Making choices can give the illusion that decisions are being made

“To choose is to rely on rational criteria as a springboard for action. To decide is to make up for the scantiness of those criteria by exercising one’s freedom. To choose is to know before acting. To decide is to act before knowing.” — Charles Pépin.

Big corporations are good at choosing. They have data, analysts and, to some extent, time. They can benchmark, rank and review before “making a decision”. But, using Charles Pepin’s distinction, it turns out that corporations, in most cases, don’t make a decision; they make a choice. Armed with Value Investment Ratios, cost/benefit and risk/reward analysis, they choose which innovation project to invest into, and which not. And how do they estimate the Value Investment Ratios, the cost/benefit and the risk/reward balance? By tapping into market, cost, sales, profitability data they extract from similar projects that they, or their competitors, have been been running. These prior projects are of course different, but not so different that meaningful assumptions cannot be inferred from them. By definition, this approach leaves the corporation squarely in the tactical innovation space.

Now, don’t get me wrong: I’m not precious about adjectives that categorise innovation. I know that tactical or incremental projects have to be part of the innovation portfolio, as…