--- title: The Danger of Too Much Business Innovation Too Soon description: Innovation for innovation’s sake isn’t always a good thing. To be an effective business innovation infrastructure, systems, and the market have to be ready image: https://www.advantexe.com/hubfs/Blogs/business-innovation.jpg --- [![logo-advantexe-150.png](https://www.advantexe.com/hs-fs/hubfs/logo-advantexe-150.png?width=150&height=123&name=logo-advantexe-150.png "logo-advantexe-150.png")](https://www.advantexe.com) ![blog-banner-2022](https://www.advantexe.com/hs-fs/hubfs/blog-banner-2022.png?width=973&name=blog-banner-2022.png "blog-banner-2022") ### The Advantexe Advisor Blog - providing a deep and applicable understanding of the system of business. # The Danger of Too Much Business Innovation Too Soon By Robert Brodo | Dec 22, 2016 9:14:15 AM | [![Share on Facebook](https://static.hubspot.com/final/img/common/icons/social/facebook-24x24.png)](http://www.facebook.com/share.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.advantexe.com%2Fblog%2Fthe-danger-of-too-much-business-innovation-too-soon%3Futm_medium%3Dsocial%26utm_source%3Dfacebook) [![Share on LinkedIn](https://static.hubspot.com/final/img/common/icons/social/linkedin-24x24.png)](http://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.advantexe.com%2Fblog%2Fthe-danger-of-too-much-business-innovation-too-soon%3Futm_medium%3Dsocial%26utm_source%3Dlinkedin) [![Share on Twitter](https://static.hubspot.com/final/img/common/icons/social/twitter-24x24.png)](https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?original_referer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.advantexe.com%2Fblog%2Fthe-danger-of-too-much-business-innovation-too-soon%3Futm_medium%3Dsocial%26utm_source%3Dtwitter&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.advantexe.com%2Fblog%2Fthe-danger-of-too-much-business-innovation-too-soon%3Futm_medium%3Dsocial%26utm_source%3Dtwitter&source=tweetbutton&text=The%20Danger%20of%20Too%20Much%20Business%20Innovation%20Too%20Soon) [![Share on Pinterest](https://static.hubspot.com/final/img/common/icons/social/pinterest-24x24.png)](http://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.advantexe.com%2Fblog%2Fthe-danger-of-too-much-business-innovation-too-soon%3Futm_medium%3Dsocial%26utm_source%3Dpinterest&media=) [![Share on Email](https://static.hubspot.com/final/img/common/icons/social/email-24x24.png)](mailto:?subject=Check%20out%20https%3A%2F%2Fwww.advantexe.com%2Fblog%2Fthe-danger-of-too-much-business-innovation-too-soon%3Futm_medium%3Dsocial%26utm_source%3Demail%20&body=Check%20out%20https%3A%2F%2Fwww.advantexe.com%2Fblog%2Fthe-danger-of-too-much-business-innovation-too-soon%3Futm_medium%3Dsocial%26utm_source%3Demail) **3 observations about being ahead of markets before they are ready** Microsoft, Apple, Uber, Google, and Amazon are names of companies that quickly come to mind when![business-innovation.jpg](https://www.advantexe.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Blogs/business-innovation.jpg?width=240&height=240&name=business-innovation.jpg) thinking about examples of companies that launch new innovative products and solutions that seemingly hit the market at the right time and deliver to customers something new, unique, scalable, and profitable. But as we know, for every one of these successful companies, there are thousands of companies and products that have failed because the business innovation was too soon for the market to absorb or embrace. The issues of too much business innovation too soon came up last week in a discussion during a [Business Acumen](https://www.advantexe.com/blog/defining-business-acumen) leadership development workshop.  The workshop was being delivered to a group of high potential leaders and our learning objectives was to provide [Business Acumen skill](https://www.advantexe.com/business-acumen) develop through [business simulation-centric learning](https://www.advantexe.com/the-power-of-practice-business-simulations).  One of the teams running their own simulated company decided to aggressively pursue the development of a well-beyond next generation product in a new category in a new market; all three challenging endeavors under the best of circumstances. This simulated organization’s core products – Good and Sweet – had become very commoditized so the leadership team decided to make a huge bet and invest in a product called Super Awesome that was at least three generations beyond the closest technology.  Unfortunately for this simulation team the product was a disaster as the infrastructure, systems, and market was just not ready yet.  In our debriefing, we discussed some real-world examples that were similar. **The Apple Newton** This “Personal Digital Assistant” (PDA) was the pre-cursor to the smartphone.  The problem was it was invented before the internet and before mobile phone technology could be integrated into a hand-held device. **Sixdegrees.com** A social media tool based on the game “six degrees of Kevin Bacon” was the precursor to Facebook.  The problem was it focused on identifying how people were connected, not connecting people. **AskJeeves.com** A search engine tool that was the precursor to Google.  The problem was the ideas was great but the technology and algorithms driving it didn’t work very well Based on the lessons of the real-world and the lessons from the simulation, there are a few key learning points about leading innovation: **Market data and voice of customer may say there is a need but that doesn’t mean customers will buy.** You can do all of the research in the world and talk to as many prospective customers as you want to accumulate voice of customer data but that is no guarantee they will actually buy a new product when it is launched.  Early adopters tend to buy no matter what, but you need to understand how big that segment is and is there strong spillover to follower segments? **The product / service has to work flawlessly** This one should go without saying but you would be surprised at the number of organizations that launch half-baked products to get them into the market first and to gather user data.  Most of the time that doesn’t work and in today’s world of fast followership the next best solution is already being developed. **There needs to be an infrastructure and adjacent markets for growth** Great products aren’t great just by themselves.  They need infrastructure and adjacent market growth.  Take the electronic car industry for example.  Even the best of them can drive on the highway for 3 hours until they need a charge.  A mature and growing adjacent market would be charging stations on highways but we have yet to see them… In summary, innovation for innovation’s sake isn’t always a good thing.  It is possible to be too early to a market and part of being an effective leader is being able to match the timing of the innovation to the timing of customers and adjacent markets to support the innovation. [![New Call-to-action](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/1153922/0c16923c-22a8-440a-96e8-d2f08b02e7d2.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/1153922/0c16923c-22a8-440a-96e8-d2f08b02e7d2) ![Robert Brodo](https://www.advantexe.com/hubfs/Blogs/rob-brodo-author.png) **About The Author** Robert Brodo is co-founder of Advantexe. He has more than 20 years of training and business simulation experience. [**](https://www.advantexe.com) [**](https://twitter.com/robrodo) [**](https://www.linkedin.com/pub/rob-brodo/0/334/574) COMMENTS ### SUBSCRIBE VIA EMAIL ### About Advantexe Advantexe is a gold medal winning training and performance improvement organization specializing in the development and delivery of interactive learning journeys using computer-based business simulations as the catalyst for learning and change in the areas of: Business Acumen, Business Leadership, and Strategic Business Selling learning solutions. 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