“… Because its purpose is to create a customer, the business has two — and only two — functions … Marketing and Innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results, all the rest are costs …” — Peter Drucker

The ability to develop and launch new products and services is critical for the long-term future of any business, yet 90% of new developments result in commercial failure. This article discusses some of the issues with innovation and highlights proven processes that ensure every launch is a winner. Topics covered are:

• Why you shouldn’t listen to the Voice of the Customer
• The search for Six-Sigma Innovation
• How to identify Innovation Hot-spots
• On-Demand Concept Generation

The Importance of Innovation

The creativity and inventiveness of people is a vital ingredient for any business. However, it is only through innovation, the implementation and exploitation of their ideas that a business is able to compete and prosper.

Already, the competitive landscape has significantly changed with globalisation. Now appearing are many new competitors from low-wage, dynamic economies. For instance, China has given birth to some 50 automakers, such as Geely, Chery, Great Wall Motors and Brilliance. Who knows which of these fledgeling car companies will become the global giants of the future? Staying competitive will require a step-change in innovation performance.

As Peter Drucker points out, the two key activities within any business are Marketing and Innovation. Marketing allows the identification and understanding of suitable hungry markets. Innovation allows the fulfilment of the market’s need in some unique way that customers value greatly. Without marketing, there is no customer pull. Without innovation, the proposition is copied or disrupted by competitors. In the longer-term companies that don’t innovate die.

The post The Innovation Lens | How To Identify The Next Big Thing appeared first on Raglan Tribe - The Business Growth Engineer.

There are three major areas of risk in the product development process when it comes to developing new hi-tech products:

• Technology risk
• Management risk
• Market risk

We tend to dwell on the first two, because that is what you’re aware of on a day to day basis.

Will the technology work? Do you have good development and communication processes? Do you have the right people? is the project on track? and so on…

But by far the biggest area of risk is the third one — market risk. Think about it, you only really know if you’ve got a flop on your hand when you launch the new product into the market. By that stage, you’ve already spent all of the development budget.

The post Pain-Free New Product Development appeared first on Raglan Tribe - The Business Growth Engineer.

In this video Raglan Tribe shows you how to build an online innovation launch community for building market consensus behind your breakthrough new product launch.

If you’re trying to launch any new product breakthrough, new product category or new service then you’re going to have to win over the early majority of the market to get traction.

Geoffrey Moore calls it the process of “Crossing the Chasm”, creating a market beachhead or assembling the invasion force. But whatever you call it, customers are reticent to adopt new ways until they see other customers recommending your product or service.

With social media, blogs and great content, the Internet makes the whole launch process much easier.

The post How to assemble the invasion force for a new product launch appeared first on Raglan Tribe - The Business Growth Engineer.