Investing in failure to create success

A recently published article of this title contains some uncomfortable truths to many so called IT companies:

Given IT innovation is trial and error, how much should you invest in allowing for errors?

The short answer is a lot. Some IT companies are risking up to 75 per cent of their R&D budget for a winning result.

Others have invested years in seemingly losing ideas that eventually transformed into a winning one.

[...]
“A lot of companies will try a product, fail and think it's too hard and crawl back in their box. Australia is quite conservative,” Gardiner says.

However, to compete in a global market companies must take risks.

“(US companies) are risk-takers and to compete with them we have to be too.”

[...]
He believes managers today are too focused on immediate results and are reluctant to spend on developing products that will only pay off years down the track. Some will milk proven products in lieu of trying new ones, despite pouring money into research.

At the end sound advice:

His advice for companies unsure of investing in new ideas includes:
- Decide what game you are in, then play to win
- Invest in the development team and keep learning so you can discover how you can adapt
- Have lots of tenacity, patience and perseverance. A solution that is very hard to conquer is also very hard to copy, giving its owner an immediate advantage.