How long is a new venture new?

How long does something stay new in your industry?

If innovation is something new that creates value, then how come so many initiatives are worthy of being labelled as "innovative" while their core ideas are not considered new?

First, we ought to think of novelty here as a stage, rather than in term of time elapsed. We can consider something new, as long as there is no widespread awareness and adoption of it in the field itself—by the customers, suppliers, and other ecosystem players.

Second, innovations also encompass less visible changes, like changes in communications, pricing strategies, cost structures, relationships among the actors, and similar.

Lastly, and perhaps most important for established enterprises, is the parallel with start-ups. A venture cannot be a start-up forever. It shouldn't be either. Steve Blank said it best—a start-up is a venture seeking a repeatable business model.

Incumbents launch dozens and dozens of innovation initiatives, ventures, programmes, and similar. But they rarely consider when will they stop considering them "new."

This, seemingly unimportant distinction is in fact critical for the future. If an innovation does succeed, then it will stop being innovative and will become part of the core business! It will become the new normal.

If something is a "new" venture for thirty years, then we must pause and reflect why is it so. Are we taking it seriously? Does a real opportunity exist at all? Why is adoption not there? What is the awareness like? Are we the right host for this venture?

And if the answers are no, then we have multiple options at our disposal, from investing more to develop the venture to develop it further, to winding it down, to selling it to some who will grow it better.

So, how many "new" innovations and ventures are in your portfolio?