Nike: Alive and kicking

Nike has a research & development process that is very well aligned with marketing objectives. It hopes that the two-pronged approach – the detail of product innovation and "premium club" feel of online – will give the global sports company the edge when it comes to its titanic battle with the two other sports behemoths – Adidas and Puma – for supremacy in the sportswear and leisure market…


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‘Natural’ UI Will Be the Wave of the Future

There's a new computing revolution coming and it's not based on a keyboard and a mouse. Instead, it will be based on touch, gestures, spoken language, and even painting -- what is becoming known as "natural user interface" or NUI…


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How Google's Ad System Stifles Innovation

The European Commission has launched the first-ever official antitrust inquiry into Google's search and search advertising services. Despite Google's estimated 90 percent share of the European search advertising market, it hasn't necessarily done anything illegal. But its stranglehold may still be a prohibitive barrier to competitors, present and future…


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Why the Rock Band Network is the Greatest Innovation since Colored Buttons

Rock Band Network, which was announced last year, has just been released in open beta, which means anyone with the gall to hit up their multi-track recorders can begin programming songs into the system by downloading the software. Of course, this all comes at a price, since creating your own songs will technically classify you as a developer you'll have to register at the XNA Creator's Club for $100 a year before you can start running the software…


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A Little Chip Designed by Apple Itself

The most notable aspect of Apple's new iPad is the A4, the chip that powers the tablet device and was developed in house. As we first highlighted last week, the A4 chip is the first fruit to come of Apple's 2008 acquisition of P.A. Semi, a low-power chipmaker. Recent upticks in supplier and channel risk have made vertical integration an especially attractive strategic decision for many firms. In periods of increased volatility, a collection of diversified businesses provides executives visibility into currently volatile leading indicators of performance, and this information could lead to smarter capital-allocation decisions…


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Where innovation creates value

Value innovation is defined as delivering exceptional value to the most important customer in the value chain all the time, every time. Unlike other forms of innovation, the most important customer can be internal or external to the organization. Exceptional value can be delivered in many other ways besides a new product or service. It could be a new process, a new way of going to market or business model, a new way of delivering the product or service, new packaging, or new services. Any organization of any size, whether for-profit or not-for-profit, an association, a government agency, a school board and so on can use the value innovation methodology. Support groups within an organization such as IT, finance, purchase and human resource can use these tools to deliver much greater value to the most important customers in their business units…


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Is Your Company Brave Enough for Business Model Innovation?

IBM is in a process of introducing its "Spoken Web" to help market its ERP program in areas where literacy rate is low. Historically, the company has come up with new complementary business models when it brought new products into the market…


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10 Ways to Identify an Impending Product Launch Disaster

Pragmatic Marketing presents 10 ways to identify an impending product launch disaster: 1) there are no goals for the product launch; 2) the launch strategy is based on a set of deliverables from a launch "checklist;" 3) the launch plan contains unrealistic timeframes and expectations; 4) sales enablement training is based on product features; 5) significant effort is spent creating collateral for people who never read it; 6) no single person is responsible for driving product launch results; 7)the launch plan is based on hunches, not market evidence; 8) the launch plan mimics your competitor; 9) existing customers are not adequately considered in the launch plan; 10) the launch team isn't a team. This article points out solutions to each of the problems.


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Five Technologies That Could Change Everything

Space-based solar power, advanced car batteries, utility storage, carbon capture and storage and next generation biofuels are the disruptive technologies which will likely change everything in the next few decades…


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