In any socio-technical system the people in the system work better when they understand how they fit into the system as a whole. Road-mapping provides strategic aligning, a common language for innovation, and builds bridges between technologists and business managers within your corporation, and with your major suppliers and customers.

"When a firm lacks a publicly defined innovation process, everyone operates based on their own past experience and assumptions. Because these are likely to be different, task timing, deliverables, and interfaces won't match up," writes Christopher Meyer, the author of Relentless Growth.

In successful medium and large companies that established an effective innovation system, the innovation process is documented explicitly via maps and charts, and implicitly communicated by words and practice.

In young companies, the innovation process is often a part of the firm's tacit knowledge base, and therefore it is invisible.

To grow substantially, though, young firms must eventually make the core element of their innovation process explicit.