Growing a business from niche to mainstream doesn’t require innovation
Growing a business from niche to mainstream requires a unique approach to brand and product development; one of assimilation instead of innovation. In general, a niche product is successful because 1) It has a feature or attribute can’t be found in any other product, and 2) That feature or attribute is much more important to its customers than any other of the category. When looking for growth many niche businesses fail to accept […]
When Marketing Complex Systems, Keep it Simple
Marketing a new product is always a challenge. Marketing a new to this world multipart system, like a “Keurig” for cocktails, water, ice cream, etc. is exponentially more difficult. These pod-based systems require consumer education, explanations of the value proposition, translations of technical performance, communication of its competitive advantages and more. Even if prioritized, the […]
Adjacencies Are An Outdated Growth Strategy
Developing adjacent businesses is another way of saying you’re committing to doing the same thing as before. Building a growth strategy based on category adjacencies sounds like a great idea. Adjacencies are intended to leverage your company’s existing infrastructure, know-how, brands and route to market. They enable your company to launch new products and innovations […]
Arguably the most important component of growth, Innovation contains the decisions executives are least prepared for
There is a false mystique around innovation. Designers, engineers and consultants espouse that it must be experienced first-hand, requires talent and cannot be taught. However, innovation is a business function with the same inputs, KPIs and outputs as any other. It makes innovation management a subject that every CEOs should, and can, be expert at long before they take the reins at any company.
Making Products is Easy, Making Product Decisions Are Hard
The saying is ‘Hardware is hard’, but it isn’t really. Companies continuously strategize, develop and launch successful new products in every category in existence. This can only happen if the skills, process and tools to innovate are widespread and mastered by many. Ever since my first foray in innovation, sewing and selling duffel bags to […]
Creating Competitive Advantages Through Reduction; Simplicity as a Strategy
Simplicity can be a competitive advantage. But can established companies leverage simplicity or does it need to be a fundamental principle?
When it is better to buy or build innovation?
When large companies need to solve a consumer problem often the fastest route to market, with the lowest risk, is to buy a company that already has a solution. However, when consumer behavior has changed rapidly and getting to market with the right solution is critical, I believe building innovation is the better choice. There […]
This is Why Innovation Teams Lose Money
Corporate innovation teams are money losers because innovation teams are not using analytical simulations to make investment decisions the way fund managers do.
How do you innovate for the unknown?
What confidence do you have in decisions for an innovation that will launch into a market undergoing such dynamic change? How do you create alignment to act when investing in innovation is even more risky than normally?
Should innovation teams put time to learning over time to market?
Giving innovation teams more learning cycles increases new product adoption by enabling a larger range of concepts to be tested for best product-market fit.