New Product Ideas within a Time Compression

By Raul Bernardino

Abstract:

Today’s organizations or business companies will looks different in next 5 or 10 years’ time. The technological disruptions become a biggest part of today business strategy component and planning in order to be an updated organization.

Today’s organization is facing a time compression. The organizations are not similar to 20-30 years back. The organizations employees are also facing a past education; therefore, all organizations or institutions need to strategize the available resources within an updated knowledge, information, and use of the technology to deliver products and services on time with high quality standard.

Whether, we are talking about businesses, organizations, and politics, we live in a time compression or fast-paced world of instant information and 24-hour news cycles. A 30-second story on the evening news, new legislation on Capitol Hill or on new UN approaches, or a competitor or business partner could shift the playing field on any major issues or the business landscape. There are too many complicate things.  We are in the age of the acronym or new slang or completely adopt other’s words and insert them to their own languages – nearly a completely different language to abbreviate lengthy titles of projects, legislation or departments. Moreover, let’s not forget how quickly text messages travel within technology such as in Twitter, Mobiles, and Facebook across the country and a cross border to another countries. This to be a serious contender or candidate in this world, your organization must be nimble or agile, strategic and prepared for anything.

One of the single most important aspects to being proactive or reacting quickly is effective internal communications. If the right hand of your team doesn’t know what the left hand is doing, if your strategies as the leader of the organization are not clearly communicated to your employees, you could be left treading water in very stormy seas.

By utilizing proactive and real-time internal communication strategies, your organization will succeed in all aspects – internally and externally. So, I have incorporated the following concepts into my work style and found to have positive effects on internal communications and ultimately accomplishing organizational goals. 

Introduction:

Products are something that companies or industries can offer to the market in which to be consumed and had by customers and also to fulfill and satisfying customer needs and wants. For instance: car, chocolate, tooth-paste, pizza, trend cloths, electronic devices, and etc.  Products also define as “services, events, persons, place, ideas, organizations, and mix of these”, Armstrong, G. and Kotler, P., (2010). Services are intangible products that can be defined as activities and benefits to offer to the customers. For instance, the advisors in legal, marketing, finance, and etc. Those advisors or consultants are advising or serving the customers on the specific issues that they (customers) are faced in order to get a clear ideas on how to implement or face the cases and customer are satisfied with the advisory services and fixed the issues in the scope of works. 

Drucker (2002) defines that: “Systematic innovation consists in the purposeful and organised search for changes and in the systematic analysis of the opportunities such changes might offer for economic and social innovation.” There were 7 (seven) sources of the innovation proposed by Drucker. They are as follows:

1.  Unexpected occurrences in which is coming from internal site: According to Drucker, most of the business player are ignore the unexpected failure and success for the future innovation
2. Incongruities: This is an internal factor in which disconnection between expectation and result often provides opportunity of the innovation
3. Process needs: This is an internal factor in which the industry of the newspaper or magazine is today advertising their products of newspaper or magazine and allowable to distribute in very low cost and in other hand it is increasing the readership
4. Changes in the Industry and Market: This is also part of internal factors whereas deregulation of the telecommunication industries have created confusion however it is also given opportunities for the innovations
5. Change of Demographic: this is an external factor whereas the increasing and decreasing of the population may cause the product sales
6. Perception Change: This is  an external factor whereas the perception of the people healthier compare to people health before it is also trigger to have an new innovation 
7. New Knowledge: This is an external factor whereas base on the original idea or design the industries try to make some innovation to the version of the products. For instance, incremental innovation such as the evolution of the Pentium I chip to Pentium II, Pentium III, and then Pentium IV. The disruption innovation brings totally new product from the existing one. It may have longer time to have impacts. For example, computing machine in which available since 1900 however, it only use in the 60 years later in the business.

These principles are to analysis the opportunities and preparing the invention based on conceptual and perceptual.

The innovations approaches that Drucker explained above were quite comprehensive. However, Palmberg (2004) has a different approach of the innovation. Palmberg approach says that, the innovation is depending on the industry and it is operating. It is also including the market environment. Palmberg has proposed 6 (six) categories of the innovation as follows:

1.     Generic,

2.     Science-based,

3.     Competitive,

4.     Customer oriented,

5.     Regulatory,

6.     Technology oriented

These two approaches above are totally different however, the essence is that the innovations have to be based on something, either the innovations are based internal or external and based on generics, competitive, customer oriented, and etc.

