What happened
New products and services inevitably come with failure. Many ideas are born and disappear before a new product or service becomes a real new business.
Numerous projects that reach the prototype stage are ultimately shelved and never commercialized.
Some companies, such as 3M, actively encourage failure, including by organizing “failure contests.”
Why it matters
If organizations reward people mainly for not making mistakes, they may discourage the risk-taking that is essential to innovation.
Because failure is a normal part of turning ideas into new products and services, embracing it may help preserve innovation potential rather than cutting off promising new directions.
Key facts
Failure is inevitable when pursuing new products and services.
Many ideas appear and vanish before growing into new businesses.
Some projects progress to prototyping but are later abandoned.
3M is cited as a company that actively encourages failure, for instance through failure contests.
What to watch next
Whether more companies will adopt evaluation practices that accept failure as part of the innovation process.
How corporate cultures balance the desire to avoid errors with the need to allow experimentation.