Simplifying Innovation

What mistakes do you think Apple made?

Michael A. Dalton — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 15:54:59 +0000

It’s rare to see Apple make a mistake, and while the press is having a field day with the current iPhone 4 issues, it’s unlikely this will be any more than a tiny little bump in the road for Mr. Jobs and company. But for the rest of us, the most interesting part could be identifying [...]

Jolt your new product results

Michael A. Dalton — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 02:22:34 +0000

Looking for a way to accelerate your new product results and get more from your new product processes? Here are three steps you can take to caffeinate your innovation. 1. Narrow your focus While concentrating too hard on one thing can cause you to mistake the forest for the trees, that’s hardly the problems in companies today. [...]

Language that sells

Michael A. Dalton — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 16:47:08 +0000

You may have the greatest new product or service in the world, but if you can’t get buyers’ attention and communicate in their language, you will struggle with accelerating new product development. Here are four levels that your marketing and sales must follow to effectively capture customers’ attention and lead them through the buying process. 1. Strong [...]

Is the internet hurting your innovation?

Michael A. Dalton — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 23:39:07 +0000

In his new book, The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to our Brains , Nicholas Carr, outlines several ways that the always on, 24/7 nature of the internet is a double-edged sword – providing us with unprecedented access to information while at the same time slashing our attention span, re-wiring our brains, and [...]

Invisible gorilla of unmet customer needs

Michael A. Dalton — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 13:00:40 +0000

In their new book, The Invisible Gorilla: And Other Ways Our Intuitions Deceive Us, Chabris and Simons share a story where study participants were tasked with counting the number of times a basketball was passed during a one-minute film. Halfway through the film, someone in a gorilla suit walks through the picture while beating his [...]

Low prices work – If you’re Walmart

Michael A. Dalton — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 13:26:06 +0000

How many think that what something costs should determine its price? Probably quite a few of you. This paradigm might work if you are the buyer, but is costing you lots if you allow it to operate on the selling side of your business. No one wants to do all the work accelerating product development only [...]

Are you a target for disruption?

Michael A. Dalton — Mon, 24 May 2010 21:06:45 +0000

Have you seen the commercials yet for Sharp’s new four color TV’s. You know, the ones with George Takei, Star Trek’s Mr. Sulu, dressed up like some kind of TV scientist while delivering his campy trademark “Oh My!” Wondering what it has to do with development of new products? It’s just one of many recent [...]

Can your innovation be too flexible?

Michael A. Dalton — Mon, 10 May 2010 16:13:55 +0000

A frustrated business executive recently asked me to help diagnose his company’s new product development processes. They had taken several new products most of the way through design only to have to go back and revise the design, and he felt like they were starting to go in circles. When I asked what had caused the [...]

BP’s Big Spill: Lesson for your new products?

Michael A. Dalton — Tue, 04 May 2010 19:10:19 +0000

Yesterday I heard BP’s COO, Doug Suttles, admit that it could take months to get the Deepwater Horizon disaster under control. The journalist interviewing him jumped on that by asking why BP didn’t have a back-up plan in place before the spill. Of course, there’s a political and legal tsunami coming for BP, so Suttles [...]

Is Apple’s iPad really all that innovative? And what the answer means for your new products

Michael A. Dalton — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 14:29:07 +0000

Well it looks like Steve Jobs has done it again. Not only has the iPhone become the largest source of Apple’s revenue, the iPad introduction has far exceeded most analysts expectations at 300,000 units. But come on – can you really call the iPad inventive? It’s just a tablet PC. After all, hasn’t that already been [...]