What is incremental innovation? Give an example of incremental innovation.
Answer: Student answers will vary. Incremental innovation refers to entering new markets by tweaking products for new customers, using variations on a core product to stay one step ahead of the market, and creating interim solutions for industry-wide problems.
When Scott Paper couldn't compete with Fort Howard Paper Co. on price for the lucrative institutional toilet tissue market, it borrowed a solution from European companies: a dispenser that held bigger rolls. Scott made the larger rolls of paper and provided institutional customers with free dispensers, later doing the same thing with paper towels. Scott not only won over customers in a new market; it became less vulnerable to competitors, such as Fort Howard, which could lower prices but weren't offering the larger rolls or tailor-made dispensers.