Innovation @ Merage - UCI Paul Merage School of Business : Retail/Wholesale

Do You Matter? How Great Design Will Make People Love Your Company

Lynda Lawrence — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 23:30:00 GMT

By: Robert Brunner and Stewart Emory, FT Press (2009).

If you know anyone in love with an iPhone, you may understand the feelings that Brunner and Emery describe. According to them, this fierce devotion extends past the product to the company, and enables Apple to charge higher prices and be forgiven for any mistakes.

Does this apply to companies that don’t make the latest must-have gadget? Only if you concentrate on designing the customer experience as carefully as Apple has designed the entire experience of an iPhone purchase: the meticulous product design, the anticipation, the storytelling, the retail stores full of techies to answer questions, the exquisite packaging, the intuitive interface, the geniuses who do the set up, the follow-up emails, and the easy (and often free) downloading of thousands of apps you never realized you wanted.

If, and only if, you create a company that is focused on creating better-than-expected customer experiences, you can reap the benefits. That means top-down permission to play, no cutting corners, no incremental changes substituting for innovation (think Razr phones), quick prototyping, and even quicker response to the market (think GM).

While the recommendations are easier to apply to a product-focused company, they will apply to services. If you’re in charge of a small company that needs to innovate, or in charge of design and need to sell your ideas company-wide, this would be a good book to use.
I’d give it an 8.5 on the LL innovation meter—not a lot of new insight, but a persuasive argument.

Innovation Trickles in a New Direction

admin — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 20:55:00 GMT

Abstract: General Electric, Nokia and other companies are creating entry-level products for emerging nations and then repackaging them for more affluent countries in a process known as trickle-up innovation.

Published: March 9, 2009

Authors: Reena Jana

Link: BusinessWeek

P&G's Innovation Culture

admin — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 21:22:00 GMT

Abstract: How we built a world-class organic growth engine by investing in people.

Published: Autumn 2008

Authors: A.G. Lafley with Ram Charan

Link: strategy+business

The Customer is the Company

admin — Fri, 23 May 2008 17:04:00 GMT

Abstract: Threadless churns out dozens of new items a month - with no advertising, no professional designers, no sales force and no retail distribution. And it's never produced a flop. A look inside the most innovative small company in America.

Published: Inc. Magazine, June, 2008
Authors: Max Chafkin

Link: http://www.inc.com/magazine/20080601/the-customer-is-the-company.html

Finding the Right Job for Your Product

admin — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 14:38:00 GMT

Abstract: “The way a company views its markets determines what it decides to produce, how it will take those products to market, who it believes its competitors to be, and how large it believes its market opportunities to be. Most companies segment along lines defined by the characteristics of their products (category or price) or customers (age, gender, marital status and income level) because that is the most easily accessible type of data, but product and customer characteristics are poor indicators of customer behavior because that is not how markets are structured from the customer’s perspective…”

Published: MIT Sloan Management Review, Spring 2007, Vol. 48, No. 3, pp. 38-47; Reprint 48301; (free for subscribers or, fee for download / reprints)
Authors: Clayton M. Christensen, Scott D. Anthony, Gerald Berstell and Denise Nitterhouse

Link: http://sloanreview.mit.edu/smr/issue/2007/spring/01/