In a saturated market, even the powerful brands have a hard time achieving growth targets. Big companies can do so by entering into new categories, which would increase the brand strength across markets. An established brand name would endorse itself in the new market. A classic example is National Geographic Society's shift from magazines to television channels, expeditions, and retail stores that sells books, clothes, and travel gear. The first step to go about brand extension is to look out for the categories that can be entered into, the target markets. The next step is to define how well your brand would fit into those markets, which would require assessing a new market like a start-up would. The third step is to design a prototype and test it against failures. Finally, prepare your response to the competitor's reactions; make sure the organization in ready to go. Successful brand innovation would harness the potential of the brand, all the while serving consumers better and bigger. Read more at :http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/marketing_sales/incumbents_as_attackers_brand-driven_innovation

Reinvention is a popular way to reinvent an existing product. This can be done by extending the product line, creating a new product that is designed, executing and messaging to appeal to the new user segment. Reinvention helps in surviving in this dynamic world and helps in tracking new market segment.

Kumar Srivastava (Senior Director of Product Management) in his article at entrepreneur.com, talked about questions asked before starting a replacement cycle because entrepreneurs need to understand in detail what has changed in the user’s world. Questions are:
• Has the user base changed or evolved?
• Has the purchase and onboarding decision process changed?
• Has the interaction mechanism or value chain changed?
• Have the experience expectations changed or evolved?
• Have the support and training expectations changed?
Read more at: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/246539

Big Data, one of the prevailing trend has changed our mind-set about Internet and other Technologies. The five keys to get an idea of the reach of Big Data are: 1) the amount of Data transmitted through an optical fiber doubles every nine months. 2) The number of cellphones in the world is now equal to the number of people thus becoming the fastest adopted technology ever. 3) Facebook has 1.3 billion active users and one hundred hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute 4) The number of IP-enabled sensors are increasing 5) 90% of the world's stock of data was generated in the past two years. Thus, Big Data has many applications in the business world. Read more about this article at:  https://www.bbvaopenmind.com/en/5-data-about-big-data/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=techreview&utm_campaign=MITcompany&utm_content=5bigdata 

Data analytics, especially the predictive ones, enable companies to obtain forward-looking insights they wouldn't otherwise have been privy to -- such as forthcoming changes in customer behavior and buying patterns, or the formation of new market segments as-of-yet unserved by the industry. The problem is that while you typically can't achieve the competitive edge you're looking for without analytics, you can't achieve it when you over-analyze, either which becomes a balancing act. Optimization is certainly a critical part of what companies should seek to derive from analytics, so too is innovation. Analytics becomes exclusively about finding ways to cut costs whereas also about finding ways to be cutting edge. It becomes about protecting today's existing revenue stream and should also be about finding tomorrow's new one. Thus, focusing too much on optimization can have the unintended effect of making organizations afraid to take on any risk. To know more, please read this interesting article by Joanna Schloss at: http://www.cmswire.com/cms/analytics/why-companies-cant-afford-to-go-overboard-with-analytics-029179.php

•  Adoption of digital technologies has led to a customer-centric set of services. These technologies are nowadays demanded by banks, financial services firms and insurance companies.   With the world becoming competitive, sectors such as banking, finance services and insurance industries and product development, delivery and customer engagement are now being driven by a more mobile, social and data driven experience. But, the financial industry is still way behind firms in the consumer and retail markets. Firms in financial industry must ensure that they build a foundation for digital change. Read more at:   http://blogs.sap.com/banking/2015/05/19/digital-innovation-in-banking/

According to Bill Baker (President/Owner, Speed to Excellence), manufacturing companies need to be innovative.  They need to keep on finding new ways to do a task. Companies and individuals need to be agile and flexible in gaining new skills. In manufacturing industry only three things matter. They are:

• People: Employees are the most valuable assets of the organizations. They can find innovative ways to make processes more efficient.
• Technology: It keeps on changing. To be competitive you need to adapt new technologies.
• Process: Process can be improved by reducing waste time and by improving quality and to improve process you can use lean six sigma.
Read more at: http://www.industryweek.com/leadership/what-does-future-hold-manufacturing

“Innovation is the specific instrument of entrepreneurship...the act that endows resources with a new capacity to create wealth.” 

