This new way of shaping strategy can show you the next big thing, long before it has a name and a whole host of competitors. But that insight still doesn't solve the vexing cultural and accounting problems that plague most firms innovation choices: senior executives have to be incentivized to create hot new platforms that are newsworthy, not just get paid for driving growth in the familiar ways that drove value yesterday.
Will this latest strategic fashion make a difference? It already does. Will it be a fashionable way to think for long? Who knows? Surely, I don't. That's the trouble with fashion. Something new is usually just moments away. But for now this is a solid way of thinking for those looking for the future to show up a little ahead of its regularly scheduled arrival. That, at least, will never go out of style.
Larry Keeley is co-founder of Doblin Inc, a part of Monitor Group, where he is a partner and thought leader in the Innovation practice. He has focused on pioneering innovation effectiveness methods for three decades.
