Innovativeness & Opposition to Innovation

Foundations of Business Development - NIT Northern Institute of Technology / TUHH, Hamburg · part of my Technology Management MBA · study notes for revision.

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Chapter 1 said the entrepreneur’s job is to spot an opportunity and act on it. This chapter zooms in on a question that quietly decides how hard that job will be: how new is the idea, really? Two ideas can both be “innovations” and yet be worlds apart in cost, time, risk and how fiercely people push back. So we first learn to measure newness along a few dimensions, then face the uncomfortable truth that follows from it - the more novel an idea is, the more it gets resisted - and what to do about that resistance.

Tip

The thread that runs through the whole chapter: measuring innovativeness is not an academic exercise. Knowing how new an idea is - and to whom - lets you predict its development cost and time, how fast the market will adopt it, and how much opposition it will trigger, inside and outside your organisation. Novelty is where the reward is; it is also where the resistance is. Both have to be managed.

1 · Innovation comes in many forms

Before measuring newness, it helps to remember that an innovation isn’t only a shiny new product. It can live in several places:

Product e.g. antigen testService e.g. Moia mobilityProduct-service hybrid e.g. Apple PayProcess / structure e.g. 3D printingBusiness model e.g. SaaS licensing

Innovation can sit in the offering itself, in how it is produced, or in how it is sold and charged for. The Doblin group famously stretches this to “ten types of innovation”.

Two ideas to hold on to before we go further:

• Innovation is more than invention. An invention is a new technical idea; an innovation is that idea actually exploited in the market. In shorthand: innovation = invention + exploitation. And crucially, an innovation does not always need an invention - recombining existing things can be innovation enough.
• Incremental versus radical. Picture technology performance rising along an S-curve (slow start, steep middle, plateau). An incremental innovation is a step along the current curve - a bit better, faster, cheaper. A radical innovation starts a whole new curve - a new technological principle that can eventually make the old one obsolete.

2 · The four dimensions of “how new?”

Here is the core tool of the chapter. “Innovativeness” is multi-dimensional - an idea can be barely new on one axis and wildly new on another - so we assess it from four angles. The same idea gets a different score depending on whose eyes you borrow.

1 · New technological solution? the engineer’s view

• Uses a new technological principle?
• A quantum leap in performance - better, faster, smaller, cheaper, more reliable?
• Makes the “old” technology obsolete?

2 · New for the customer? the user’s view

• Solves an urgent, unmet problem?
• Benefit-to-cost ratio: does the extra benefit outweigh the customer’s cost of switching?
• Forces new mental models, new routines, heavy learning?

3 · New to industry & environment? the market’s view

• Endangers established value chains?
• Changes the rules of the competitive game?
• Clashes with current regulation, or needs new infrastructure?

4 · New for the innovating firm? the company’s own view

• Forces a change in firm identity or strategy?
• Calls for new organisational structures?
• Requires new knowledge, new partners, new networks?

The four dimensions of innovativeness. A “10 out of 10” on one axis and a “2” on another is completely normal - and that mix is exactly what tells you how to manage the project.

Note

Technological newness is not the same as value. More technical features do not automatically mean more perceived quality, and better performance on a datasheet does not automatically mean more customer value. Malcolm McLean’s shipping container carried no new physics at all, yet it was radically innovative for the industry - it rewrote global logistics. Score each dimension on its own; don’t let a strong engineering story flatter the others.

The customer dimension deserves a second look, because it is the one founders most often get wrong. A customer weighs a new offering as a benefit-to-cost ratio, and “cost” here is much more than price. Adoption is expensive whenever it demands:

Hidden cost of adoption	What the customer has to do
Mental-model change	Rethink how a task “should” work - unlearn an old picture
Behavioural change	Rewire daily routines, processes, habits
Learning effort	Acquire real new knowledge and skills before any payoff

That is why the QWERTY keyboard has survived for roughly 140 years despite faster layouts existing: the switching cost (everyone re-learning) dwarfs the modest benefit. High innovativeness for the customer is a warning light, not a bragging point.

