Given the interest in an earlier post on engineering outsourcing its timely to think about the steps of engineering outsourcing and keep in mind that what goes out must come back! Here are the most basic steps of the engineering outsourcing process: Core competence: As discussed in several articles innovation and intellectual property is bestContinue reading “Steps in Engineering Outsourcing : What goes out – must come back”
Category Archives: Team Work
Innovation: Product Use Testing is the most overlooked type of testing
Innovation and New Product Development (NPD) involves three types of testing viz. concept testing, product testing and market testing. Of these the product testing or product use testing is the most overlooked one with avoidable negative outcomes for market success. But first are the three types of testing: Concept Testing: occurs in the early partContinue reading “Innovation: Product Use Testing is the most overlooked type of testing”
From Product Innovation Charter to the Product Protocol
The Product Protocol is a written document that the multi-disciplinary new product development team puts together to help team members from functions like R&D,Design,Marketing,Procurement, Production co-ordinate.
Understanding the Buying Center can help B2B Marketers and Supply Chain for innovation
[ Note: Thank you dear readers for your overwhelming interest in this post originally published on June 7, 2012.The image is updated March 9, 2021.If you are a business and want to get more success out of your B2B Digital Marketing budget, and would like to consult with Dr. Roy- please send an email to Serve@StratoServe.com to schedule a Zoom call.}
Understanding and talking about the Buying Center can help B2B Marketers and Supply Chain Managers for innovation. The Buying Center is a 40 year old concept attributed to Webster and Wind and can be hugely useful to both B2B Marketers and Supply Chain /Procurement managers today. The Buying Center is a part of the informal organization and involve a bunch of people who have varying influence on the B2B buy decision. The individuals in the Buying Center can have one or more of the following roles:
Innovation: Product Innovation Charter (PIC) helps prevent scope creep in technology and market
A Product Innovation Charter (PIC) can help prevent scope creep for both the technology and market dimensions. The PIC is supposed to have guidance from top management to the innovation team about the market focus and the technology focus that the multi-disciplinary team should try to maintain. Here is how both these focus points are derived:
Innovation and creativity: comes from engaged and caring employees
Numerous organizations in a variety of cultures keep pointing at one critical enabler of innovation. Engaged and caring employees who care for each other, their customers, suppliers and stake holders. For only those who care,care to really listen. And that converts ideas into products and services- that can be profitably implemented. Employee engagement is hardContinue reading “Innovation and creativity: comes from engaged and caring employees”
Innovation: Do you have a Product Innovation Charter (PIC)?
Having a “Product Innovation Charter” (PIC) is like having a mission statement for innovation.
No change in the ecosystem : why losers win in contested corporate mergers
When corporate mergers are contested i.e. there are two competing suitors for a target company and there is a bidding war, the loser actually wins says recent research according to Stephen Gandel in CNN Money. That's because the bidder organization that lost did not have to deal with making the merger work, the execution challengeContinue reading “No change in the ecosystem : why losers win in contested corporate mergers”
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.
Interactivity: why the video gaming industry is booming
An earlier popular post on video gaming being three times music and twice the movie industry begs the question why? The answer will be apparent if you try this experiment with millennials i.e. those born between 1981 to 2000. Here is the experiment: Put a bunch of millenials in a room with each in frontContinue reading “Interactivity: why the video gaming industry is booming”