On the surface, driving innovation seems like an undertaking that folks would rally around and embrace. However, the reality of driving innovation in business is that new concepts are often based on theory. Like predicting the stock market or sporting events - there are no guarantees. From intuition to analysis, there are many approaches taken to assess innovation opportunities, then rank them along with other activities on the aggregate plate of a business.
Factor in that decision makers are typically compensated and rewarded by their measurable impact to driving new revenues and/or reducing costs, the champions of innovation face the extra hurdle of enlisting support for undertakings that typically have out-year break-even results. From start-ups to major corporations, the drill and obstacles to overcome are similar (although in a corporate setting, another issue relates to also 'competing' with legacy offerings that ... although late in their life cycles ... still may view innovation as a cannibalization threat). Harvard Business School Professor Clayton Christensen introduced this concept in his 1995 article Disruptive Technologies: Catching the Wave, which he coauthored with Joseph Bower.
From my experiences, challenges for innovators are relentless, so if you know you are on to a breakthrough idea/concept/business model, a vital key to successfully driving your innovation is to have a passion for determined persistence.
