What is the future for innovation and product/service design? David Smith, Chief Executive of Global Futures and Foresight, shares his thoughts and some key tool in driving differentiation, aligning technology to business objectives, and in raising customer experience levels.
Across an expanding range of industries, disruption is becoming the new normal. Some 73 percent of companies globally believe they are already exposed to digital disruption, whilst 89 percent anticipate that their industries will be disrupted by digital trends to a great or moderate extent. Against this, only 44 percent say their organisations are adequately prepared for such disruption.
The disruptive potential, is, in part, related to the ability of a business to make the most of digital technology in their efforts to provide a better customer experience. Many of the companies leading today’s technology-driven transformations across industries are building their proposition on business platforms. This shift is still in its’ early phases, although it is already becoming clear that traditional business models will become increasingly uncompetitive over time.
We are also witnessing a shift in the traditional ‘innovation’ model – in so far as any single model could be said to have existed. This is to be welcomed, since various studies show a failure rate for innovation of between 40 and 90 percent. In fact, half of all businesses admit they are only ‘marginally effective,’ at converting R&D spending into actual products.
Not only is product centric innovation generally ineffective, it ignores two important issues driving change – the rising servicisation of products and the primacy of the consumer experience.
The first trend is reflected in the forecast of average allocation of R&D budgets to product offerings. From 46 percent in 2010, the figure is expected to decline to 37 percent by 2020. The issue of consumer experience is also intertwined with the relative success of innovation since numerous studies reveal innovation processes involving customers, especially lead users, to be more likely to succeed.
Please download David Smith’s full report in PDF format using the download button (top right).
