The Need for a New Approach

Success rates across all types of human enterprise are low, and failing to improve: Innovation success rates are generally below 10%, and even when venture capitalists are carefully monitoring their investments, less than a third of innovations succeed. The vast majority (96%) of innovation efforts fail to beat their ROI targets (Doblin Group, 2005, 2012). The majority of enterprises report dissatisfaction with innovation performance (Arthur D. Little, 2013). Three-quarters of the CEOs of multinationals view external collaborative innovation as vitally important, but only half do it, and they only rate themselves as doing it “moderately well” (IBM, 2006). Eight out of ten new enterprises fail within 18 months (Wagner, 2013). Two-thirds of organizational “change” efforts fail (Kotter, 2008). Most marketing investments don’t deliver desired results — “95 percent of what we’re doing doesn’t work” (Pritchard, 2011). Only a minority of innovative ideas ever see the light of day and successful commercialization, even within leading innovators such as 3M and Google. Most enterprises don’t achieve sustainable competitive differentiation and advantage. Mature businesses often struggle to maintain “the love,” growth, and relevance. The public sector isn’t making enough progress in efforts to do more with less, even with input from highly successful private sector entrepreneurs and change agents. We’re facing a global crisis in youth unemployment, potentially creating a generation that’s economically left behind — a lack of job creation that is arguably a failure of entrepreneurship. In fact, mediocre results plague all sectors of human enterprise.