{"id":10464,"date":"2022-02-04T11:10:08","date_gmt":"2022-02-04T16:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/?p=10464"},"modified":"2022-09-29T11:12:13","modified_gmt":"2022-09-29T16:12:13","slug":"the-innovation-sandbox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/the-innovation-sandbox\/","title":{"rendered":"The Innovation Sandbox"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The “Innovation Sandbox” is a powerful creative thinking tool to drive Innovation<\/a>, pioneered by C.K. Prahalad.\u00a0 In fact, using this framework, industries and individual organizations can achieve breakthrough Innovation<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0It promotes exploration and experimentation–while under extreme conditions.<\/p>\n

\"\"For this framework to be implemented effectively, there are 4 core conditions that must be met:<\/p>\n

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  1. The Innovation must result in an offering of world-class quality.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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    1. The innovation must achieve a significant price reduction.\u00a0 And, by “significant,” we mean the reduction in price should exceed 90% off the cost of a comparable offering in a \u201cWestern\u201d country.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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      1. The Innovation must be scalable.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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        1. The Innovation must be affordable at the bottom of the economic pyramid.\u00a0 Serving bottom-of-the-pyramid customer base forces Innovation due to the extreme limitations intrinsic to serving this market.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

          This approach is called the Innovation Sandbox,\u00a0because exploration and experimentation must be creative and free-flowing, like sand\u2014whereas, being \u201cboxed\u201d in by rigid constraints.\u00a0 Take a look at the slide below to better visualize the “sandbox” metaphor.<\/p>\n

          \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

          Our constraints are captured by the frame of the sandbox.\u00a0 These core constraints are industry or market requirements that are extremely fixed.\u00a0 \u00a0There can be more or less than 4 constraints. However, 4 is typically and there shouldn\u2019t be many more or less.<\/p>\n

          The Innovations are illustrated inside the sandbox.\u00a0 With the constraints clearly defined, this then forces unconventional, creative thinking to drive Innovations.\u00a0 Ironically, to think of the box, we need to play in the sandbox.\u00a0 \u00a0There can be any number of Innovations that exist in the sandbox.<\/p>\n

          There is no generic, one-size-fits-all sandbox design\u2014as each industry, market, and business is different.<\/p>\n

          Here is an example of an Innovation Sandbox built for the India Healthcare Industry.\u00a0 On this slide, we have laid out the 4 constraints, plus 7 interrelated Business Model Innovations<\/a>.<\/p>\n

          \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

          The India Healthcare Industry is an ideal environment to apply the Innovation Sandbox, as the constraints are obvious and extreme.\u00a0 \u00a0More specifically, India, the second largest country in the world with a population of 1.38B people, is notorious for poor public health with numerous ailments at epidemic proportions and a scarcity of healthcare professionals.\u00a0 \u00a0Among India\u2019s healthcare issues include:<\/p>\n