Companies typically invest in three types of innovation project:
Core – These projects improve existing products, often for existing customers.
Adjacent – These projects expand into new business areas that are incremental or adjacent to the current offerings. They are aimed at new customers or markets close to the existing customer base.
Transformation – These projects are about breakthrough innovations and inventing new things that don’t exist yet. They create new markets and new products.
To get a balanced innovation portfolio an organisation should invest in all these areas. This diagram summarizes this approach: