Value + Adoption
At the heart of our definition sits a simple equation worth committing to memory: Innovation = Value × Adoption. It is a product, not a sum - if either term is zero, the result is zero. A brilliant solution nobody uses is not an innovation. A widely adopted thing that creates no real value is not an innovation either (it is a fad, and it fades).
The value × adoption matrix
Unrealised potential. A great idea that failed to reach people. The value is trapped. (Many inventions live here.)
True innovation. Real value, widely adopted. This is the target - and where lasting impact lives.
Noise. Neither useful nor used. Most novelty-for-its-own-sake ends up here.
Fad. Briefly popular, ultimately hollow. Adoption without real value doesn't last.
Only the top-right quadrant - real value that is genuinely adopted - is innovation.
Value: for whom?
Value in innovation is rarely one-sided. Durable innovations create value for the customer (a need met, a job done better), for the business (revenue, margin, strategic advantage), and often for society (jobs, access, progress). When value flows only to the business and not the customer, adoption stalls. When it flows only to the customer and not the business, it is not sustainable. The best innovations align all sides.
Adoption: the hard part
Adoption is where most would-be innovations die. Getting people to change their behaviour and take up something new is genuinely difficult - it depends on the innovation's relative advantage, how well it fits existing habits, its complexity, whether it can be tried cheaply, and how visible its benefits are.[2] We will study adoption in depth in Module 7. For now, simply hold the truth that building it is not enough - it must be adopted to count.
Your team has built a technically brilliant product, but after launch, adoption is near zero. Where should you look first?
Where does your organisation more often fall short - creating genuine value, or driving real adoption? What would change if you treated adoption as seriously as building?
Sources
- Global Innovation Institute (GInI), Foundations of Innovation body of knowledge.
- Rogers, E., Diffusion of Innovations, 5th ed., 2003.
- Christensen, C., The Innovator's Dilemma, 1997.