Risk Matrix, The

Program Highlights

• How to manage growth as a process in a risk-averse climate
• When safe, incremental innovation hinders competitive opportunity
• How to determine a product’s market viability

How do growth leaders such as Procter & Gamble, GE, and Amazon consistently achieve above-average organic growth? These companies pursue a disciplined, systematic process that distributes innovations across a spectrum of risk, ensuring that they balance incremental growth with breakthrough opportunities.

For most companies, notes Professor Day, minor innovations make up 85% to 90% of their development portfolios. While necessary for continuous improvement, these “little i” projects don’t contribute much to profitability or competitive advantage. It’s the risky “Big I” projects that push an organization into adjacent markets or new technologies and generate the profits needed to achieve revenue forecast and growth goals. Using “The Risk Matrix and the R-W-W (“real, win, worth it) screen,” Dr. Day demonstrates how to develop a strategic product plan that results in a greater proportion of high-yield initiatives.

George Day is a professor of marketing and co-director of the Mack Center for Technological Innovation at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. He holds a BS from University of British Columbia, MBA from University of Western Ontario, and PhD from Columbia University.