3 · Consequences: novelty cuts both ways

Now the payoff of all that measuring. Scoring the four dimensions lets you predict how the project will behave - and manage it accordingly. The higher an idea scores, the higher its potential reward, but also the higher its uncertainty, its adoption time, and the resistance it meets.

Creating genuinely new business high innovativeness

• Uncertain and risky
• Pays off only mid- to long-term
• Needs upfront investment
• Disturbs routines; forces change
• Often starts small, with thin margins

Strengthening the existing core low innovativeness

• Familiar and rather certain
• Returns show up short-term
• Reliable return on investment
• Fits current routines, tools, culture
• Easy to plan and defend internally

Same company, two very different risk profiles. A highly innovative project can’t be run like a core-business project - it needs a different form of project, a different budget logic, and a realistic time-to-market.

There is also a context check: even a brilliant idea flops if the world isn’t ready for it. Before betting on a novel offering, ask whether the surrounding conditions actually allow adoption - across three fronts:

Readiness front	Questions to ask
Technology & infrastructure	Is the enabling infrastructure in place and accessible? Are complementary technologies available?
Market & customer	Can target customers pay? Do they understand the benefit? Will partners (distributors, installers) adopt it too?
Regulation	Do current laws and rules permit it - or block it?

Caution

Higher score, different management. The point of the four dimensions is operational: a project that is highly novel to the firm needs new capabilities and a change-management plan; one that is highly novel to customers needs patient adoption support; one that is novel to the industry will provoke incumbents. You measure so you can staff, budget and time the project honestly - not to win an “innovativeness” contest.

4 · Opposition to innovation: why people resist

Here is the hard part. The problem is rarely the idea - it is the people who meet the idea. New qualities are cognitively hard to grasp, and change threatens something almost everyone holds: their comfort, their skills, their power. Even Steve Ballmer publicly laughed at the first iPhone; Polaroid, staring straight at digital photography, kept polishing film. When people can’t build a “faster horse”, they defend the horse.

Three insights explain why resistance is the default, not the exception:

1 · Novelty is hard to grasp

• Understanding the new qualities of an innovation is cognitively complex.
• People judge the new thing with old categories - and find it wanting.

2 · Inside-focus blinds

• A firm absorbed in its own routines stops reading external signals.
• Polaroid saw digital photography coming and still missed it.

3 · Fear of losing

• Beyond confusion sits real fear - of cost, effort and lost status.
• ”Why would I rewrite my skills for an unproven device?”

Cognitive difficulty, organisational blindness and fear of loss stack on top of one another - which is why even smart, well-run firms resist good ideas.

Resistance shows up on two sides, and it pays to keep them apart:

Demand side the customers / users who must adopt

• High switching costs: new routines, retraining, retooling
• ”The new thing isn’t better enough to justify the risk”
• Fear of writing off hard-won skills
• Functional fixedness - can’t picture a different way

Supply side the people inside the innovating firm

• The innovation could cannibalise a profitable business
• It devalues existing resources and capabilities
• New markets start small, at lower margins
• Threat to power, jobs, budgets and routines

Opposition is not just “customers being slow”. Some of the fiercest resistance comes from inside - colleagues who stand to lose from the very idea you are championing.

Cutting across both sides, the reasons group into three families:

Type of reason	What is really going on	Typical voice
Cognitive	The novelty is genuinely hard to understand; people sit in a mental comfort zone and lack the knowledge to judge it	”I don’t see how this even works.”
Economic	Real money is at stake - cannibalised profits, devalued assets, sunk investments in the status quo, thin early margins	”The added value doesn’t justify the investment.”
Social / political	The idea threatens power, status, jobs and routines - plus envy and the low legitimacy granted to whoever proposed it	”Not invented here - why should we follow them?”

Note

The “not-invented-here” reflex. Ideas born elsewhere get a hostile reception simply because they weren’t ours - a social barrier dressed up as a technical objection. It is one reason the inventor’s standing matters as much as the invention’s merit: a proposal from a low-status source is judged more harshly than the same proposal from an authority.

5 · Measures to overcome opposition

Resistance is normal - every substantial innovation faces it - so treat it as a task, not an insult. The playbook falls into three moves: adjust your own attitude, make others understand, and turn opponents into allies.

