From mind to market

This image is from Guido Daniele's Web site. His hand paintings are incredible.


Blogs on innovation tend to focus on the thinking stages (ideas) of the innovation process while others (fewer?) concentrate on the doing (implementation) stages. I've always found that the doing stage is the hard part: it requires getting out there into the trenches; making things happen; giving demonstrations; making calls; listening to what people are saying; setting up displays; getting your product on the shelves and many other not-so-glamourous tasks. Regardless of whether you're a foreign company flogging your product offerings to India or China, or an Asian company trying to enter the European or North American markets, the "last mile" is likely to be the hardest part. When you hear that it's "tough doing business in China," what this really means is that you're going to have to roll up your sleeves and get out there into the trenches. This requires a lot of stamina and commitment and, yes, it is a jungle out there.

Learn about marketing in China

The Financial Times is running a short video series on doing business in China. In the first of these, Willem Burgers, professor at the China Europe International Business School, talks about marketing in China.

He suggests that foreign firms go to China with a "learning" mindset rather than a "teaching" mindset, as there is much to be learned from China's successful firms.

There are some very interesting videos/readings next to these videos, such as this PDF.

[News from Taiwan] Today, the Taipei Times, citing the Chinese-language Commercial Times, reports that the eagerly awaited iPhone from Apple will be designed/manufactured by Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry. No doubt this will occur in their factories in China.


innovation

China

Sharing presentations online

Talk about niching the niche! We now have a site similar to YouTube, but it's for presentations. I came across Slideshare today and I thought I'd make a short presentation and upload it to their site! We'll see how it goes.

UPDATE: If this isn't uploading fast enough, you can click HERE. This should take you to the site.



Hope you like it!

Getting real with innovation

The innovation strategy document: a must-have piece of paper

Much of the literature on innovation management agrees that firms should have a formal document that describes the firm's innovation strategy. This document can help inject a bit of much-needed discipline into the firm's innovation activities, particulary those activities concerned with new product development. Simply put, the document will state whether the firm is going to be first (sometimes referred to as "inventive" or "first mover" or "prospector") or second (sometimes called "fast follower" or "adaptive" or "analyzer"). It could also outline whether the firm is going to play the price game; in what country-markets the firm will compete; in what product-markets the firm will compete and how many new product development projects it will resource at any given time.

It's a good idea to compare the content of this document with what appears on the firm's Web site: it should be similar. If the Web site claims: "We develop innovative new products" and your innovation strategy document states "We aim to be a low-cost producer" or "We are a 'fast follower,'" something is a bit fishy! In other words, you're kidding yourself. What does an innovation strategy document look like? You can check out Merle C Crawford's 1980 paper "Defining the Charter for Product Innovation" for a great model.


Writing the innovation strategy: a must-do activity

The whole process of sitting down and writing out the firm's innovation strategy can be a great experience for everybody, as it allows people in the firm to reflect and get real. This process can surface some fairly deep stuff that is often left to sit in the firm's subconscious. Believe it or not, many firms are actually afraid of success, which results in firms sabotaging their own innovation efforts, albeit subconsciously. Success brings added work and added responsibility, and who wants that? This is why people often don't want to start their own business -- it's much easier to just knock off work at 5:30 and head home to watch the telly. Anyway, this is getting into the area of psychology -- something I know nothing about. That said, many of my wife's self-help books could be very useful in the business context.