Why Innovation Programs and Initiatives Fail

Understanding why new and innovative ideas fail in established organizations is essential to the successful design and delivery of innovation and new idea incubation initiatives. But it’s not enough. There are a multitude of potential risks related to the initiatives themselves. Failure to anticipate and mitigate those risks can lead to an initiative’s rapid, and potentially spectacular, demise. This chapter introduces the major classes of risk to innovation and new idea incubation initiatives. It breaks each risk down and describes why the initiatives themselves often fail so that you can recognize and mitigate those risks as you build your own.