Innovation, new product development and why do new products fail?

Companies find opportunities in product innovation by providing new products and services to customers. This keeps current customers interested in doing business with the company and has the potential to attract new customers. Sometimes this is done by creating new products, greatly changing an existing product or by just changing the way the current product is presented. Another form of product innovation is branding. By creating a more positive brand image a company can keep the interest of consumers.

3. Companies hope to lower their overall cost structure or improve the quality or functionality of their product offering which allows them to compete more effectively by engaging in

I would define innovation as the ability to apply this creative thinking to an existing product, solution or approach that improves the outcome of a solution to a problem or usefulness of a product. Innovation is the ability to put creative thoughts to use in a way that is beneficial to a person, product, object, problem or situation. .

If you are searching for a definition for innovation you can find a number of different ones. Basically they all include the idea of creating something new. Referring this idea to business, the definition of Westland seems to be appropriate. It says an ‘innovation is a product or service with a bundle of features that is – as a whole – new in the market, or that is commercialised in some new way it opens up new users and consumer groups for it’ (Westland 2008, p. 6). According to that, innovations can occur for products, services, processes and business models (Stamm 2008). Beside these categories, there are three different levels of innovations, depending on the degree of novelty involved: incremental innovations are minor changes. When implementing these changes, something is done in a better way than it has been already done before, so there’s nothing significantly new. Substantial innovations are mid-level in significance both to customers and to the company (Tucker 2008). Radical innovations, also known as breakthrough innovations, transform the way you think and have a big impact on the company and the customers in a whole (Tucker 2008; Bessant & Tidd 2008).

Featured in this and many of the other theories and definitions for Innovation, are two strong common elements. Firstly the notion that innovation involves something new, original or improved and secondly the suggestion that this creates value and generally refers to an idea that changing processes or improves effectiveness or efficiency of a product, process or organisation. For businesses, this could mean implementing new ideas, creating dynamic products or improving existing services. Innovation can be a catalyst for the growth and success of a business, and help to adapt and grow in the marketplace.

Innovation is a term I’ve frequently heard in the realm of business and technology implying new and or different methods leading to

performance, reliability, and quality of the end product are the most important aspect of the project and cost at that point is no longer the main focus.

Innovation is an idea that must be cost-effective and must gratify a precise need. Innovation includes careful application of information, imagination and creativity in stemming greater or different values from resources, and includes all processes by which new ideas are generated such as brainstorming and converted into useful products.

Innovation is a term that is so widely used and thought of as simple inventions, but it is truly so much more. Innovation is a complex thought process of new ideas that can be implemented for the betterment of many. Change and adaption within any environment is the foundation of innovation and identifying its sources make it easier to implement innovation. The easier it is to foster an innovative environment and inject innovation; a positive impact on a business is instantly seen

Innovations form the main sources of competitive advantages and are always of significance for the growth of a company. Companies or organizations put their greater efforts in improving their performance by finding new ideas and knowledge on the best way of beating their competitors and therefore give satisfaction to their customers. There are various factors involved in the innovation design system which can be either internal or external.

Investing in research and development to create new product line or enhance current products adds considerable expenses. Development costs will need to be re-cooped. This will keep competitors in check, but will be challenging to keep pricing competitive.

First and foremost, Ian Linton stated that, development teams that work on new products or improving the existing ones should take account of customer needs by reviewing market research or customer feedback. However, teams dominated by technologists or engineers may focus on product features that are attractive or interesting to them but not necessarily important to customers. The result is likely to be a product that may lead competitors in terms of features and performance but has little appeal to the market. The revenue from the new product is therefore unlikely to cover the costs of development, making it a poor

Innovation is normally used to denote the process that takes place when a product or a process is developed, from idea to market; the concept of invention only denotes the process that takes place when new ideas or solutions are generated. Baumol (2002) argues “is it possible to have lots of inventions and still lack innovations. Nevertheless, inventions are a necessary precondition for innovation”.

Innovation refers to finding new ways to improve the existing products, services, processes, technologies, and employee performance in an organizational setup. In today's competitive business environment, organizations have to focus on bringing innovation in each and every aspect of their business operations; like products or service offerings, enterprise resource planning systems, marketing and promotional efforts, and organizational structure. The market challenges and competitive pressures also force organizations to use a blend of all these innovation processes in their business activities. Therefore, it is vital to give an equal focus on product innovation, process innovation, marketing innovation, and organizational innovation within the limited organizational resources and capabilities.

The word ‘innovation’ is derived from Latin word ‘innovare’, which means “to change something to new”. In other words, we may say that ‘innovation’ means changing the regular way of doing things and involves doing the regular things in a novel way.