NO WAY THAT WILL FLY! ORGANIZING THE FUZZY FRONT END OF RADICAL INNOVATION

Abstract

Today, the technology development is moving at a high speed. Companies today all work with innovation to some extent, and some companies also engage with radical innovation. Radical innovation is, according to many scholars, an area that needs different development methods and processes than those for incremental innovation. In order to understand how radical innovation development is ignited, the Fuzzy Front End framework was constructed by Reid and Brentani (2004). The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the early stages of processes in radical innovation development, in large incumbent companies, can be constructed in order to successfully develop radical innovation. This was investigated through a qualitative study with the means of multiple case studies and expert consultation. Four findings have been obtained. The first finding reveals that the definition of radical innovation depends on which industries companies are in, and also what the technological competences of the companies are. Secondly, the advantages and disadvantages with radical innovation development that companies identify similarly depend on which industry and context the companies are in. The third finding suggests that companies should ease the flow of ideas between the environment, the individual and the organization. A model was constructed in order to highlight the path that radical innovation has to take in order to be realized. The last finding highlights the importance of the individual and stresses that the empowerment of individuals to develop projects that she has passion for while also restricting her less, will most likely increase the radical innovation development within the whole organization.