The best innovators are need seekers

Booz & Company’s annual global study of R&D spending reveals that successful innovators bring clarity to the early stage of innovation. It's when companies generate ideas and decide which ones to develop.

Just 43 percent of participants said they were highly effective in generating new ideas. And only 36 percent felt the same way about converting ideas to development projects. Altogether, only a quarter of all companies indicated they were highly effective at the front end of innovation. Which is a shocking conclusion.

There are three fundamental innovation strategies. You can categorize companies as Need Seekers, Market Readers, or Technology Drivers. Booz & Company describes them as follows:

1. Need Seekers, such as Apple and Procter & Gamble, make a point of engaging customers directly to generate new ideas. They develop new products and services based on superior end-user understanding.

2. Market Readers, such as Hyundai and Caterpillar, use a variety of means to generate ideas by closely monitoring their markets, customers, and competitors, focusing largely on creating value through incremental innovations.

3. Technology Drivers, such as Google and Bosch, depend heavily on their internal technological capabilities to develop new products and services.

The 2011 study confirms that following a Need Seekers strategy offers the greatest potential for superior performance in the long term. Fifty percent of respondents who defined their companies as Need Seekers said their companies were effective at both the ideation and conversion stages of innovation compared with just 12 percent of Market Readers and 20 percent of Technology Drivers. These are the same companies, by and large, that consistently outperform financially.

So need seeking is essential, because a good innovation is a simple solution to a relevant customer need.

But what does a need look like? I like to inspire you with 10 relevant needs and innovative new products or services solving them.

As a good customer understanding is essential, how do you discover relevant unmet needs? And how do you incorporate need seeking in your idea generation process?

A good example of an innovation process incorporating the discovery of user needs is the FORTH innovation method. Step two in this structured expedition is called ‘Observe and Learn’. It focuses on finding concrete customer needs, using 'tools' like personal visits, focus groups, web searching social media and crowd sourcing techniques. You can download the innovation map of the FORTH method for free.

I wish you a lot of success becoming an effective need seeker.

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Are you looking for an inspiring innovation speaker? Take a look at: gijsvanwulfen.com

Gijs van Wulfen is the founder of the FORTH innovation method. He published the Amazon bestseller "The Innovation Expedition. Look inside & order at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk.


Thomas A. Stewart

Thought Leader | Intellectual Capital | Customer Experience | Senior Executive | Advisor & Consultant

8y

bad link--your first link takes me to something from Booz Allen Hamilton, not the Booz & Co innovation 1000 study

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Antoine DELMUR

FONDATEUR / DIRIGEANT

10y

I have been working in design and innovation thinking for years as a consultant. for brand and several design agencies in Europe and Australia. This is a useful segmentation of innovation types at a high level. When I look at my past and present work, I realise that the best results came from companies that understand the road to innovation. My biggest issue always come from large companies. and the weigh of hierarchy Having to convince the board direction as well as marketing retail and product divisions and put them at the same pace is a very difficult task ! There is always a few to fear a new thinking process. that may put their career at risk. This is an awful thing to say, but in many companies, no democracy should prevail to have an effective innovation process. Think apple and the emperor steve job's. A recent example. A large European distribution group. looking to reshape the way they sell cultural goods. and offer a global online and digitalised alternative for books, music, films, and video games. they asked me to develop a new ultra connected store to promote their digital offer and enhance customer experience. They gave the task to local retail managers to follow and develop the project (they get a promotion based on the sales in store)... The main goal was to use the store to offer a greater user experience and product experience. when every square inch is used to stock and sell product in a supermarket. Give some space that do not generate any income was to hard for them to understand.. No need to say this was an epic failure.. and a very frustrating experience for me. Lucky enough there is a lot of companies and agencies willing to break the mold. and move the next level.

Mohammad Harun-Or-Rashid

Communication & Financial Product Strategist at FAMA Financial Holdings Inc. >FEDC Nasdaq : FEXDU

10y

If we want to call something "innovative" in true sense of innovation, it has to pass it own creative test. Does it create need(s). Does it has the force to grab attention(s). Does it create an earthquake or a tsunami ? If not, it is something else. We can associate "market readers" or "need seekers" with this type of "follower innovations". Technology Drivers or the disruptive ones are the real innovations, rest are mostly improvements of innovations to fit in the needs of the users. Creating need is innovation.

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Enrique Garibay

Founder | KonzaWare.com | We help companies rid the world of single-use plastic waste.

11y

Nice article and great reminder to look for problems to solve.

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