Innovation Beyond the Core with John Carter

John Carter, founder of TCGen and advisor to companies such as Apple and Amazon, suggests that companies should invest in innovation beyond the core. By focusing on the augmented product, businesses can achieve high margin growth opportunities that are easier, faster, and more affordable than core innovation. The augmented product refers to tangible or intangible areas that the product excels in or adds value to the customer experience. Carter provides examples such as Apple's $50 billion profits from services and Amazon's AWS generating more profit than its main business. Investing in innovation beyond the core has many benefits such as stickier solutions for customers, higher margins, competitive dominance, and easier innovation through machine learning and AI solutions. Carter believes that failure rates for innovation beyond the core are lower because costs are lower and trade secrets are kept.