Companies are enamored with chasing “white space opportunities.” White space is the nickname for new, undiscovered growth segments. It spins the notion that opportunity lies just ahead of us. Telling colleagues you are working on white space opportunities suggests you are doing really important stuff. It is the ultimate growth endeavor, the risk worth taking. White space will save the day.
I’m not so sure. I have two problems with white space. It is neither white, nor a space.
White space has come to mean many things:
The common theme seems to be the notion of white space as a void, untapped and unused, free and clear – like powdered snow yet to be skied. If only we could find it (or get the government to give it to us as Google is seeking)!
Where do companies look for white space? Jim Todhunter at Innovating to Win has published a survey with some very important insights to this. Most noteworthy is how low respondents rated Complementary Products, a mere 6.3% as a source for white space opportunities. Jim’s advice: “Reconsider how to look at the red ocean opportunity spaces to expand your market footprint through complementary offerings. This could be a great less traveled path to revenue growth.”
I agree with Jim, but what is curious to me is why this path is less traveled in the first place. My sense is that companies overlook these complementary innovations because they are too focused on new opportunity defined as a market space rather than a boundary or frontier. White space is not a space at all. It is the fringe of what your are currently doing. The term – adjacency – seems to be a much better way to define it. White space is not white either. Complementary innovations are deeply colored by what we know and have experienced. There is always an old idea buried in a new one. This is why tools such as S.I.T. and Goldfire are so effective at innovating at the fringe of the current business model – they leverage what is known.
Fortune 100 companies will find more growth opportunities at the margin of what they are doing than by chasing far-flung, ethereal market voids. Leveraging at the margin takes advantage of existing core competencies and strategic assets. It yields innovations that stretch the portfolio and the brand.
Stop chasing white space and look for the brightly colored complementary innovations right next to you.
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Drew:
I cannot agree. And frankly, I am puzzled by the vehemence of your dogma on this issue.
First of all, it is true that people use the term "white space" to mean many different things. So what? The same is true for so many other terms. Let's not get hung up on the semantics.
More importantly, why do you feel so strongly that innovation efforts need to focus on only one type of innovation. That seems like a very narrow minded perspective.
Finally, these complementary innovations are less interesting precisely because they are right next to you. Do you honestly believe that your competitors are going to be shocked by these moves? They see what is next to you as well as you do. "White space" innovations are interesting because they exist in what is today the twilight zone but will tomorrow be a mainstream market. Cars were not a complementary innovation relative to horse-drawn carriages. They were a sea change. If you focused on making new kinds of saddles, cushions for the carriage and so on, your prize was bankruptcy. You missed the boat. Because as the twilight zone becomes reality, what was reality becomes twilight zone. I bet there are still a few folks making horse-drawn carriages today. How excited are you by that business?
Adam, thanks for your comments and for putting the debate on the table. I appreciate your insights and perspectives. Here's where I am coming from.
I have yet to see even one growth initiative succeed that came under the banner "white space opportunity." My observation is that decision makers like what they see, but ultimately pass because it is too far flung. They feel more comfortable at the margin. I've experienced this first hand, on both sides of the table.
"At the margin" or fringe does not mean the innovation is incremental. Not at all! The innovation tools available today can produce far reaching ideas right within your core competency.
Also, my view is that chasing white space opportunities is not innovation. It's *chasing* innovation. It is searching for someone else's innovation. That usually comes at a high price. I'd rather invent it than have to buy it.
If you define white space as seeking new segments and markets, that is not innovation either. It's marketing. Semantics, you are right.
I point out the many definitions of white space to suggest that it's become overused, perhaps cliche. White space is a catch all. We might be better served to define these target areas another way.
By the way, regarding horse drawn carriages...I bet there are more of them built today than there were when cars first came out. Don't know that to be a fact...just a guess.
I note from your LinkedIn profile that we have a lot in common. Let's keep exploring our differences!