The document discusses different types of innovation including disruptive innovation, application innovation, product innovation, process innovation, experiential innovation, marketing innovation, business model innovation, and structural innovation. It then describes the life cycle of innovations from early market to mature market to declining market. The document emphasizes that companies must adapt their core competencies and processes over time to maintain attractive returns and defeat inertia as innovations progress through the life cycle. It recommends centralizing functions, standardizing processes, simplifying processes, and automating or outsourcing processes to defeat inertia.