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on Innovation

An interesting article on incubators, proof of concepts, innovation and 'laying eggs' on the 'process of innovation' blog has me thinking about innovating, incubating etc. I have had a couple of conversations with Mike (author of the article) recently in relation to what incubators etc are all about. Mike uses the analogy of the egg incubator. The end product in this case is the chicken, which I suppose could be considered the 'end product' or something that you could take to the market. Mike talks about understanding what your end product really is, be it the chook or maybe a piece of software. Do you want to sell the software or could you 'open source' it and leverage the expertise you have gained in developing it through implementation and support services. How about keeping the 'chook', let it lay more eggs and get some re-use going? An important concept for me with innovating is the discovery process. You may find out along the way that lots of people have the ability to incubate 'chooks' and the end product may be one of many in a very fierce, competitive marketplace. However, you may have some differentiators that are worth exploring. It could turn out that you build very good 'hen houses' or hatcheries that provide a safe, warm incubating environment or your management processes are leading practice. By examining your incubating environment it may turn out that you discover you have many more interesting and valuable assets that you could take to your market. Cheers, Jerry.

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