Innovation

The Quest for Optimal - Maximising consumer delight has always been a top priority for any product manufacturer, resulting in a critical need for ongoing innovation married with endless product modifications. Yet, while a priority, it continues to be increasingly difficult to steal share or truly differentiate oneself versus competition within an existing and/or niche category. Unfortunately, reactive versus proactive research has become more of the product testing norm, with endless rounds of formula ‘tweaking’ versus the prescriptive pursuit of a farther out, more differentiated optimal product.

3D printing will likely prove to be one of the most disruptive and revolutionary technological developments of the current age. It has the potential to shake to the core every production and retail focused industry, with innovators claiming it will transform the home into a production centre for anything ranging from objet d’art to human organs.

The great innovation debate - “Nature vs. Nurture” is a debate typically held among psychologists, where one side argues that genetic predisposition (nature) plays a greater role in human personality development and the other side argues that the environment (nurture) has more influence.

The number of concepts tested at the early stage of the innovation process has increased dramatically over the years and still innovation success rates have not improved.