Image by Shine 2010 - 2010 World Cup good news via FlickrThe innovation journey can also be analogous to football. Teams aspire for success on a global stage where a good performance typically raises the inflection point of the team. This results in more expensive acquisitions, but perceived to be lower risk, because the talent has proven itself demonstrably in the marketplace. The talent pool is increasingly globalised and cross national boundaries. Just as a football team doesn’t have complete information about what a player’s true level of ability is on draft day, the entrepreneurial innovator don’t know the real potential of any one innovation project. Good teams collect as much data as possible and have sophisticated models to project future performance. The entrepreneurial innovator also arms itself with a well-organized talent scouting team to gather multiple data points in preparation to “draft” innovation opportunities.