-Peter F. Drucker

So, to create wealth, it’s important that we constantly innovate. And innovation is not the responsibility of few. It’s important that we understand the need to create a culture of innovation i.e. we should foster this sense of internal drive among all the members of the organization and then only, can we together move forward towards success.

Ken Lin, Founder and CEO, Credit Karma, in his article at Inc.com, has shared from his experience, six strategies to instill a culture of innovation in the company. They are:

• Give people a sense of ownerships
• Change constantly
• Hire upwards
• Know when to move quickly
• Make everyone a guardian of the product
• Protect the culture

To learn more, please visit the following link:

http://www.inc.com/ken-lin/6-strategies-for-building-a-culture-of-innovation.html

According to Saritha Rai (Contributor), e-commerce companies like Amazon, Snapdeal, ShopClues, Flipkart etc. find innovative solutions to timely delivery of their products by collaborating with Kirana stores, Dabbawallas in Mumbai, post office for reaching especially in rural areas and gas stations in Delhi and Mumbai. In a Morgan Stanley Report, Indian e-commerce market is expected to boom up to $100 billion in revenue by 2020. Timely delivery in the cities of India is a big challenge for e-commerce firms as roads are congested, streets are not numbered sequentially and customers many times don’t write zip codes or landmarks.  Finding these innovative solutions will not only benefit the e-commerce firms but it will also benefit local sources. To know more about these innovative solution read at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/saritharai/2015/04/15/from-dabbawallas-to-kirana-stores-five-unique-ecommerce-delivery-innovations-in-india/

According to Mike Dalton (Industry Week), innovation requires risk and the goal of a firewall is to identify that risk. The firewall block projects that score low on five feasibilities i.e. commercial, technical, manufacturability, regulatory and intellectual property. At the project charter stage, it is useful to identify all of the stakeholders and solicit their input on all the potential ways the project could fail and what the impact would be. A study of the telephony industry (Ogawa & Ketner, 1997) showed that bottom 80% performers cancelled nearly 30% of their projects late in the process and about top 20% top companies cancelled the same percentage of projects early. Read more at: http://www.industryweek.com/product-development/obstacles-new-product-growth

According to Sorcha Corcoran(Managing Editor at Whitespace Publishing Group), around eight years ago a division within Irish Life in Dublin decided to embrace Six Sigma which turned out to be a key driver of innovation. Six Sigma is a set of techniques and tools required for process improvement.The company found Six Sigma training useful because they came up with loads of fresh ideas.  Opportunities and problems are then picked up by the innovation team. This combined with market and customer research has helped them to drive specific innovations. Read more at: http://www.isixsigma.com/share.php?site=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.businessandleadership.com%2Fleadership%2Fitem%2F47367-six-sigma-driving%2F

Six Sigma has been the key driver for performance improvement for many companies. One of the structured innovation techniques that can be used for tactical innovation within the DMAIC cycles is the TRIZ methodology. One necessary aspect of the definition of innovation from our point of view is that it must result in a significant improvement for customers or some segment of society. One thing is certain, and that is the repeatable, reliable and predictable application of innovation is going to require putting some structure around it.  For an organization or company to be competitively excellent, innovation will be required of all and the only way to make that happen is to put structure into the innovation process. And of course, structure connotes Six Sigma. There's that cycle again-one leading to or needing the other.  According to Mikel Harry, a legitimate founder of Six Sigma, Six Sigma was designed and introduced to generate breakthrough improvement. And that is going to require innovation. Clearly, a balance is needed, for Six Sigma may not have been implemented as it should have been, or maybe the necessary structure for the realization of repeatable and reliable innovation has not yet been established. Nonetheless, it is both clear and proven that Six Sigma needs innovation and that innovation needs Six Sigma, and when they are united, innovation and Six Sigma are an unbeatable force. Read more at: 

http://www.processexcellencenetwork.com/innovation/articles/six-sigma-and-innovation/

The IT enterprise field is slowly going to a saturation point. But, this sector is still facing competition. To know more on the growth areas in IT sector, go through the article by Dion Hinchcliffe, an expert in IT and business strategy.

http://www.zdnet.com/the-enterprise-products-with-disruptive-potential-for-2014-7000027859/

An article by Hari Kelachankuttu, Change Facilitation Manager in Messier-Bugatti-Dowty (Safran Group) at Singapore, conveys that some organizations need to go a step further by setting financial savings targets by functions, departments or locations to have more granularities. As the challenges in the markets are getting complex business processes need to be continuously improved to overcome that.

