Why did the large corporate let your idea slip through the cracks?

The business opportunity certainly looked like it was going to be taken up by the company I worked for at the time. In a presentation to the Executive Committee comments received included ....

• "...this is something that we have to look into"
• "this casts a whole new perspective on [our product]"
• "..this has the potential to take our competitive advantage to a whole new level" 

An external consultant who reviewed the work also commented

• " This has the potential to own the customer's experience in a way that no other competitor will be able to match over time"

With so much support, why did it stand still for nearly three years with no plans to pick it up?

 To put some context around the situation, the technology that the company needed to make the idea fly was delayed for two years. Also the industry is strongly impacted by the economic environment and began to close down or halt any unnecessary capital expenditure.

So why hasn't the company revisited the opportunity now that Australia's economy, and the global economy (to a degree), are starting to move ahead?

I am not entirely sure as I don't work there anymore. In my experience as a top level advisor in the company and to other companies of similar size, innovative ideas struggle to get momentum in large corporations unless their is a credible precedent.

Too often I have experienced discussions about an idea only to see it shelved because the answer to

"...and what other company has done this successfully" could not be answered.

Obviously each opportunity needs to be assessed on its risk-reward proposition and its fit with the strategic objectives of the organisation. However, amongst the ideas that got squashed and trampled on there were many that had a significant upside for relatively low investment.


The problem in these instances is that there is a hidden expense that is added which represents the will of Management to venture into uncharted waters.