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CategoriesPartnersSpecial sectionsLifestyleArchivesIn the news | Making innovation work in today's environmentBill Carney, senior marketing professor at the Instituto de Empresa, Madrid, gave a most inspiring lecture at The Marketing Show in Bryanston, Johannesburg, yesterday, Monday, 4 May 2009. He wasn't actually here - in fact he was in a hospital bed in Geneva, but with a bit of technology, a wing and a prayer, he was able to deliver his talk to a captive audience.  His topic was Innovation in Today's Environment, and he offered the following 12 key points that companies should apply to ensure survival - and growth - in the down economy.1. Your offering Think about what you are offering your customer - specifically, what is the value proposition? Think of introducing new products or services. 2. Your platform Think about the platform that you are using to deliver your products or services. There is lots of technology that will allow you to add value. How do you do what you do? And are there new, more efficient ways to do the same thing, using a different platform? For instance, you might be doing something “face-to-face”, that can instead be done using online technology. 3. Your total solution Can you orchestrate a “stretch”? Even if it is laterally? Try to solve an end-to-end customer problem, by maybe entering into new partnerships. Try to sell the entire solution. For example: don't just sell an airline ticket, but also sell the pickup and drop-off service, accommodation bookings etc. 4. Look at the customer Think of your customer's unmet needs. A shop like Home Depot offers the complete customer solution. Don't think you can ask your customers what they want: they don't know, because they don't know what is possible. Rather, try to find their problems, and offer to solve them . 5. Experience Rethink the customer experience. Ask yourself how your customers interface with you. Change the experience the customer has with you. Can you do something different? What is the nature of the customers' feelings when they do business with you? Add value. Get their heart to go “boom boom” instead of just “tap tap”! 6. Value capture Redefine how you get paid or find new control points. As an example, compare Motorola, which gives its handsets away at huge discounts (implying that the phone is not worth the original price), and Apple, which not only charges a premium for the phone, but also take a share of the data packages sold with the phone. Where do you make your money? Where can you make more? 7. Process Innovate in your core operating processes. Don't get stuck with the old, accepted way of doing things. 8. Organisation Change form, function or scope of your firm. Consider outsourcing. 9. Supply chain Think differently about sourcing and fulfillment. Where do you get your stuff? Who delivers them? Under what conditions? Tighten your supply chain. Change your terms of service. Renegotiate payment terms. The worst that can happen is that your suppliers will say “no”. 10. Presence Create new channels or innovative points of presence . Ask yourself if you are everywhere that you could be. Move away from segments to communities. 11. Networking Create network-centric intelligent and integrated offerings. Be open to new marketing opportunities. 12. Brand Leverage the brand into new domains. Expand your product offering, riding the coattails of your brand's reputation. In conclusion, Carney said that Africa is, in a sense, occupying the “high ground” in the global scene. This can be leveraged for those who want to and can grasp the future. • Bizcommunity.com is a media partner for The Marketing Show.
About Eve DmochowskaEve Dmochowska is the idea facilitator at IdeaBank (www.ideabank.co.za)and keeps her time busy strategising the Internet space, deciphering the world of Web 2.0, and publishing the Internet Guide magazine (www.internetmagazine.co.za). She can be contacted at .
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