Aircraft marketing requires an understanding of global supply chains and global job creation and Ray Conner of Boeing is right when he says that buyers do not care where the product is made. This in response to the general jubilation among competitor Airbus folks at opening up a plant in Mobile Alabama that will createContinue reading “Aircraft Marketing:understanding supply chains and global job creation”
Category Archives: Engineering
Innovation: finding Lead Users from the Internet using forums,blogs and social media
One of the neatest innovation sources is the concept of “Lead User” introduced by Eric von Hippel of MIT in 1986. Finding Lead Users on the Internet using forums,blogs and social media is a great possibility , but first about the concept of lead users.
Making value explicit in innovation: Gillette razors last five weeks
If you spent 1 Billion $ in product development in a low-tech category like shaving razors with a powerful brand like Gillette, the shaving experience should be enough.It was true till the economy slowed. And Gillette market share dropped 3% between 2010 and 2012. And now Gillette is apparently revealing a razor industry secret, i.e. how long a shaving razor lasts according to Fortune. If you are wondering, its five weeks….
B2B Innovation market success needs credibility,opportunity and competitive advantage says Alcatel-Lucent
Alcatel Lucent is about to make the Internet 5 times faster with its new core router 7950 XRS. According to CNN that is 16 Terabits of data per second or 2.5 Million HD videos streamed per second! But Alcatel had tried to break into the CISCO-Juniper stronghold of this market that consists of all mannerContinue reading “B2B Innovation market success needs credibility,opportunity and competitive advantage says Alcatel-Lucent”
Innovation in vacuum cleaners : Dyson with 5127 prototypes and luxury positioning
According to the Costco Connection magazine Sir James Dyson did 5127 prototypes over 13 years before perfecting the DC 01 cyclone technology bag-less vacuum cleaner which no retailer wanted to sell in Britain in 1993. So Dyson started selling its own vacuum cleaners and became the market leader in 18 months of introduction in Britain.Continue reading “Innovation in vacuum cleaners : Dyson with 5127 prototypes and luxury positioning”
Innovation : top management need to get involved in the first three stages
It’s sort of amazing when top management in a variety of industries from high tech aerospace to comparatively low tech outer packaging seem to be disengaged and “hands off” in the first three stages of of innovation (see previous post on the 5 stages). Top leaders start taking interest when the product is in serious development(Stage 4) and many top managers become alert and awake as the product is getting launched(Stage 5). At this time things are too far ahead to change except at high cost. These include airfreight when sea freight might have worked on the supply chain side, customer apathy in the market because concept testing was not done well and there was no time to do product and market testing because top management was so un-involved that the budgets were not approved when the New Product team had put them up.
Competing in a knowledge economy: Thomas Friedman on Innovation -but how ?
Friedman's new book with Mandelbaum extols Americans to innovate at every level to get back to the growth and prosperity path. The question is how? Every one is in a "locked" in mode – locked in to the supply chain and distribution channel and of course to the production process."Lockedin"worked till about the late 1990'sContinue reading “Competing in a knowledge economy: Thomas Friedman on Innovation -but how ?”
US Employment: Opportunity at the high knowledge end and the high touch end
Rana Faroohar of Time discusses the 5 myths of the economic recovery. And a variety of folks have been talking about some of these issues for a long time, notably Thomas Friedman in his The World is Flat that in part, inspired the start of this blog. It's becoming clearer there are only two endsContinue reading “US Employment: Opportunity at the high knowledge end and the high touch end”
US Innovation: A High-Tech small sector led growth is the answer ?
Where can US Innovation lead to jobs is a question on everyone's minds. A clue is from today's stock rally, spurred in part by the Fusion-io IPO, after six days of stock market losses. Fusion-io makes flash memory storage and its largest customer is Facebook who use their infrastructure to manage all those millions ofContinue reading “US Innovation: A High-Tech small sector led growth is the answer ?”
Why Ford Motors strategy on emerging markets and small cars is great for 50% growth
Alan Mulally of Ford Motors sees 50% growth from the emerging markets of China,India and Africa. They are increasing small car models from five to fifteen in China and from three to eight in India.In an earlier post this blog had discussed about how Mulally reduced complexity at Ford and it seems that the currentContinue reading “Why Ford Motors strategy on emerging markets and small cars is great for 50% growth”