The opportunity helix

Innovation, as an outcome, is something new that creates value. It can be in a form of a new product, service, venture, business, so on and so forth. From process perspective, innovation is about transforming ideas into tangible value.

In order to do so, we have to have practices for discovering opportunities, as well as practices for capitalising on those opportunities. These two practice areas are not linear, e.g. discovery » capitalisation. Rather, they are entwined and interconnected, much like a double helix.

There ought to be a continuous opportunity discovery process, in order to allow us to match the promising opportunities with the right ideas and resources, in turn giving us a chance to capitalise on them. There is little room for a fixed, closed systems in such a set-up. Instead, we must establish a flow of information, so we can act in time, and make the best possible decision we can.