Group items tagged

The Tata Nano was thought to be a groundbreaking product, able to revolutionize carmaking both in the developing and in the developed world. Pity that nothing of the sort happened. Customer choice still remains difficult to foresee and - in this case - the product simply was not attractive to any customer segment

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.

The emerging BRICs are partially changing the "demand" side of innovation. Instead of simply producing (or engineering) products targeted to the needs of developed countries, Indian companies are now rolling out a number of products targeted to the needs of the country. Journalists have come up with the term "Indovation". Scholars and managers might start questioning whether this might change the way technological trajectories emerge.

One of the interesting elements in Apple's new product line - the iPad tablets - is the fact that the processor is not sourced from suppliers. Developing a microprocessor in-house is not a trivial thing at all, but the integrated nature of the product evidently suggested Apple to make this step in order to optimize performance and - possibly - to keep a stronger grip over a key component, thus avoiding commoditization.

India is the only place in the world where you can find huge amounts of engineering graduate recruits. Companies from all over the world are flocking there not only for offshoring menial engineering work, but also for innovation and R&D centers working on important projects "end-to-end". This is not only because labor is available and relatively cheap, but also because this is the way to come up with the products needed by developing countries... which are the only ones where sales growth is likely to occur over the next years

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?

Radical innovation happens in services too. Companies like Mastercard and Visa are now facing strong competition from Internet-based players like PayPal and have to start developing new products. It is interesting that MasterCard has gone beyond the usual approach of acquiring smaller firms and has set up an R&D unit. This may help develop absorbtive capacity and avoid running into integration problems.

Mr. Joshi (the head of Hewlett-Packard's $24 billion printing empire) has spent years disputing the notion that people will print less as they do more on their hand-held devices. This week, he will see his ideas put into action as H.P. introduces a fleet of printers with Web access, their own e-mail addresses and touch screens. These products should open up new ways for people to print from Web services like Google Docs, and from smartphones and devices like the iPad from Apple. Mr. Joshi is going back to his roots as an engineer - as a young H.P. researcher, he figured out a way to make ink cartridges fire 45 million drops - and relying on new technologies, not slick marketing. But still, he will have to prove that customers will change their behavior and print more if given the right tools. That, Mr. Reitzes said, is crucial to how investors will evaluate the long-term prospects of H.P. "Investors are worried about printing," he said. "It's really important that they get this right." As the world's largest technology company, H.P. sells a wide variety of products but got much of its profit from printers and their pricey ink. More recently, H.P. has built up a large technology services arm as well, which has helped round out its business. But the printing division accounts for about a fifth of its revenue and a third of its profits. The new printers - which build on a limited experiment last year - will range in price from $99 to about $400. Every one will come with what H.P. executives billed as a breakthrough feature - its very own e-mail address. H.P.'s engineers hit on the e-mail address as an easy, familiar way for people to send print jobs to the Web-ready printers. You can, for example, take a photo with a phone, e-mail it to your printer's address and have the printout waiting for you at home. Or, you can share the printer's e-mail address with family and friends. This means that someone can buy Grandma a Web-ready printe

New-product development challenges are especially acute in the communications industry. Companies in this sector are struggling to cope with falling margins from traditional products, rising consumer expectations and a marketplace in which they are increasingly competing head-to-head with high-tech, software and content players much more highly skilled at the product development game.

Biomimicry is an interesting stream of innovation. Basically, scientists and product developers are using concepts from nature to solve problems, partially as a brainstroming exercise, and partially under the hypothesis that solutions shaped by millenia of evolution should work fairly well.

SAP, the dominant player in the corporate information systems industry, is apparently hitting a wall in face of radical innovation. First, the shift towards cloud computing seems to be very difficult to the company, although this slow transition could actually help its huge customer base move towards more modern systems without too many shock waves. Second, and probably more profound, SAP is finding it very difficult to change its internal routines and processes by embracing "agile" approaches to product development.

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."

Lo scorso mese è stato presentato il Product Plan di Fiat. Alcune interessanti informazioni che si possono ricavare dalle slides della presentazione sono le seguenti: - nel corso degli ultimi anni il tempo di sviluppo di una nuova vettura è notevolmente diminuito, passando dai 26 mesi della Stilo (2003), ai 18 mesi della Grande Punto (2005) ai soli 15 mesi delle recenti Mito e Giulietta, grazie ai risparmi temporali nelle fasi di "Tecnological Development" e "Pre-series". - il tempo di sviluppo è notevolmente sceso anche nel campo della movimentazione terra (trattori in primis), passando dai 24 ai 18 mesi - il tempo di sviluppo nel campo dello sviluppo di nuovi motori si attesta in 30 mesi, in grande calo. - il numero di modelli è aumentato, pur basandosi su un sempre minor numero di architetture, passate da 19 (2006) ai soli 5 ipotizzati per il 2014. - il numero di modelli basati su un'architettura cresce da 1,7 ai futuri 7,6. - il volume di vendite di vetture basate su un'architettura aumenta da 150.000 a 800.000. - le sinergie sono diventate sempre più rilevanti, tra vetture del gruppo FGA, sia tra vetture con la stessa architettura, sia tra automobili con differente architettura. - si tende ad un aumento considerevole della standadizzazione dei componenti, in modo da ottenere significativi risparmi di scala. - le vetture sono diventate sempre più leggere, passando da una generazione all'altra.

