success: You need a well-tuned system to drive a cycle of perpetual success. Ensuring that the “machine that makes the machine” embraces best practices and is internally consistent across all dimensions is essential.

Explore the capabilities that drive serial innovation success: