Especially the ‘use laser- not shotguns’ is a very useful and often ill forgotten or mis-interpreted advice, when trying to innovate your product’s way to the market.

But, I do not agree with you all the way – and correct me if I misunderstood your point:
“Innovation is an evolutionary process, not a product of Gyro Gearloose’s workshop. Innovation combines a new idea with the question of what is feasible.”

To me – this quote is about incremental innovation. It’s an innovation that builds on top of already known technolog or knowledge that improves a current product in a step-by-step development.
Radical innvoation is to me something else. Radical innovation is not caring about feasability, but taking the big risk – and increasing the risk of failure on a marked that hasn’t fully been tested yet. The benefit, though, is that you will penetrate a market where there are next to no other competitors.

A classic example is the Segway which tried to make a revolution in how we transport ourself in the future.
Asus made an evolution on the notebooks with their ‘eee PC’ – but basically what they did was reacting cleverly on trends in the business market.

And to me this is the big difference: is your new innovation evolutionary – or revoloutionary?

Thanks for the article!