Posts Tagged 'cordis'

Customers really are the hands that feed you!

Published June 16, 2008 Customers Leave a Comment
Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

On Thursday I was up at the House of Commons to attended a workshop run by the National Business Awards entitled “Innovation, Evolution or Revolution”.  http://www.antara.co.id/en/arc/2008/6/12/uk-plc-must-invest-more-in-r&d-to-compete-worldwide-report/.  I really enjoy visiting Westminster Palace and keep telling myself that I must make the time to take the family on the tour of parliament.  The event itself was hosted by Andy Love MP, Chair for All-party Parliamentary Group for Small Business.  It was well staged with a nice mix of panellists (including Lord Karan Bilimoria, Founder and Chairman Cobra Beer Ltd, and Martin Lyne,  Marketing Director of Small and Medium Enterprise Orange), and there were certainly no punches spared in a fairly damming assessment of innovation in the UK.

 

One particularly interesting statistic that came out (originally from a Cordis report, “The Power of Customers to Drive Innovation”, www.cordis.europa.eu) is that while most companies recognise customer conservatism and lack of awareness as principle obstacles to innovation, only 15% of UK companies engage with customers in developing product innovations.  Some of the panel thought this would all be down to manufacturers and that service companies are much more in tune to customer needs.  On the latter point, h

ow often have you walked down the High Street only to see the shop-fitters’ van outside that sought-after bijou retail outlet, just crying out for more Gaudy Gifts and Scented Candles or for that matter yet another mobile phone shop, and think “I give it six months”.  No,

it’s not just manufacturers that fail to do the blindingly obvious thing and ask potential customers what they think

, even if they do run the odd product focus group.

A few years ago at SInC, www.sinc.co.uk,  we made the decision that even within a technology incubator environment where investment is often seen as the key driver, for most companies trying to find a customer was a much more productive first step than searching for an investor.  We therefore changed the focus of our activity from finance, business plans, investment pitches and business angels to sales, marketing, product presentations and customer networks.  This change has been instrumental in maintaining such a high success rate in building sustainable businesses.  It also helps to reduce the time to market for many new products and technologies.  We have been pleasantly surprised by the positive reaction of large corporates to provide constructive input and customer mentoring to our companies.

Customers really are the hands that feed you.

Mike Herd, Sussex Innovation – June 16th 2008