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Well, it seems we just aren’t as innovative as we think are, and that fact has contributed to a steady and startling decline in what can be described as truly innovative products/services/companies in the past 50 years. In the 60’s there was a reported 50% success rate for new companies and products. In 2005, the Boston Consulting Group reported there was less than a 5% success rate in innovation. The Davis Research Group was able to shed some light on this decline by reporting that only 12% of growth initiatives are innovative “from the start.” In other words, business owners and manufacturers are not doing their homework . . . they’re re-inventing the wheel for lack of pre-production or pre-opening research, and contributing to their own demise.
True uniqueness, it was stated, is the single greatest predictor of profitability. And beyond developing a product or service that is simply “unique” from the producer’s viewpoint, creating a “meaningfully unique” product or service increases your chances of profitable success by 370%! Wow! So what is the definition of meaningful unique? It’s a product that is not only “new” (or an improved version of something that already exists), but which also makes a difference in someone’s life in some meaningful way . . . maybe a product that makes life easier for a disabled person . . . or a product that saves lives or inspires others in some way. How can you develop such an idea and create a business from it?
First and foremost . . . you need to think like a true entrepreneur, and develop a step-by-step method before you proceed:
1) You need first to generate ideas if you’re going to grow . . . lots of ideas to throw around, contemplate, and investigate the possibilities. And the best ideas will be those that give customers a “promise” – the promise of something better – a promise to solve a problem for them – a promise to make their lives easier or better or more interesting.
2) Prove your great idea works – There are lots of good ideas, but in this economy especially, people want proof before they purchase – they want to be dazzled – they want to know for sure that they cannot live without this product or service before they buy it. (Example: the very annoying OxyClean guy . . . you may find his voice annoying, but you can’t deny the product he sells works . . . he proves it in every infomercial . . . and OxyClean has done other innovative promotional “proof” sessions, including having people walk through neighborhoods with squirt bottles of the solution, spraying people’s shoes and cleaning them right on the spot. You can’t deny what you see before your eyes. So prove your product’s worth in whatever eye-catching way you can.
3) Develop your opportunity – Research . . . show your product, show your proof, get a feel for “who” your market is . . . if you can, consider hiring a specialist to pull everything together for you to help calculate the most reliable probability of success, how much you’ll sell, to whom, etc.
In closing the workshop, we were left with some advice -- “If you’re not unique, you’d better be cheap.” Need I say more?
Carol Daly reporting from South Carolina. The facts are the facts, but the article is
Copyrighted by Carol Auclair Daly-- 2009-2010
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