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Article that discusses the importance for companies to couple innovation strategy with the core values of their brands.

This an example of a business model change. The innovation is in the change of the way to make money. Deutsche-Bahn entered with its new business model in the market of another country, where the competitors are going in a completely different way.  But is the way to make money adopted by Deutsche-Bahn really innovative, or is Trenitalia going in the wrong way, allowing so  the German competitor to realize its strategy?

Google's innovation strategy started out with mostly internal developments, then moved to related acquisitions - mostly to speed up innovation - and is now moving towards loosely related investment. However, this effort is not viewed as diversification but as getting a foothold in fields that now seem unrelated, but might not be in the future, giving the ubiquity of information technology

Boeing is suffering more than two years delay in launching its new composite-material 787 airliner and order cancellations are coming in. The reasons are interesting. First, Boeing has not only severely forfeited the product development capability it has always shown (e.g. in the 777 program) by shifting its attention and top management culture from engineering to sales. Second, it has inappropriately increased the degree of outsourcing, given the type of innovation involved. Using composite materials instead of alluminum for the airframe clearly is a radical innovation. Given that airplanes have an integral architecture, Boeing should have just done the opposite and developed competencies internally.

We all know stories of radical innovation becoming disruptive because incumbent cannot change their competencies and embrace the upcoming technology. Maybe not any more, given the fluidity of modern markets for technology. In fact, one of the main players of the e-paper industry, PVI, is in fact a subsidiary of a major Taiwanese paper mill, and has pursued an interesting strategy of partnership and acquisition in order to transition to the new technology.

An interesting interview with Dr Robert Cooper, senior consultant to Fortune 500 firms and top scholar in the field of innovation management. Today markets in many countries and industries are flat and increasingly commoditized, gains in market shares are expensive and acquisitions often don't work. In addiction, even traditional product development (for most companies, this means line extensions, improvements and product modifications) seems depleted, and only serves to maintain market share. For R. Cooper, the answer is "true innovation - breakthrough products, services and solutions - that create growth engines for the future and some examples, such as Apple's IPod, are often cited."

Yesterday in Cupertino, CA, the Apple's CEO unveiled at the developers the new iPhone OS 4.0. The new OS is available to iPhone developers today, while the general public will get the update sometime this summer. Apple uses innovators and then early adopters to improve the product, leveraging on their enthusiasm. "We are not the first to offer this service, but we are the best" : Steve Jobs doesn't know moderation and understatement. Some of the OS 4.0 features, as the multitasking, doesn't represents that kind of radical innovation, just because Google did it first. But Apple is aware about giving those features to its product in the right time, according to Jobs. By the way, multitasking is only 1 of the 100 new user features announced and thanks to the early market the OS 4.0 could potentially represent the birth of new paradigms in the operating software market.

Advertising agencies and software developers also welcomed Apple's new iAd network as a potential breakthrough that could give an important boost to the small but fast-growing mobile advertising market. iAd is an OS 4.0 built-in app, which could be the starting point of a new generation of mobile adverts that would be far more engaging than current formats, which Jobs said "suck". Thanks to his company's control Apple's network would be able to serve up more creative forms of advertising to run inside the "apps" users download on to these devices. Advertising inside apps, although still small, has become the hottest corner of the mobile advertising business, prompting a race between Google and Apple. In fact, earlier this year Apple bought Quattro Wireless for $270 million signaling its intention to enter the advertising network space. Quattro is an ad network that spans both mobile websites and smartphone applications. It seems to develop a new strategy and paradigm for the advertisement and a new battle field for the two giants Apple and Google. Which will emerge?

A short reflection on open innovation and its impact in the business world

Facebook is not only a social network, but potentially a source of disruptive innovation in many fields, from information sharing to commerce. The degree with which this will happen is of course still a big question mark. Another big question mark is related to the degree with which all this is just "emergent" or whether it is coming from a precise strategic intent

Successful innovators do not all follow the same strategy. What matters most is deciding what kind of innovator you are

German Chancellor Dr. Angela Merkel is trying to mark the future of the electric and hybrid vehicles founding the "National Platform for Electric Mobility" - a new alliance dedicated to promoting sustainable mobility. A clear objective: she wants to take electric mobility out of its niche model status and become the market leader for a new type of sustainable mobility by 2018. This strategy is planned by the German federal government, which would like to to promote electro-mobility and to see about one million electric vehicles on the roads by 2020. It's a clear way to force the German carmakers for reshaping mobility. The market needs innovations that are intelligently coordinated and networked, from the engines themselves to a reliable infrastructure (charging points) and well-trained experts who can deal with highly complex technologies.

