FEI 2012
17 May 2012
The 2012 Front End Innovation summit is exploring some interesting topics: How do you truly create successful innovation pipelines? How can we use design and technology to connect brands to customers? How do you start business model innovation? How do we combat innovation inertia? And is all this innovation process talk really worth it? These are important things to consider, particularly given the current macro-economic climate and demands that front end programmes become smarter despite continued budget constraints.
For most organisations, getting internal R&D teams to deliver real innovation has always felt like a challenge but today, more than ever, companies are afraid of falling behind the innovation curve. Organisations need to successfully understand and adapt to industry trends if they want to ride the wave to market recovery. This means delivering breakthrough products at breakthrough prices without too much compromise on margin. The challenge is how do you do all this with reduced budget and less appetite for risk at the corporate level?
A key starting point is asking the right question to kick off the innovation process and then having the right team in place. Without focus at the inception of an innovation programme it can be very difficult to control both budget and timescales. You need to anticipate the main development hurdles of the product or service you are trying to bring to market and this requires an appropriate blend of marketing and technical knowhow, as well as solid experience with respect to process management.