Riguardo il Product Plan Fiat è interessante notare anche: - la modularità delle architetture di prodotto utilizzate, che comprendono parti in comune (parte del pianale, vano motore), parti intercambiabili (sospensioni, pianale) e parti modulari (sospensioni). In tal modo è possibile ottenere rilevanti risparmi; - FTA ha deciso di sviluppare 3 sole architetture di prodotto, realizzate, entro il 2014, in oltre 1 milione di pezzi ciascuna; - riguardo i sistemi telematici c'è stato lo stesso approccio, attraverso il quale si è giunti all'utilizzo di medesimi sistemi per vetture di stesso e/o simile segmento di appartenenza; - l'elevata standardizzazione, la diminuizione di architetture e famiglie di componenti ha permesso elevati risparmi, con una riduzione di costi variabili, costi di investimenti e costi di R&D; - la standardizzazione delle architetture ha comportato chiaramente una riduzione di costi, ma spesso anche del peso dei componenti, e conseguentemente delle vetture, raggiungendo una dimuzione di consumi ed emissioni; - le sinergie con il Gruppo Chrysler permetterà di scambiare know-how ed aumentare le vendite per le architetture, permettendo un'ulteriore risparmio.

Daimler and BYD (China) plan to establish a development center to combine the German automaker's expertise in automotive engineering with BYD's battery and low-cost production know-how. The companies aim to create a new brand for the vehicle that will be positioned between BYD and Mercedes models. Development time may take about three years. Daimler said last month it will focus on cleaner technologies to take global market share from rivals BMW and Audi.

Now that all phone makers have left Symbian, Nokia is doing the only sensible thing, i.e. taking full control of the operating system, creating a stronger integration between hardware and software, possibly improving customer experience and quickening development

The so-called BlackPad RIM tablet is being pushed out to early next year. The move marks the third time in two weeks that a would-be tablet maker has shelved product preparations aimed at challenging the Apple iPad. Last week, Hewlett-Packard pulled the plug on its Slate tablet and Microsoft reportedly withdrew plans for the Courier device.

A few examples of companies using the web to get input from customers

The digital generation loves social networking, but still there is no way to ensure that social networks are easy to use together. Especially because there are too many. Microsoft is playing the card "Kin", formerly known as Project Pink. Kin's been developed in collaboration with some important partners like Vodafone, Sharp, in order to be more competitive and to create a new smartphone platform., and also with Verizon, to guarantee a huge distribution for the product, in contrast with Google's strategy. The aim of the first pair of mobile Kin (in the future Microsoft could add other devices to this first generation platform) is not to simplify but to amplify the social users life and has got the difficult task of attracting the young, future consumers, within the Microsoft ecosystem, rather than in those created by Google and Apple.

Backing away from a previous position, are we Nintendo? Just a month after Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime claimed that the iPhone OS (you know, that operating system used on the iPod touch, iPhone family and the iPad) wasn't a "viable profit platform for game development," along comes the company's president to say that, in fact, Apple is the primary "enemy of the future." That's according to Times Online, who says that the Big N's CEO (Satoru Iwata) feels that the battle with Sony is a "victory already won," and who clearly believes that the next wave of gaming won't be of the traditional sit-on-your-coach-and-slam-buttons variety. 'Course, the PSP never has been able to hang with the DS family, but even the Wii has a ways to go before it catches the mighty PlayStation 2 in terms of global sales. Going forward, the company is purportedly looking to revive the element of "surprise" in Nintendo products, but it might be best served by simply catching up to the competition and supporting this wild concept known as "HD gaming" over "HDMI."

I clienti continuano a chiedere più valore a costi sempre inferiori. Molte aziende, tuttavia, stanno esaurendo la capacità di risparmiare attraverso le misure più tradizionali di taglio dei costi. la soluzione è combinare queste misure con attività di progettazione e sviluppo, facendo leva su un'innovazione di prodotti e servizi orientata a costi per generare nuovi flussi di crescita profittevole.