Uncategorized

When Constraints Collide

A reader recently emailed me this question and I thought it might be useful to share the discussion: My organization is constrained in both manufacturing and new product development. Since new product projects should be prioritized based on throughput per unit of constrained resource usage (T/CU), how should we handle that prioritization – which constraint [...]

Print Friendly
3 comments Read the full article →

Purpose in Innovation

Simon Sinek’s TED presentation, is a must see for any leader and anyone trying to grow through innovation. The presentation, part of the promotion for his book “Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action,” is quite simply an explanation of why some companies inspire followers rather than just satisfy customers. Sinek [...]

Print Friendly
2 comments Read the full article →

Teaching old markets new tricks

Many companies write old markets off – relegating them to either cash cow or harvest status.  How can you blame them? They keep investing and don’t see any return so the easy thing to do is to tell yourself that it’s a “mature market.”  One where new product or service innovation just won’t provide the [...]

Print Friendly
0 comments Read the full article →

The hyping of innovation

Isn’t it time for a moratorium on using the word innovation in advertising where it’s been relegated it to a nearly meaningless, over-hyped buzzword. As an example, a recent commercial shows a young father-to-be who realizes that his two seat sports car is not exactly going to be family friendly.  He proceeds to walk around [...]

Print Friendly
4 comments Read the full article →

Should you ever throttle back marketing?

The VP of marketing at an engineered products client recently asked me a great question. “If our constraint is the ability to develop new products, would you recommend we purposely slow the flow of new opportunities?” Let’s look more closely at the situation. First, this company manufacturers highly customized OEM parts that often requires pushing [...]

Print Friendly
1 comment Read the full article →

Jolt your new product results

Looking for a way to accelerate your new product results and get more from your new product processes? Here are three steps you can take to caffeinate your innovation. 1.    Narrow your focus While concentrating too hard on one thing can cause you to mistake the forest for the trees, that’s hardly the problems in [...]

Print Friendly
6 comments Read the full article →

Can your innovation be too flexible?

A frustrated business executive recently asked me to help diagnose his company’s new product development processes. They had taken several new products most of the way through design only to have to go back and revise the design, and he felt  like they were starting to go in circles. When I asked what had caused [...]

Print Friendly
0 comments Read the full article →

Maximize new product profits by pricing for value – a B2B perspective

The subject of pricing makes most people uncomfortable – including those involved with new products. No surprise there since many organizations keep the responsibility for pricing in either finance or product management. But not including pricing strategy as a key, early element of your new product process is a serious mistake that leaves money on [...]

Print Friendly
0 comments Read the full article →

Six questions when no one wants to change

Why is change  so hard – in innovation or otherwise? Most people will tell you that it’s because people naturally resist change. But I really like Eli Goldratt’s response to this argument: If a very wealthy person that you knew and trusted offered you a huge sum of money, say $100 million, with no strings [...]

Print Friendly
2 comments Read the full article →

Innovate like a three year old:
Why you should always ask why

In a previous post about Innovation Lessons from Childhood, I wrote about some of the new product innovation lessons we learned while we were in kindergarten. That included focusing on one task at a time and eliminating multi-tasking. But there’s more childhood can teach us about innovation. One little question, a favorite of children the [...]

Print Friendly
3 comments Read the full article →

← Previous Entries