Mining the Periphery for New Products

Revolutionary products often come from upstart players or companies outside the industry, while mainstream operators follow a risk-averse path of concentrating on their current business. This article urges companies to channel resources into looking at the periphery for ideas that could be profit-drivers of the future. It suggests three strategies for finding new products: frame the landscape; develop game-changing hypotheses; and use targeted hunting. It concludes by saying that these approaches will encourage managers to combine broad searching and thinking with focused evaluation and execution.