Abstract

Pressures to innovate confront businesses with a demanding balancing act. While caught up in the mainstream, they must also generate "newstreams." Particularly today, mainstream businesses can easily dry up, stagnate. Thus companies must explore opportunities to pioneer in new directions, seek innovations that will improve or even transform the mainstream. And in order to do this, they need to tap newstreams. Many companies are extending opportunities for invention well beyond the R & D department and opportunities for new venture development well beyond the acquisition specialists. Newstream programs bring together inventors and developers with investors and sponsors. This article examines eight different approaches to developing newstreams in eight companies and describes the challenges of newstream management.