The best innovators are need seekers

Here is an excerpt from an article in which Gijs van Wulfen discusses the result of a Booz & Company study and shares his own thoughts about why and how innovators are need seekers. To heck out the study, please click here.

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Booz & Company’s annual global study of R&D spending reveals that successful innovators bring clarity to the early stage of innovation. It’s when companies generate ideas and decide which ones to develop.

Just 43 percent of participants said they were highly effective in generating new ideas. And only 36 percent felt the same way about converting ideas to development projects. Altogether,only a quarter of all companies indicated they were highly effective at the front end of innovation. Which is a shocking conclusion.

There are three fundamental innovation strategies. You can categorize companies as Need Seekers, Market Readers, or Technology Drivers. Booz & Company describes them as follows:

1. Need Seekers, such as Apple and Procter & Gamble, make a point of engaging customers directly to generate new ideas. They develop new products and services based on superior end-user understanding.

2. Market Readers, such as Hyundai and Caterpillar, use a variety of means to generate ideas by closely monitoring their markets, customers, and competitors, focusing largely on creating value through incremental innovations.

3. Technology Drivers, such as Google and Bosch, depend heavily on their internal technological capabilities to develop new products and services.

The 2011 study confirms that following a Need Seekers strategy offers the greatest potential for superior performance in the long term. Fifty percent of respondents who defined their companies as Need Seekers said their companies were effective at both the ideation and conversion stages of innovation compared with just 12 percent of Market Readers and 20 percent of Technology Drivers. These are the same companies, by and large, that consistently outperform financially.

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Gijs then shares 10 relevant needs and innovative new products or services solving them. These exempla suggest why need seeking is essential: a good innovation is a simple solution to a relevant customer need. He juxaposes Need and Problem with a New Solution.

To read the complete article, please click here.

To check out the Booz & Company’s annual global study of R&D spending, please click here.

Gijs van Wulfen is founder of the FORTH innovation method. Gijs van Wulfen still facilitates FORTH innovation projects, of course. For companies and (semi & non-profit) organisations worldwide. Gijs has facilitated more than 20 FORTH innovation projects the last five years. You can contact Gijs in the Netherlands at +31- 651483575.

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