First, adapt your style: cool down (resistance is expected); genuinely listen to the arguments (you might be wrong too); and diagnose which reason you are facing - fear, ignorance, or hard economics - because each needs a different answer.

Then match the counter-measure to the reason:

Reason for resistance	What actually helps
Cognitive - “I don’t get it”	Speak in their mental models: use concepts, terms and logic they already own. Show real things - prototypes, simulations, live customers - not just numbers and slide decks.
Doubt - “prove it”	Be factual; provide proof for your key claims. Start a small, irreversible pilot that quietly proves you right.
Complacency - “why change?”	Create a sense of urgency: make the cost of the do-nothing scenario vivid and concrete.
Fear of loss - “I’ll lose out”	Address the losers directly. Emphasise the benefit for those who must contribute; let them win too. Design the change so it doesn’t gut their position.
Political / status	Find allies - a powerful internal sponsor (“power promoter”), plus external voices (customers, distributors, experts). Share the credit; make respected authorities co-owners of the idea.

Tip

Let them win too. The single most useful line in this section. Opposition driven by fear of losing evaporates when the “loser” is given a genuine stake in the win - a role, credit, a protected budget. Overcoming resistance is less about arguing harder and more about redesigning the deal so fewer people have a reason to fight you.

6 · Stakeholder analysis

All of this needs to be organised, and the tool for that is stakeholder analysis - treating the people around an innovation as deliberately as you treat the technology.

Stakeholder management means identifying every individual, group or organisation that will be affected by the innovation and could influence whether it succeeds - then working out how to handle each. The routine is four steps:

1 · List every stakeholderanyone who affects, or is affected by, the rollout

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2 · Read their interestsare they aligned with - or endangered by - the idea?

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3 · Rate their powerhow much can they help or block you?

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4 · Decide your actionmeet, realign, fight or circumvent each one

Stakeholder analysis in four moves - from a raw list of names to a concrete action per person.

The output is best drawn as a two-by-two grid: a stakeholder’s influence (low or high) against their attitude (for or against). Where they land tells you how to spend your limited attention.

Attitude →   supportive (left)  ·  opposed (right)

Promoters high influence · for

• Use as supporters. Your engine - give them a visible role and keep them close.

Powerful opponents high influence · against

• Realign, convince - or isolate / circumvent. The group that can kill the project; win them over first.

Goodwill, little clout low influence · for

• Keep satisfied. Friendly but weak; keep them informed and happy at low cost.

Minor sceptics low influence · against

• Monitor. Low effort - watch quietly in case their power grows.

Power × attitude. Effort flows to the top row - high-influence people - and above all to the powerful opponents, who decide whether the innovation lives.

Caution

Structural blockers count as stakeholders too. Resistance isn’t always a person with an opinion - sometimes it’s how the org is wired. Silo budgeting is the classic trap: a hospital innovation that costs one department (say, surgery) more but saves another (recovery) far more still gets blocked, because no single budget owner sees the whole gain. Map the budget lines, not just the people, and manage the seams between them.

Revision summary

Tip

The one-minute recap

• Innovation = invention + exploitation. It can live in a product, service, process or business model; incremental = a step along the S-curve, radical = a whole new curve.
• Assess innovativeness on four dimensions: new to the technology, the customer, the industry/environment, and the innovating firm. The same idea scores differently on each - and technical newness is not the same as customer value.
• Consequences: higher novelty means higher reward and higher uncertainty, longer adoption, more resistance. Measure it so you can budget, staff and time the project honestly - and check the world is ready (technology, market, regulation).
• Opposition comes from a demand side (switching costs, fear, functional fixedness) and a supply side (cannibalisation, devalued skills, threat to power/jobs). Reasons group as cognitive, economic, social/political - plus the not-invented-here reflex.
• Measures: adapt your style; make people understand (their mental models, real prototypes, an irreversible pilot, a sense of urgency); and let the losers win too - find allies and share the credit.
• Stakeholder analysis: list → read interests → rate power → decide action, then map everyone on a power × attitude grid (promoters, powerful opponents, keep-satisfied, monitor). Manage the people - and the budget silos - as deliberately as the technology.

Next: Recognising Opportunities → - where new business opportunities actually come from.