To know more follow http://www.processexcellencenetwork.com/innovation/articles/continuous-improvement-and-the-trouble-with-metric/

How good is methodology when it comes to innovation? One key reason for going Agile is that it enables people to be creative and come up with ideas. With Agile, people are given freedom - but they need to understand what to do with it, as well as what they are expected to produce with it. There are certain challenges that makes Agile difficult to implement in the beginning but it will bring productivity in the long run. To know more about the challenges met, follow the article by Rebecca Leitch, writer in ESI International.

http://www.esi-intl.co.uk/blogs/pmoperspectives/index.php/2014/04/the-challenges-for-project-managers-to-overcome-when-going-agile/

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software which helps to monitor your customer relationship before and after the sale of your products and/or services is on the rise and it is expected to grow steadily over the next few years. Thanks to Internet of Technology (IoT), its emerging trends can make way of some serious innovations and investments in CRM space in a very short time. To stay ahead in the winning race, it is vital that you should focus on it.

There are some reasons to do so. At present, CRM zeroes in on employees’ efforts facilitation to help the customers. But in the next few years, a shift in the paradigm will take place roping in advanced analytics. With this, you can be able to predict customer happiness and behavior. Then you will be able to use Big Data to use the numbers that can help you to respond to customers’ wants and needs and in some cases even before the customers are aware that they need your service!

So, are you ready to hop on the new trend? Read more on the new trend here: http://midsizeinsider.com/en-us/article/the-internet-of-things-will-revolutioniz .

Balancing privacy, policy, and innovation is important to achieve harmony in health care, but, it is also difficult. While both population health and patient centered care seek to improve health care, at some level they are fundamentally at odds. Managing the health of population in a sustainable and scalable way requires uniformity of care across large groups for prevention, wellness, resource utilization, etc. Often, the most predictive clues about our health, exist in information that lives outside of traditional health care. This can be unearthed with the help of new innovations in Big Data. With the right policies and safeguards in place, trust can be established that will give individuals greater comfort and confidence to share information with their healthcare providers.

Harry Greenspun, MD and Senior Advisor for Health Care Technology and Transformation at the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions talks more about it here: http://blogs.deloitte.com/centerforhealthsolutions/2014/03/balancing-privacy-policy-and-innovation-to-achieve-harmony-in-health-care.html?id=gx:2sm:3tw:chsblog:awa:chs:032214:deloittehealth#

When it comes to delivering software, today’s business climate has three prerequisites for success: speed, agility, and innovation. While multi-year, expensive and bloated software initiatives were once a reality for some companies, today’s expectations for new projects are measured in days, weeks, and months. Today, leaders understand that a faster, iterative approach can result in faster development that is also of a higher quality.

To read more, Visit:

http://venturebeat.com/2014/03/10/continuous-delivery/

Advanced analytics is an opportunity to redefine the banking sector. Some banks will seize that opportunity and will be able to explore the market & gain significant market share. Just like, some banks had initiated providing ATMs & internet services to customers, in order to truly create a differentiated position for themselves, enabling them to achieve competitive advantage over the rest.

Innovators are using big data and analytics to sharpen risk assessment and drive revenue. Banks who are implementing data analytics will be in an advantageous position for some period of time, while other banks playing catch up. So there’s an opportunity to make some smart, targeted investments. If you want to sustain your banking business in today’s volatile market, Think big, Think innovation! Think analytics!

To Read more, Visit......

http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/business_technology/how_advanced_analytics_are_redefining_banking

#hrwins program has been started by LAROCQUE; the leading Strategy and GoToMarket Consulting firm for HR related technology. The main purpose of #hrwins program is to encourage innovation in HR Technology products.

The result of 2014 #hrwins program was announced, where 15 HR Technology firms received the distinction of “HR Companies to Watch”. Some of them are ADP, BlackbookHR, Ceridian, HireVue, Jibe etc.

For more information, please go through: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2014/03/prweb11659203.htm