These ideas that generate by companies or businesses are positive in which to select the best one among thousands of ideas whereas to fit in the market needs. For example, recently IBM did innovation on ‘Jam’ in which IBM invites customers to submitted ideas for new product and service.

According to Professor Gary Hamel, London Business School on ‘Creating the Future’ presentation to the senior executive course at Stanford University (December, 1997) stated that:  “Ninety per cent of what you need to learn, you will learn from outside your own business sector.” Therefore, we do need a coping from other organizations and adapt them into our own business environments. 

Moreover, the changes are more rapidly now comparing to last 20 years ago. Let’s view structural changes in the world economy. We can also analyze by monitoring regional contributions to world value added over time.

Please have look following world economic growth in last five to ten years:

-         Asia and China economy is growth

-         Europe and Grace economy slow down

-         Changes are more rapidly now compare to last 20 years ago

Why is that?

Technology disruption in the industries and economic development; technology helps to do risk analysis on time and delivery of the service on time; technology helps deploying recourses around the globe without have to own the resources.  Technology helps to reduce environmental impacts so on so for.

One concrete example how Mike Dell success:

-         Learn from Toyota Car distribution model

-         Use internet as distribution technology

-         Customer can decide and customize and has quick delivery to the destination

Other example is Steve John: he uses what is the next model: such as Ipad, Iphone, etc.; where he has very good sensing of the Wal-Mart.

Cohesive entity:  for example, purchase department will to put more assets while operation department will to reduce the assets. In any organization department has to have a cohesive or synchronize the strategies. However, these will need good internal communication established.

The strategy should be focus on: Product, Innovation, and Operation; in early 1990 many industries focuses on redesigns and re-engineering, (It is good to have last 20% of the products finishing has varieties)

For instance, the advertising company will use brainstorming model to have new ideas of the products while bank has to have a mathematician to delivery economic model for the banks products and services. Then these all will be creating new organization out of today organization.

For example Silicon Valley company history it is just all about innovative:

-         Capital market innovations

-         Idea Market

-         Innovative market

Other group of world economy contribution is BRICs (Brazil, Rusia, India, and China). However, the real world economic powers are:

-         Power of the World Trade Organization

-         Information Technology

These two factor are contributing to the world economy (increase integration of world economy)

Convergence: For example, Nike product industry give training branches that focusing on standard and quality has to be same.

Why Africa become a focus for economy investment? That is because it has major scale low and growth differentials are high.

Conclusion: 

The customers oriented focus are more relevant for today’s marketing innovation; because within the customer oriented approach, we can focus on the customer needs and wants in certain location (geographic), it is including the customer demographic, customer perception (psychographic), and etc. Within these approaches, we can then able to design and produce a new products lines for the specific customers.

Today’s time compression has forced all institutions or organizations around the globe to adopt and adapt new technologies in their businesses environment whereas strategize their business and deliver new innovation products and services on time and within high quality standard.

The organization need to strategize all resources including its employees for instant employee knowledge updates and motivating employees with incentives and rewords. These will motivate all employees to contribute in the innovation and produce organization products and services, whereas organization goals and objectives are reached.

References list:

• Armstrong, G. and Kotler, P. (2010) Principles of marketing,13th edition, Global edtition: Prentice Hall, Ch. 8 and Ch. 9
• (N:N), New product Innovation, [on-line]. Available from:   http://www.hypeinnovation.com/business-solutions/business-innovation/new-product-innovation/   (Accessed:  30 July 2011)
• (N:N), Product Innovation and Renovation, [on-line]. Available from:  http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/practices/product-innovation-renovation.html  (Accessed Date: 30 July 2011)
• Keyes, J. (August 2007), Focus on Business and Technology, [on-line]. Available from:  http://www.newarttech.com/August2007.pdf (Accessed: 7  April 2014)
• (N:N), Innovate for growth and create new demand, [on-line]. Available from: http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/nielsen-solutions/product-ideation.html (Accessed: 7 April 2014)