It’s easy to spot and celebrate the innovations that change company fortunes: Apple’s iPhone, Warner-Lambert’s (and then Pfizer’s) Lipitor, Microsoft’s Windows, to name a few. What is harder to appreciate are those innovations that aren’t the blockbusters and home runs but nonetheless play a critical role in a company’s innovation strategy. I’m not talking about the incremental improvements, but rather the value of launching new products and services that hold tremendous value even though they don’t shoot for the moon.

那些改变公司命运的创新故事数不胜数并为当代人所津津乐道，比如发生在苹果iPhone，辉瑞(Pfizer)的立普妥，微软的Windows等等一些知名公司真实案例。这些创新案例虽然并不像科幻大片中所演绎的一样神奇，但却在公司创新战略中发挥关键作用。这另大众难以理解。这里指的创新不是渐进式的改进，而是那些具有巨大价值的新产品和服务。

What follows are four perfectly good reasons, aside from world domination, to pursue innovations.

如下是组织追求创新的四个必要理由：

1. Innovation as placeholder. If you already have a dominant position in your market, chances are good that when a new niche product emerges in that space, your company would rather wait to see whether it matures into a clear threat before responding. But that could be a mistake. By the time the impact of that product becomes clear, you may have lost your window to launch a version that will gain traction. Instead, consider developing and launching a me-too product. Think of it as a placeholder to keep customers from straying. Once you have made the commitment, you can begin to refine your vision and build the right capabilities.

创新是战略高地。如果你已经在你的市场中占据了主导地位，那么当一个新的创新产品出现在这个领域时，你的公司很有可能会持观望态度，看看它是否成熟到可以构成明显的威胁，然后再做出反应。但这可能是一个错误。当该产品的影响变得清晰时，你可能已经失去了发布一个能获得引导力的机会。相反，你可以考虑开发并推出一款模仿产品。可以把它看作是一个创新高地，以防止客户进入对方阵营。一旦组织对外界做出了响应，就应该马上开始完善产品的愿景并迅速建立正确的能力。

Take smartwatches for example, the market was created in 2013 with a handful of serious competitors. Pebble shipped in January 2013; by July, most of the major smartphone makers were working on their own product, and by September, the Samsung Galaxy Gear, Sony SmartWatch 2, and Qualcomm Toq were on the market, in addition to wrist-based fitness trackers. By mid-2014, Android watches by Motorola, LG, and Asus had joined the fray. But although there was no clear winner and no clear demand, the smartwatch was threatening to become a distinct market — and one largely built for Android. Apple shipped its first watch in April 2015 and, by the end of 2015, it accounted for more than 50 percent of the market. The Watch may not (yet) belong among the pantheon of Apple innovations, but it ensured that nothing else will fill that niche for iPhone users nor shape the category’s subsequent evolution.

拿smartwatches举例，该市场创建于2013年，当时只有少数几个强大的竞争对手。Pebble于2013年1月上市;到7月，大多数主要的智能手机制造商都在开发自己的产品，到9月，三星Galaxy Gear、索尼SmartWatch 2和高通Toq都上市了，此外还有基于手腕的健身追踪器。到2014年年中，摩托罗拉(Motorola)、LG和华硕(Asus)的安卓手表也加入了竞争。但是，尽管没有明确的赢家和明确的需求，智能手表正威胁着成为一个独特的市场——一个主要为Android打造的市场。苹果在2015年4月推出了首款手表，到2015年底，它占据了超过50%的市场份额。Watch可能(还)不属于苹果创新的万神殿，但它确保了没有其他产品能够填补iPhone用户的细分市场，也不会影响这一类别的后续发展。

2. Innovation as proving ground. Smaller innovation projects can provide important but affordable ways to test new technologies, market opportunities, business models, and emerging talent. The interdisciplinary nature of developing and launching a smaller-scale project, and the reality of its outcome, can plainly show how a product or service is likely to do on the Broadway stage of your market, but with a community-theater budget.

创新是试验场。较小的创新项目可以提供重要但负担得起的方式来测试新技术、市场潜在机会、商业模式和人员能力水平。拿出预算执行一个跨学科性质小规模项目，以及对其真实结果的研究，可以清楚地显示出一个产品或服务在市场上的表现。

For example, before turning out high-grossing feature films like Toy Story and Finding Nemo, Pixar made a number of short films that were relatively inexpensive and weren’t expected to turn a profit. But the shorts provided a low-cost road map to push new technologies forward and audition young directors. These kinds of projects test an organization’s ability to innovate: propelling procurement managers to work with new suppliers, materials, or processes; marketing managers to engage with new customers, channel partners, or media; manufacturing to pilot new production; and sales to roll out new offerings.

