Some articles on innovation
From time to time I receive an e-mail from the MIT Sloan Management Review with news about the magazine. There are a couple of free articles available at the moment that are worth reading. One, from Clayton Christensen, discusses market segmentation based on "jobs to be done." The direct link is here.
The other article, from Mohanbir Sawhney, Robert C. Wolcott and Inigo Arroniz, presents and discusses 12 Ways for Companies to Innovate. The direct link is here.
In the second article above you become very aware that there are literally dozens of types of innovation. I'm starting to think that any type of innovation can be placed into one of three broad categories, based on the following:
1. Firm or Market perspective (Market here is viewed as a group of individuals with a similar problem to solve)
2. A coarse- or fine-grained view
3. A product (this covers brand, design, distribution, packaging, time of distribution etc.) or process view (this covers customer service, operations, manufacturing etc.)
It may also be worth stating whether we're discussing services or products. This is not as straightforward as it looks: I met a man here in Taiwan that works for a Taiwan-based company that manufactures "hardware" in China. You'd think that his company would only be interested in product innovation, however, he told me himself that it is customer service, specifically after-sales service that his customers really value.
You wonder why Taiwan-based firms struggle to market their own brands in Europe and the USA? It's not that the products are not good enough, it is a lack of experience/skill in providing outstanding after-sales service (as a minimum) to Internet-empowered customers in a far off land.
The other article, from Mohanbir Sawhney, Robert C. Wolcott and Inigo Arroniz, presents and discusses 12 Ways for Companies to Innovate. The direct link is here.
In the second article above you become very aware that there are literally dozens of types of innovation. I'm starting to think that any type of innovation can be placed into one of three broad categories, based on the following:
1. Firm or Market perspective (Market here is viewed as a group of individuals with a similar problem to solve)
2. A coarse- or fine-grained view
3. A product (this covers brand, design, distribution, packaging, time of distribution etc.) or process view (this covers customer service, operations, manufacturing etc.)
It may also be worth stating whether we're discussing services or products. This is not as straightforward as it looks: I met a man here in Taiwan that works for a Taiwan-based company that manufactures "hardware" in China. You'd think that his company would only be interested in product innovation, however, he told me himself that it is customer service, specifically after-sales service that his customers really value.
You wonder why Taiwan-based firms struggle to market their own brands in Europe and the USA? It's not that the products are not good enough, it is a lack of experience/skill in providing outstanding after-sales service (as a minimum) to Internet-empowered customers in a far off land.
Labels: innovation
posted by Gordon Graham at 8:27 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home