TABLE OF CONTENTS "By 2010, products representing more than 70 percent of today's sales will be obsolete due to changing customer demands and competitive offerings."
Deloitte Research LLC Global Benchmark Study "Mastering Innovation," Exploiting Ideas for Profitable Growth , March 2004
So why bother? Why go through all this pain, thinking, and expense to bring new products and services to market? Why expend company resources, scarce R&D funds, and valuable production capacity for new products that are unproven and high risk? Why stress already tired employees to solve new problems? Why ask financial support people and bankers to extend yet another line of credit? Really, aren't these the ultimate questions? A few of us invent for the love of science or for the thrill and pride associated with forming and birthing a new idea. Call it the entrepreneurial spirit, but still, none of that thrill, pride, or spirit pays the bills, keeps the creditors at bay, makes the shareholders happy, or keeps the customers coming back. This chapter discusses the direct influence of innovation on a firm's valuation in both the financial market and the market of public opinion.
Answering "why bother?" brings us to our next I-Factor:
I-Factor 10: Good new product design, development, and fielding, in the long term, sustain corporations.
In this chapter, we [1] will provide proof of factor 10.
No amount of financial wrangling, merger mania, or technology hype can replace the benefit of consistent new product introductions based on innovation in both product and...