Google is pushing on its cloud-based strategy, with multiple sources of content - be it books, TV, or else - being delivered to multiple devices from its own data centers. It is likely to find weak resistance from stalwarts of past technology, but some fierce competition from the likes of Facebook.

Nokia is suffering from the emergence of smartphones, with the market share growth of RIM and Apple, and a constant decline in unit margins. Therefore, it is now trying to move into online services with its Ovi portal.

'Early adopters', 'trendsetters', 'opinion leaders', 'first movers' - are the labels describing those who are ahead of the mainstream, who are keen to try out new things. The article explains the subtle differences between those terms and how can companies proactively incorporate using these groups and their insight into their innovation management process.

HP and Palm, Inc. (NASDAQ: PALM) today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which HP will purchase Palm, a provider of smartphones powered by the Palm webOS mobile operating system, at a price of $5.70 per share of Palm common stock in cash or an enterprise value of approximately $1.2 billion. The transaction has been approved by the HP and Palm boards of directors. The combination of HP's global scale and financial strength with Palm's unparalleled webOS platform will enhance HP's ability to participate more aggressively in the fast-growing, highly profitable smartphone and connected mobile device markets. Palm's unique webOS will allow HP to take advantage of features such as true multitasking and always up-to-date information sharing across applications. "Palm's innovative operating system provides an ideal platform to expand HP's mobility strategy and create a unique HP experience spanning multiple mobile connected devices," said Todd Bradley, executive vice president, Personal Systems Group, HP. "And, Palm possesses significant IP assets and has a highly skilled team. The smartphone market is large, profitable and rapidly growing, and companies that can provide an integrated device and experience command a higher share. Advances in mobility are offering significant opportunities, and HP intends to be a leader in this market."

Il retailing, ovvero la vendita diretta di beni e servizi ai consumatori, si sta trasformando nel "me-tailing", la ricerca di opportunità di acquisto on-demand rapide e lineari, associata a nuove esperienze praticamente infinite e resa possibile da una tecnologia che offre a chi acquista una gamma senza precedenti di prodotti e servizi in grado di soddisfare una moltitudine di bisogni. Ma questa stessa tecnologia alimenta anche il flusso ininterrotto di quei bisogni. Per il settore retail, le implicazioni di questo ribaltamento del rapporto di forza tra venditore e cliente sono enormi. I mantra dei retailer tradizionali di oggi - centralità del cliente e ottimizzazione della supply chain - non basteranno per conservare la lealtà di acquirenti sempre più volubili e liberi, in cerca di appagamento immediato. In effetti, i retailer devono sapersi reinventare in modo radicale. E alcuni stanno cominciando a farlo. Interagiscono con i propri clienti in modi sempre più creativi sfruttando gli stessi mezzi digitali e di telecomunicazione che hanno trasformato così profondamente la vita dei consumatori. Entro i prossimi anni, in seguito all'accelerare di questa trasformazione, Accenture prevede cambiamenti ancora più radicali. Per esempio, il "fast fashion", la moda "mordi e fuggi" già segno distintivo di retailer di abbigliamento in grado di soddisfare la domanda appena nasce il bisogno, diventerà lo standard de facto del settore, con conseguenze importanti sui livelli di scorte dei punti vendita. Di fatto, i punti vendita così come li conosciamo - spazi fisici - diventeranno semplici estensioni di altri canali, più nuovi, che consentono ai consumatori di configurare e controllare la propria esperienza di acquisto da luoghi diversi, modificando efficacemente la scelta dei prodotti. Amazon.com, per esempio, offre già ai propri clienti l'opportunità di inviare la foto di un prodotto che desiderano e li aiuta a trovarlo.

Photovoltaic technology is an interesting case study. Americans firms have pushed their way in thin-film technology, but are finding it difficult to scale up manufacturing. Meanwhile, the Chinese have invested heavily in reducing manufacturing cost of traditional technology. Though it is still early to understand which is the winning bet, it shows that it is not easy to make such far reaching choices

The user interface for games consoles has dramatically changed since the Nintendo Wii. Now, in order to be in the game, console makers had to provide motion detection technology. Looking at Microsoft, will this R&D race pay off, maybe in terms of spillovers to other business lines, or only lead to defocusing?

Sony, once the clear market leader in consumer electronics and entertainment, has strongly suffered because of paradigm shifts in the industries it is active in. Now it is making yet another attempt to re-establish its leadership, using online services and its coverage of a broad range of potentially interoperable devices. Will this be a sound value proposition for consumers?