例如，在制作《玩具总动员》(Toy Story)和《海底总动员》(Finding Nemo)等票房高的长片之前，皮克斯制作了一些相对廉价的短片，人们并不指望它们能盈利。但短片提供了一个低成本的路线图，推动新技术的发展，并试镜年轻的导演。这些类型的项目测试一个组织的创新能力，从而推动采购经理与新的供应商、材料或流程合作，营销经理与新客户、渠道合作伙伴或媒体进行良好的互动，接下来试制新的影片以及推出新类型的影片。

3. Innovation as trust building. Backing an innovation isn’t a single decision. It’s a web of choices and actions to which everyone in the company must commit. That commitment is the core of the innovation process and requires enormous trust among coworkers and departments. No amount of talk can substitute for the level of trust that can be built through shared experience. If you wait for the really big innovations to form these bonds, it will be too late.

创新意味着建立信任。支持一项创新不是一个单一的决定。这是一张选择和行动的网络，公司里的每个人都必须参与其中。这种承诺是创新过程的核心，需要同事和部门之间的高度信任。再多的沟通也无法取代通过分享经验而建立起来的信任。如果你坐等真正的重大创新形成这些关系纽带，那就太晚了。

Imagine that your company is working on a project that is set to launch in just a couple of months. You discover that the various business units haven’t yet committed the necessary personnel, budget, or training time needed to meet the launch goal. Why? They don’t trust the development team or one another to deliver. If your company isn’t regularly making commitments to drive new product or process innovations, you’re losing your ability to do so. People stop believing in each new project, having learned from the last that if they just wait, this too shall pass.

假设你的公司正在进行一个项目，该项目将在几个月内发布。您发现各个业务单位还没有投入必要的人员、预算或培训时间来满足启动目标。为什么? 他们不相信开发团队或团队能够交付。如果你的公司没有定期承诺推动新产品或工艺创新，你就会失去这样做的能力。人们不再相信每一个新项目，因为他们从上一个项目中学到，如果他们选择被动等待，这阵风会过去。

4. Innovation as a long game. For many innovation projects, the need to promise a certain and significant return on investment can doom otherwise viable opportunities. The traditional planning cycle kills projects not because the outlook for them is bad, but because nothing less than an overnight blockbuster will be considered a success. It’s called “giving birth to a 17-year-old” — and the class valedictorian or captain of the football team, at that. Some things just take time. Instead of thinking about whether the first product will be a success, consider whether the first product will enable you to build the right capabilities, understand the market potential, develop key partners, and guide the market toward where you want to be in five years.

创新是一场持久战。对于许多创新项目来说，需要承诺一定的、可观的投资回报，这可能会毁掉原本可行的机会。传统的计划周期往往会扼杀项目。并不是因为项目前景不好，而是因为只有一夜成名的大片才能被认为是成功的。有些事情就是需要时间的。不要考虑第一个产品是否会成功，而要考虑第一个产品是否能让你建立正确的能力，了解市场潜力，发展关键合作伙伴，并引导市场在五年内达到你的目标。

想想丰田是如何将普锐斯引入美国市场的吧。混合动力汽车代表了一个新的类别，在这个类别中，消费者持怀疑态度，动力差，市场价格意味着丰田每售出一辆普锐斯就要损失1万美元。从长远来看，该公司通过将最初的可用性限制在少数几个关键市场来降低预期。普锐斯的年销量在2010年达到顶峰，销量接近51万辆，但这种混合动力技术的影响要广泛得多。自普锐斯推出以来，丰田已经在全球销售了900多万辆混合动力汽车，其中仅2015年就销售了120多万辆。

轰动一时的作品固然不错，但请记住，一些最好的创意的起源要卑微得多。微软的Surface目前在笔记本电脑市场占有53%的份额，预计到2020年将达到75%。从2001年推出的最初版本的Windows平板电脑销量不佳的情况来看，这很难预测。但公司一直在学习。Surface Pro 4和Surface Book目前的成功反映了在控制硬件、重新思考操作系统和设计整体体验方面获得的宝贵经验。

不要陷入坚持每个创新想法都必须看起来像之前成功的案例一样，更不要非要追求一战成功。一项创新不需要有多么宏伟的开头也不需要带着明确的使命。更大程度上，它只是一个“异想天开”的想法。