Pardon the Disruption
How does Innventure manage the introduction of companies built around disruptive tech into the market?
Most investment models assume conditions won’t be affected by the introduction of a new solution. While this may be true for incremental product improvements, it is rarely the case for disruptive solutions. Cell phones have fundamentally changed the telecommunications industry. Autonomous vehicles will likely change the traditional car ownership model and will also probably disrupt the parking industry. And the market hasn’t made up its mind on whether digital currencies will make fiat currency obsolete.
When introducing a disruptive solution into the market, it is impossible to know in advance exactly how the market will react. By its very definition, disruptive solutions alter the market because it changes the way the market does things to create new value. Knowing this, Innventure uses a methodology that we like to call Adaptive Strategic Positioning.
In many cases, a product or solution may need to be modified to adapt to the changing market conditions, methods, and value realization. The Innventure team looks for market signals to adjust the solution to accommodate what the market is telling them what they believe will, in fact, create new value. An example of this is embodied in a disruptive packaging solution that we recently introduced. Initially, demonstrating that the new packing solution used less than half of the plastic of a comparable product was advantageous, both environmentally and economically — and that would be enough to compel adoption. But just as we launched the packaging technology, the consumer packaging industry announced it also required full recyclability as well in order to create purchasing incentives for a large fraction of end users. There was no way for us to see that coming. So, the package had to be redesigned to meet full curbside collection and recyclability requirements (where recycling is available).
The Innventure team has become adept at recognizing and implementing the new value-creating market demands — quickly and efficiently. How? The key is employing a team of serial CXOs that can recognize and respond to these dynamic changes, understanding it’s simply a part of introducing disruptive technology to the world. Stay tuned for another article, “Hunters & Farmers”, coming soon where we highlight why we use serial CXOs in the early phases of company startups.
