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The traditional innovation process - consisting of a funnel coupled with project screening - suffers from several practical shortcomings and flaws. Overemphasis on the role of early stages, such as idea generation, overshadows subsequent phases of equal importance. The drive to feed as many ideas as possible into the funnel may cause congestion that slows down overall progress. Furthermore, the yield may be of low quality if ineffective gates allow too many infertile ideas to pass through the funnel. Processes may be inflexible and slow to react, especially if tied to the corporate planning calendar as often proposed. This is not to imply that these problems are inherent; they are instead the consequences of poor practices.

The authors discuss the disadvantages and suggest an alternative to overcome them. The proposed approach is driven by strategic business options and also introduces additional benefits. It produces savings in sunk costs and prematurely tied-up capital. It contributes to effective and economical use of resources, because a company commits irrevocably to only one step at a time. Lastly, options enable, and by their very nature even demand, active and adaptive management.

The authors present the elements constituting an advantageous business model, and suggest how to achieve that competitive edge. They argue that traditional innovation processes with funnelling front-end, stage-gate with go/kill decisions, and similar processes have inherent limitations in such an inclusive concept. They propose an alternative approach, driven by strategic business options. A business model, like everything else, has a limited life span. Anew model requires radical changes in thinking and logics. Still, the move is not easy, and most attempts will fail. The right timing is tricky, plans to abandon an existing model might feel dispiriting, and the necessity to change can be blinded by past successes. This article discusses these complex aspects and the steps needed to overcome them. Finally, in ever-changing business competition it is not realistic to constantly renew inside-out. Instead, for a company to survive, its business model must have a very important quality known as resilience. This article is based on the authors' extensive practical experience in a global business environment, as well as on their academic work.