An Excerpt from “New Insights for Driving Innovation in Product Development” Webcast
Planview recently hosted a Webcast titled “New Insights for Driving Innovation in Product Development: Is Your Organization a Lean, Mean, Innovating Machine?” featuring Sanjeev Pal, Research Manager of Product, Project and Portfolio Management Solutions at IDC, and me. Here is the first of a 3 part series on the highlights from this discussion of trends in innovation.
Insight into Marketplace Trends
I kicked things off with an analogy I found on a blog that compares survivalist training while backpacking and keeping a business running efficiently in the current economy. As any backpacker will tell you, space is always a challenge so you should only carry what is absolutely necessary. Similarly, businesses must keep their pipelines as simple and streamlined as possible, especially in an economic downturn. And, whether backpacking in the wilderness or navigating in the marketplace, good, level-headed decision making will always be valuable in the business world.
Sanjeev then covered several trends he is seeing in the marketplace today:
- Uncertainty in the economy, both in developed and developing countries, and increased global competition.
- Changing consumer consumption patterns show increased consumer influence and demand for innovative, high-quality, easy-to-use products at lower prices. The more complex products results in more complex manufacturing processes which require more collaboration throughout the entire manufacturing process. He highlighted the iPad and robot vacuums as examples of products that are the result of companies doing this well. How? Their constant and consistent innovation and tight vertical integration.
Social connectivity plays a huge role in educating consumers on technological innovations and generating excitement around new products. Even kids aren’t immune. Children are interacting with technology at an earlier age than ever. As they get older and begin buying these products, they will demand more from technology — more complex products than can do many things at once.
My next post will cover examples of innovation, specifically in the technology industry, as well as lessons that can be learned from their successes and failures.
I encourage you to listen to the complete Webcast to hear Sanjeev cover these topics in more detail.
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