The Advanced Technology Group is a network consisting of nine independent Danish research and technology organisations – the GTS institutes – who have developed the 110 proposals currently filed at ‘Better Innovation’ (www.bedreinnovation.dk).
Here is the sad news: The vast majority (if not all) of the proposals relate to products and services. I am sorry, but this is wrong. Too strong product innovation focus does not pay off.
We do know that approximately 3 out of 4 companies in our region spend their innovation resources on product (or service) innovation. However, we also know that innovation is much more than that, and that a productive innovation is highly dependent upon a 360 degrees innovation effort covering not just offerings-oriented innovation, but also customer-, operations-, and network-oriented innovation. We even have proven tools to measure the actual balance of innovation efforts in an organization.
Given the GTS institutes objective to disseminate new knowledge and technology to companies and public institutions in order to support innovation and development, why do they severely lack the broader and widely accepted holistic approach to innovation?
There is just another two weeks until proposal deadline. I hope the GTS Institutes (who are the only ones recruited to provide innovation proposals) will demonstrate a capability to innovate on other dimensions than offerings – be it customer experiences, communication, value capture, management, channels or ecosystems…