Risks

Companies that do not embrace and actively pursue innovation risk the following:

• Loss of revenue and customers to competitors who are willing to develop and launch state-of-the-art systems and products that make consumers' lives easier.
• Loss of revenue and customers to competitors who update their products to meet new needs; for example, in banking, million of customers now want mobile banking, remote check deposit, and other ways of banking without walking into a bank.
• Missing out on the largest cohort in U.S. history - the millennial generation – who insists on the latest technology and will not do business with companies that don't offer innovative new products and services that are valuable to them. 
  
• Loss of brand relevance among existing customers because of a lack of new products and services, even among loyal customers who may not even realize they want the new products and services until they see them offered at a different company. 

Opportunities

Companies that embrace doing business with third-party companies on developing innovative products and services can realize the following:

• Learn new ways of doing business. Alone, the company may never create a new business model, user experience, distribution format or new way to use social media, but the third-party entrepreneur can bring these and other ideas to reality.
  
• Accelerate the ability to bring a new product to market by leveraging the talent, expertise and speed of development that most startups embrace.
  
• Generate new revenue, retain customers and attract new customers with new products and services that come from third-party developers. 
• Create an open door environment where new ideas for products and services are generated by talking to a broad range of entrepreneurs. 
• Stay ahead of the competition by offering innovative products and services that may be wildly popular and that the general public did not even realize they wanted and needed.