Ingersoll Rand Puts Customers First in Drive for Innovation
Mar 29, 2010
Industry Week says a disciplined approach to innovation is paying dividends at Ingersoll Rand where new innovative products are creating valuable business opportunities. The approach – Outcome-Driven Innovation – is being used to develop innovative products to meet customers’ needs.
The article notes that the company's new R-Series rotary screw air compressors and C-Series centrifugal air compressors seem typical of new product introductions. But these new innovations actually mark a new chapter in product development for the Industrial Technologies Sector.
Manlio Valdes, VP for Global Product Management, says, “There is still a lot of what I call ‘magic’ out there. People think they can jump in, read a couple of articles, run some software, conduct one survey and become the company at the cutting edge." But, he says, a lot of hard work actually goes into creating a culture of innovation.
For instance, Ingersoll Rand surveyed 2,5000 customers in the US, UK, Germany and China in 13 different industries. Using Outcome-Driven Innovation, the company looked at the jobs their customers were doing, their unmet needs and what product features would add value. They then used this information to move to the next step in the innovation process - coming up with innovative ideas and innovative solutions to address those needs.
Learn more about the way Ingersoll Rand is generating innovative ideas and innovative solutions using Strategyn's Outcome-Driven Innovation theory.
