product and assistance Innovation - Dangers and Tips

The leadership team has completed their strategic chronicle and they are safe bet of the company's new positioning. They are clear on the unique store that they will dominate. Organic increase straight through product innovation within their unique store seems intelligent but practical advice is thin on the ground. A few thoughts worth sharing:
 
Big Picture
 
Recessions are a great time to innovate! Big associates spent roughly as much on R&D in the last quarter of 2008 as they did in 2007 (28 large Us groups spent just 0.7% less in that period). Comparing Apple and Motorola after the last bubble burst is interesting. Apple increased R&D from 1999 to 2002 by 42%, Motorola slashed spending by 13% in 2002. Coca-Cola recently announced a small but important venture in a fast growing Uk business that dominates the Smoothies market. Google and the iPod are great examples of innovation being achieved while tough times. Ge is hooking up with Intel to assault the Healthcare market. Innovation comes in many forms, products, services, delivery mechanisms. The current fascination with cloud computing/SaaS being an example of the latter. Re-engineering consultancy services exploded while the recession of the early 90's. The explosion in the eco-system of i-Phone apps is yet an additional one example of innovation in tough times, 25,000 apps, 800m downloads!
 
Dangers

Of policy not all R&D is productive and contentious advantage is gained by smart investing not just any investment. Feature creep is preeminent in the software world where the fast majority of sophisticated features of Excel are never touched by the midpoint user. Validation is essential. Will the customer notice these investments? Innovation needs to be conception straight through all the way to the application at the end user. How are your innovations improving life for your customers, how is your client's execution enhanced? Be just also of building for today's recessionary buyer. By the time your product comes to store possibly your audience has moved on. There needs to be short term and long term thinking. Recessions can be brutal on production-led technology associates and mistakes in good times can hurt but in bad times they can be fatal.
 
Tips

Razor Ground Force Electric Go-Kart

I believe there is a strong conference for simplification. Cash constraints force us to make tough choices. Roi on new product improvement needs to be watertight. Validation with key customers and fast productive pilot schemes may be the best way forward. Leadership teams often make the mistake of throwing time and intellectual bandwidth at the 80% of the products that don't make much money. Focus on your best 20% and make them remarkable. Create huge gaps on the competition. By the way, customer requests can be terrible reasons for building new products, unless they are prepared to spend alongside you and bring some certainty to the outcome. The key is to build rigor into the "business result" that can be achieved by your innovation. Of policy innovation can chronicle to new relevant service offerings as evidenced by; solutions around Y2K, Six Sigma consulting, and Sarbane Oxley advice. business model innovation is also an intelligent area of increase when combined with great product innovation. In summary as with all increase initiatives, think straight through how your customers and prospects might deploy your innovation. Ensure your innovation delivers a business ensue for your customer, which is straightforward to understand. Best still; get your early adopters to testify that it unmistakably works!

product and assistance Innovation - Dangers and Tips