The findings from the Fourth Product Portfolio Management Benchmark Study and the Innovation Management Maturity Model™ have spawned some important dialog around innovation maturity for medical devices firms and across multiple industries.
In a recent article published Dec 3 on Medical Design Online, Jim Pomager poses the question, “Does the medical devices industry have an innovation problem?” The answer is similar to many of the survey respondents across multiple industries. Here’s a direct quote from the article, “…if you asked medtech product development folks to evaluate their companies’ current innovation management programs, most would tell you there’s a lot of room for improvement.” From my years of experience in the medical devices industry, and working closely with product development, there is always room to improve the innovation strategy.
I invite you to read the full article, Sustainable Innovation: A Roadmap For Medical Device Manufacturers. Below is an excerpt:
“Does the medical device industry have an innovation problem? To the uninitiated, the notion probably seems ludicrous — after all, we’re talking about a sector designing astonishing technologies like bionic eyes, artificial pancreases, Tricorder-inspired diagnostic tools, and mind-controlled prosthetics. However, as anyone involved in product development knows, there’s a significant difference between invention and innovation. It’s one thing to devise a device that the world has never seen, and it’s another to persistently improve upon an existing design (yours or a competitor’s) until it’s tailor-fit to meet a real market need. And while both elements are critically important to the success of a technology, invention without innovation falls short of its potential — from both utilitarian and economic perspectives”.
I encourage you to download the research and explore the tools for helpful recommendations for advancing your innovation strategy in 2014.
