Accelerated Radical Innovation (ARI) methodology validation

In-depth historical assessment of innovation over the past several hundred years shows that incremental innovation and cost reduction emphasized in the late 20^th century will prove inadequate and even counterproductive in the 21^st century for achieving sustained, global competitive advantage requiring radical innovation. The accelerated radical innovation (ARI) methodology, developed systematically over the past 5 years, has further addressed these requirements by utilizing systematic historical and real time case studies to articulate theory, tacit knowledge, techniques and tools for improving the radical innovation process. Ongoing ARI research since the PICMET'07 Conference has further confirmed the validity of the ARI methodology, and developed improved techniques for measuring and guiding innovation progress, based on focused assessment of 10 innovation attributes at each of the 10 ARI steps. A systematic evaluation of successful radical innovation approaches, and quantitative assessment of the dynamics of four major radical innovations over the past 100 years by retrospective application of the ARI theory have been applied to better understand how to overcome the four types of challenges and hurdles inherent in achieving commercialization of breakthrough innovations. This paper summarizes research on the ARI methodology at The University of Toledo since 2004, involving collaborators at Vanderbilt University, University of Detroit Mercy, Bowling Green State University, University of Cincinnati and University of Leeds, UK, from mid 2006 to the end of 2008. Approaches and techniques for real-time assessment and management of a potential breakthrough innovation are now validated to address any innovation stage from breakthrough concept to commercialization of a standard design.