Top-Down & Bottom-Up
Where do the ideas that fill the horizons come from? There are two sources, and the best organisations use both. Top-down innovation is directed by leadership from strategy and market insight. Bottom-up innovation bubbles up from frontline staff close to customers and problems. Each has strengths and blind spots; a hybrid approach captures the best of both.
Top-down
Directed by leadership from strategy, market research, and high-level insight.
Good for: H2 and H3 - the strategic, emerging-market bets that need executive vision and cross-cutting research.
Bottom-up
Bubbling up from frontline staff who see customer needs and problems first-hand.
Good for: H1 - the immediate, real-world improvements and opportunities the frontline spots daily. Also drives engagement.
The hybrid that works
Neither approach alone is ideal. Many organisations find the best pattern is to drive the horizons differently: feed Horizon 1 with a mix of bottom-up (say, 80%) and top-down (20%) input, since frontline staff naturally surface immediate, H1-aligned opportunities; and feed Horizons 2 and 3 primarily top-down, since the emerging-market insight and cross-cutting research they need usually comes from executives closest to high-level strategy.
| Pipeline | Typical input mix | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Horizon 1 | ~80% bottom-up, 20% top-down | Frontline sees immediate needs; drives engagement |
| Horizon 2 | Primarily top-down | Needs emerging-market insight and strategy |
| Horizon 3 | Primarily top-down | Needs long-range vision and cross-cutting research |
Does your organisation lean too far top-down or bottom-up? Are your H2/H3 bets getting the strategic, top-down input they need - and is the frontline's H1 insight actually captured?
Sources
- Global Innovation Institute (GInI), Foundations of Innovation body of knowledge.
- Baghai, Coley & White, The Alchemy of Growth, 1999.
- Hamel, G., The Future of Management, 2007 (bottom-up innovation).