Designing a Competitive Innovation Portfolio

Digital innovation[foot]Digital innovation describes a generative process, as well as its end result: any new (for the company) or significantly improved product, service, or process that relies in large part on digital technologies such as social, mobile, cloud computing, analytics, and/or the Internet of Things (IoT).[/foot] is a top business priority for companies seeking to better understand and competitively address the changing needs of customers and employees. Most companies are spending more money than they have previously on a “portfolio” of innovation efforts—but these efforts are often uncoordinated. Few companies have a coherent view of their innovation portfolio; even fewer understand the portfolio’s impact.

MIT CISR surveyed 201 companies, one respondent per company, across a wide range of industries on their innovation investments and practices.[foot]MIT CISR Survey on Digital Innovation, September–November 2016 (N=201); respondents were CIOs or their equivalents from companies based globally, though predominantly in the United States and Europe.[/foot] Respondents reported their business performance relative to competitors. Additionally, we drew on qualitative data from more than thirty companies regarding how their innovation practices have changed.[foot]Qualitative data, collected by MIT CISR research scientists from 2015 to 2017, were sourced from the center’s Designing Digital Organizations, Supply Orchestration, and Expanding Digital Innovation projects.[/foot] From these combined results we were able to identify what investments and practices distinguish the most and least competitive companies across a range of performance outcomes.[foot]The research findings in this briefing are the result of a team effort. I am grateful to Dr. Alejandro Neut of BBVA Research for his collaboration and his contributions to the statistical analysis; as well as to my MIT CISR colleagues for their help in framing and communicating the results.[/foot]

PORTFOLIO ALLOCATION, RATHER THAN TOTAL SPEND, IS WHAT MATTERS

Among our respondents, total spend on digital was not a competitive differentiator. The average amount spent on digital innovation varied by industry and company size; but comparatively, controlling for these demographics and along multiple performance outcomes, the most competitive companies did not spend significantly more on digital innovation than the least competitive companies.

COMPETITIVE COMPANIES REALIZE SYNERGIES ACROSS ALL FOUR TYPES OF INNOVATION

Our qualitative data revealed that competitiveness is not simply a matter of investing in digital innovation selectively, but also of realizing synergies across all four types of innovation.

CarMax, the largest retailer of used cars in the United States, was founded in 1993 in Richmond, Virginia. By April 2017, CarMax was reporting net sales and operating revenues of $15.88 billion—a year-on-year increase of 5%. The company had a Net Promoter Score of 81 (at the time, better Amazon. com or Apple) and had earned a spot in FORTUNE’s 100 Best Companies to Work For list for thirteen consecutive years.[foot]Kimberly A. Whitler, “The Next Generation of Customer Centricity: A Methodology to Drive Rapid Innovation,” Forbes, September 25, 2016.[/foot]

CarMax has prioritized investments in employee experience[foot]For more on employee experience, see K. Dery and I.M. Sebastian, “Building Business Value with Employee Experience,” MIT Sloan CISR Research Briefing Vol. XVII, No. 6, June 2017.[/foot] in order to produce a competitive portfolio aimed at customer satisfaction. CarMax used an integrated approach when assembling its portfolio of digital innovation activities. For example, to deliver a competitive customer experience, the company reorganized the employee experience around product teams empowered to “operate like small startups.”

CarMax also upgraded its technology platforms to empower product teams. Once it did, online product teams could engage in A/B testing, proving and validating an idea within a matter of hours rather than over days, weeks, or months.

The benefits reaped by Monsanto Company Inc. from its investments in new business models demonstrate why such investments are important to a competitive portfolio. New business model investments have helped Monsanto, a leading global provider of agricultural products for farmers, identify and prioritize improvements to business processes and tools that enable employees to innovate in an iterative manner with evidence.

For example, the IT group integrated multiple internal and external sources of data and made the data accessible to cross-functional product teams via APIs. This enabled the teams to iterate through prototypes of new services and business models faster and with better evidence, and to sin- gle out the least and most promising prototypes for discontinuation and improvement respectively.

Notably, both Monsanto and CarMax have invested in all four types of digital innovation. Each company’s IT groups have collaborated at both the team and senior management levels to realize complementarities across the different types of innovation.

DESIGN AN INNOVATION PORTFOLIO

To be competitive in the digital economy, a company needs to design its innovation portfolio purposefully. Our key recommendations are:

• Invest in all four types of digital innovation.
• Capitalize on synergies across the four types of digital innovation, specifying who will identify and orchestrate the synergies and how they will do this.
• Nurture investments in the employee experience and new business models:
  • Ensure that teams are sufficiently empowered to innovate iteratively with evidence.
  • Make investments in new business models to help identify and prioritize operational improvements that could enable future sources of revenue.

Amidst the uncharted waters in the sea of digital innovation, a company can use an innovation portfolio of coordinated investments as a compass to navigate towards the company’s most important business objectives.

© 2017 MIT Sloan Center for Information Systems Research, Fonstad. MIT CISR Research Briefings are published monthly to update the center's patrons and sponsors on current research projects.