Business Innovation 101: Remember the Roomba the Robo-vac?

Remember Roomba the Robo-vac?

Well, now we’ve got the Robo-mower and I want to take this opportunity to share a bit about how to differentiate your business with creative and innovative product or service development.

Here are 4 ways to create differentiation through product/service innovation in your business:
1. Addition/Bundling: Product + Add-on Product or Product + Service
2. Subtraction: Old business model minus superflous element
3. Transfer: Apply established (old) concept to a new market niche/ application
4. Engrafting: Bring new concept to an old market.
5. Pure innovation: Bring a new concept to a newly defined market.

So for example:
Addition: Circus + Ballet/Opera = Cirque Du Soleil
Subtraction: Old Insurance company – Insurance agent middlemen = GEICO
Transfer: Mail Order club (old concept) + Movie rental (new market) = Netflix
Engrafting: Mall (new concept) + church (old market) = Modern mega-church
Pure innovation: Peer to peer lending + Internet banking = VirginMoney

These might be slightly rough examples but the most important reason they are listed is to jog your creativity and inspire you to think about how you can apply business model innovation to your business.

If you’re a student of marketing, some of the elements above probably remind you of the marketing strategy tool known as the Ansoff Matrix…