Innovation is a hot topic these days and a number of companies site that they are or want to be innovative. How do you know when you need to call in an expert and hire an innovation consultant?
Here are some ways in which you can identify whether you need an innovation consultant.
Market Share & Revenue
- Products/services have not changed in a while and products are losing market share or revenue
- Spending a lot of money on research but not translating to increased sales or market share (may signal need to integrate market insights with R&D)
- New products and services not performing well in the market
- New business model in industry is emerging
Clarity on Future
- Do not know what your next product or service will be
- Lack of focus with product offering (presently too many offerings)
- Too many or too few products in the pipeline for future development. (This depends on the size of the company. Smaller companies will have fewer projects they are working on while larger companies will need to have a number of projects being developed for future products.)
- Bringing out new versions of products with new functionality (that customers are not asking for or do not see value in)
Culture & Change
- Increased innovation requires a culture adjustment, but not everybody is coming on board with the changes
- Innovation as a priority for the company not reaching front line employees
- Employees do not know where to take new ideas or ideas for improvements or new products
- Company is not staying current on what is going on in the rest of the industry
- Most people in the company do not know what is in the pipeline for future development
- Symptoms of companies needing innovation: Complacency, under motivated employees, silos
Aware of Innovation
- Have identified a need for innovation but do not know where to start
- Thinking about creating an innovation challenge (internally or externally)
- Have an innovation team but they seem to be struggling to make progress
Process Innovation
- New products and technologies are brought in without altering existing processes
- Processes taking longer than industry standards or competition