Innovation
from insight to impact
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The 5R Model

The 5R Model is the result of a comprehensive examination of especially successful innovations from all industrial sectors. We searched for the common success characteristics and encountered the 5Rs in the process:

  • Reach: Truly successful innovations not only address existing users but also people who had been non-users. The target group is actively expanded and new areas of use are created.

  • Relevance: For an innovation to be successful it does not have to be especially creative or spectacular. However, it does have to satisfy or raise a need that is relevant, often latent, for the users.

  • Rule-breaking: big innovations offer a fundamentally new use and thus shape a new market that did not exist before. Above-average successful innovations do not beat the competition but make the competition irrelevant due to a new use.

  • Remarkable: no matter how fundamentally new and relevant the use of an innovation may be, if the consumers do not notice it, the innovation fails. The users have to instantaneously notice the use. At the same time, this use has to be simple enough for users to remember.

  • Real: an innovation has to be financially worthwhile and technologically feasible, and it has to comply with the needs of the market and the possibilities of the company.

Of course, it is not enough to identify the characteristics – i.e. the 5 Rs – but they also have to be included in the development process. With our innovation process we assure that precisely these success factors are fulfilled.

5R-Modell

Establish certainty

63% of the companies do not achieve their self-imposed innovation goals. This is the result of the study “Inside Innovation”, which we conducted together with IHA-GfK.

  • The research of needs is about identifying the “reach” and “relevance”. For this purpose, big, relevant and thus far unaddressed needs are discovered and areas are identified in which new needs can be stimulated.  
  • The development of ideas is about addressing the identified potentials and developing a “rule-breaking” use aligned to the needs.    
  • The prototyping is about making the concept and use tangible with rapid prototypes and forcing a simulation of reality. The rapid prototypes help to examine the “remarkable” in real market tests and to guarantee the “real”.
Intention vs. realization

Only a realized innovation is a good innovation. An unrealized innovation is only an idea. And there rarely is a lack of ideas. The bottleneck is the gap between intention and realization.

If we want to reduce this alarming realization gap it is helpful to separate the real from the supposed reasons. The "not invented here" syndrome, for example. We consider it a rumor, and not a reason. Or have you ever noticed that the concepts of an advertising agency or architect are abandoned just because you didn't have them yourself? Right. The gist of the matter is hence elsewhere.

A more precise look at the three most often mentioned innovation barriers reveals the latter as pure symptoms. The reason, however, is the uncertainty behind them. Why is there so much "internal resistance?" Not because innovation is generally unwanted, but simply because of fear of an inestimable risk. Uncomfortable things and uncertain things are always uncomfortable, have always been subject to procrastination, although they should really be a priority. That's only human but not really a question of resources.

Top-3 Innovation obstacles

Translated to your company, this means: the bigger the uncertainty, the bigger the implicit and explicit resistance and the more cumbersome your innovation capacity.
Certainly, ideas alone won’t help. Even if you have 1,000 ideas, the uncertainty remains the obstacle on your path towards realization. Conclusion: excellent ideas and solutions do not suffice.

 

As an innovation service provider we account for your need for certainty with our 5R model and clear the way for market-changing innovations. With our research we establish with certainty that there is a need in the market for the subsequently developed ideas/solutions; once the need is confirmed, it is easy to get everybody on board and develop the right ideas and solutions in a targeted way. Last but not least, with our prototyping we establish the certainty that the identified needs are properly addressed. Concepts become tangible and can be tested through rapid prototypes – and thus establish certainty.