The widely known maxim "Innovate or die" concisely expresses our current understanding of innovation. A company will only be able to survive if it is able to successfully launch new products on the market at ever shortening intervals. Even the best and biggest companies fail here. Innovative and previously successful companies are disappearing at a more rapid rate than ever. The average life span of a European company is 12.3 years. Developing something new has now become a question of survival. Today's innovation management teams are facing a Sisyphean task – despite all their effort, goals are simply not being reached. As soon as a new product experiences a modicum of success, it is replaced by a new (presumably better) one and the game begins all over again. What’s more, a seemingly endless mass of new products on the market leads to customers not being able to readily recognize attempts at innovation as what they really are.

Our studies show that failure often results from a lack of readiness to use sustainable solutions to break through existing and established patterns. The innovation logic of the future, however, requires precisely this willingness to break out of the mold. That is where the biggest challenge comes for all of us – but particularly for companies that have been successful for long periods.
From our perspective, it is therefore vital that companies focus on the following concepts and ways of thinking in order to successfully survive the competition for the future.

• WAYS OUT OF THE INNOVATOR'S DILEMMA 
  How to understand the illogic of disruptive innovations
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• OPEN INNOVATION AND CROWD SOURCING 
  How to really use the knowledge of the world
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