First off, innovation is not a random
event or intangible activity. It is a process. More specifically, I
like to define innovation as “the process of devising a solution
that addresses unmet customer needs”. It is important not to confuse
the innovation process with the product development process – the
innovation process comes first. The output of the innovation process
is a unique and valued solution that is worthy of entering a
company’s product development process.
Given that innovation is “the process of devising a solution that
addresses unmet customer needs”, it follows that a company must
possess 3 important skills in order to excel at this process. First,
for any given market, a company must be able to identify all the
customer’s needs – which often total between 50 and 150 – and not
just a subset. Second, it must be able to determine among all these
needs, which are poorly satisfied or unmet, and third, it must be
able to devise solutions that satisfy these unmet needs. I know this
process sounds straight forward, and most companies will agree that
this is the process they follow – yet companies still struggle to
innovate.
