Forget About Trying to Create Customer Needs Many people believe that the most innovative companies create customer needs with breakthrough new products. Nobody knew they needed an iPhone, the thinking goes, until Apple created the need for it. Hence, if you want to be an innovation leader, you should find ways to create customer needs. ...

Increase Your ROI on R&D In a recent McKinsey survey, 84 percent of global executives reported that innovation is important to growth strategy. Yet only 6 percent are satisfied with their innovation performance. That’s a staggering 94 percent dissatisfied rate — worse than Congress! Perhaps even more disheartening is the finding that very few of ...

How to Differentiate in a Mature Market Driving growth in mature markets is hard. By definition, a market is “mature” when most of the customers’ needs are well-satisfied. The reason it’s so hard to differentiate, innovate and gain market share is because there are very few unsatisfied needs left to exploit. This situation tends to ...

Drive Growth By Redefining Your Market Definition of a market: “A medium that allows buyers and sellers of a specific good or service to interact in order to facilitate an exchange.” — Investopedia Note that this definition is based on current goods and services. Consequently, it should be no surprise that many business leaders define their markets ...

Why ‘Failing Faster’ is Often Folly “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that didn’t work.” — Thomas Edison This famous quote is often used to encourage rapid prototyping or launching minimum viable products (MVPs) as they are called in lean startup parlance. But to hold up Edison as an exemplar of this ...

Keynote Speaker, 8:30 a.m. October 14 at Legal Marketing Association Texas Think Tank. This event is in partnership with the LMA Texas Chapter. Flyer and conference information here.

Complimentary Executive Breakfast: “The One Discipline That Enables Companies to Consistently Drive Innovation and Growth.” (Invitation only). Executive guest panel and former clients will share what they have learned about innovation and growth: Darci Congrove, Managing Partner, GBQ Partners Jeff Baker, Head of New Products and Market Research, NetJets Curtis Crocker, Managing Partner, Reservoir Venture Partners Attendees ...

TIGER Talk “Pivoting Innovation: New Ways to Drive Growth” Urko recently had an opportunity to speak at Innovate New Albany, one of the startup incubators in the Central OH area. About 50 people attended from local companies, large organizations and startup entrepreneurs. Jessica Pirro of Innovation New Albany wrote the recap below. This information is ...

3 Reasons Why Nike is Effective at Driving Growth One of my favorite companies to watch is Nike. They keep doing things right, including driving growth at more than 10 percent annually even with sales of $30.6 billion last year. But that’s not what inspires me; their big numbers are just evidence of their effectiveness. ...