The concept of BB Cream evolves at an extravagant speed, passing very quickly the various stages of notoriety. We are already at"CC", and we are now talking about"DD"! Where will we stop? "YY" for"Young Yesterday?" This would be the height of an anti-ageing protection product.
This question would not be too interesting if it did not refer to the way we manage innovation in our professions. Because BB Creams, at the risk of making some scream, are an innovation, both impertinent and introducing the idea of a new class of products.
This evolution illustrates a phenomenon we have known for a long time in our businesses. Without going as far as the programmed obsolescence, we are at least at the stage where we burn the candle at both ends, at the risk of emptying the magazine before it is filled again.
This idea that a make-up product, or as such, would be an anti-aging product had been anticipated by some in the early 2000s. After a period of almost systematic denial of the kind:"You don't think about it, it's a mind view, there are a billion good reasons why it doesn't happen", etc.., our marketers friends rushed to the idea, to drive it at the speed described above.
All this would be anecdotal if we were not emptying the concept of its content and the reserves of innovation by the same token.
If the notion of momentum is important in innovation management, that …