innovation insights

Apr 16, 2012

Ding-Dong, This is Your Wake-up Calling

Innovation Insights
One of a series by Ken Tencer, Spyder Works CEO

brand-empowerment

Dove speaks to “real beauty,” and Revlon to hope. There is Martha Stewart who has redefined the notion of ‘living’ and, of course ‘O’, the empowerment juggernaut.

But Avon Products is still best known for “ding-dong” – the century-old symbol of how they deliver, not what they deliver. Well, today the middle class are not at home during the day, they’re at work. And every business now provides in-home shopping, through the Internet, and next-day delivery.

Avon’s recent fourth-quarter results showed a sales drop of 4%. After 125 years, it needs a new direction. Avon needs to build on platform, not process. Avon needs to focus less on finding new ways to sell its products, and more on making people want to buy them. Capture the imagination of consumers, and they will want to find you. Avon should cull its 20-years-behind roster of celebrity endorsers and embrace the A-list: a socially interactive, engaging and inspiring life of beauty, glamour and style.

Process and delivery are important to every business-consumer relationship; be on-time, be in-stock, perform the way you promise – but today they are a “given.” What you make and how you deliver is not as important as how your customers perceive your brand’s ability to positively impact their lives.

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Mar 26, 2012

Too Big To Fail

Innovation Insights
One of a series by Ken Tencer, Spyder Works CEO

too-big-to-fail

While the assumption that a company or an industry could be “too big to fail” has been used mainly since the recent financial crisis, the notion itself has smugly resided in corporate boardrooms since the dawn of the modern corporation. “Our technology dominates the market, no need to worry,” said the buggy-whip maker to his horse.

Failure and evolution are a natural part of business, but sometimes it’s hard to watch. Sadly, we may now be witnessing the demise of a key industry giant in Kodak – a company that actually foresaw and invented the future, yet somehow managed not to learn from it.

As reported in the New York Times, “The big story here is that their core business, the yellow box business [film], got cannibalized by the digital camera, which ironically they invented,” said analyst Chris Whitmore of Deutsche Bank Securities.

The good news for investors is that Kodak’s management claims that the company is now soundly and strategically focused on digital printing technology – this in a world that is increasingly going paperless.  I don’t mean to pick on Kodak; they are not the first company or industry to resist change, nor will they be the last.

In an upcoming Innovation Insight entitled “Fueling Green,” we will look at how the auto industry is managing changing technologies very well by re-imagining their own future… and actively trying to adapt.

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Mar 19, 2012

The XYZs of Gesture Control

Innovation Insights
One of a series by Ken Tencer, Spyder Works CEO

Optimizing-Innovation-90-rule

Keyboarding is slow; mice are passé. Voice recognition is still flawed.  In future, you may interact with computers (and many other devices) simply by gesturing. A Canadian company called XYZ Interactive Technologies is using inexpensive infrared technology to power embedded sensors that enable you to control devices without touching them. Explains XYZ’s CEO, Michael Kosic,”The future battle for consumers of User Interfaces will be fought in 3D”.

Think of an iPad that you don’t even have to touch, because your hand movements (not the press of your smudging fingers) control the device. Or consider the potential for hands-free operation of devices in order to keep environments more sterile by reducing the transference of germs by contact.

Whatever field you are in, innovation isn’t only about invention; it’s also about solving problems by making existing products and services work better – one breakthrough at a time. As a business strategy, innovation is about recognizing ideas that will touch your customer’s lives in a positive, impactful way. Or not touch them, I guess, if you are part of a group of engineers re-thinking the whole notion of interaction.

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