2 Idea Screen

Question 1

How can the strategic gap analysis help to identify strategic gaps? How can we distinguish between operational and strategic gaps?

Answer 1

• The analysis starts with identifiying a possible strategic gap: is the current strategy sufficient for reaching the goals?

Question 2

How can innovations be classified using their degree of newness? Which two dimensions should be analysed?

Answer 2

• Market/ Technology matrix:
  
  • Market (segment)
    
    • new
    • related
    • familiar
  • Technology (ies):
    
    • new
    • partially familiar
    • familiar

Question 3

Which strategy level in a company should be differentiated? And what is their role in the innovation process?

Answer 3

• 1. level: Owner Strategy
• 2. Level: Corporate Strategy
• 3. Level: Business Strategy
• 4. Level: Function Strategy

The owner and the corporation strategy serve as guardrail for the whole company. The business strategy defines focus products, applicants and regions. The function strategy (R&D in this case) derives a strategy baseed upon the corporate/owner and business strategies.

Question 4

How can we distinguish between innovation, technology and R&D management?

Answer 4

• Innovation Management: developing and successfully commercializing new products
• Technology Management: Building, acquiring and selling new knowledge
• R & D Management: Transferring Knowledge and ideas into new products or processes

Question 5

Why does innovation put problems to controlling and performance measurement?

Answer 5

• R & D faces three different challenges:
  
  • uncertainty
  • immateriality
  • time lag to success

=> There are obstacles to the use of traditional management techniques

Question 6

What is the overall objective of an innovation strategy?

Answer 6

To secure the companies long term competitiveness versus the competition by developing leading edge technologies and products.

A complementary defined and pereived R&D strategy is prerequisite! Also an implementation and communication plan is useful.

Question 7

Which questions should be answered in an innovation/ R&D strategy?

Answer 7

Question 8

What is an innovation gap? And why does it occur?

Answer 8

• In technology’s maturity phase, the change to a new, emerging technology often results in a performance decrease
• if the new project from the product pipeline do not compensate for the revenue decline, an innovation gap results

Question 9

What are the advantages and disadvantages of a first-mover strategy?

Answer 9

• First-mover (unique and benefit-increasing product/ cost-efficient product design/ manufacturing method)
  
  • advantages:
    
    • market entry barriers
    • leadership, brand building
    • skimming the pioneer profits
    • experience curve, economies of scale
    • creation of switching costs
    • occupy resources
  • disadvantages:
    
    • high costs for opening markets
    • threat of imitation & free-rider
    • high uncertainty

Question 10

What are the advantages and disadvantages of a follower strategy?

Answer 10

• follower (imitation: decrease costs/ avoid developemnt expenses/ customize product to market needs)
  
  • advantages:
    
    • cost advantages in R&D and manufacturing
    • lower technology and market uncertainty
    • lower risk for technology paradigm shifts
    • adapting to established standards
  • disadvantages:
    
    • overcoming possible existing market entry barriers
    • requires to breaking up existing business relations
    • catching up to the innovator’s experience curve

Question 11

What are ingredients of the technology-attractiveness/ strength of resources matrix? What are possible implications of the matrix?

Answer 11

• Technology-attractiveness:
  
  • acceptance from the environment
  • width of possible applications
  • potential for further development
  • compatibility
• strength of resources:
  
  • technical and qualitative mastery level
  • potentials (financial personnel, infrastructural resources)
  • reaction time
  • patents, licenses

Question 12

Creativity Tools and Techniques: Brainstorming

Answer 12

• The problem to solve should be clearly defined as well as all criteria which have to be met
• comfortable and enthusiastic uncritical attitude among members, everyone should contribute
• one person should record the ideas
• let people have fun
• make sure that sufficient number of different ideas is generated
• 5 Minutes Rule:
  
  • anyone suggest an idea
  • next 5 minutes only positive comments are allowed
  • feedback for every idea is absolutely necessary regarding to future ideas

Question 13

Creativity Tools and Techniques: Brainwriting (6-3-5-Method)

Answer 13

• 6 people should write 3 ideas in 5 minutes on a piece of paper and then give it the next one to develop the ideas further

Question 14

Creativity Tools and Techniques: Slip writing method

Answer 14

• type of brainstorming
• written ideas on slips/ sticky notes
• gives the opinion of all team members equal weights, regardless how “loud” they are

Question 15

Creativity Tools and Techniques: Edison Brainstorming

Answer 15

??

Question 16

Creativity Tools and Techniques: Reverse Brainstorming

Answer 16

• the problem/ challenge is identified and written down
• reverse the problem by asking things like “how could i possibly cause the problem?”
• brainstorm the reverse problem to generate reverse solution ideas. free flow of ideas necessary, no rejection
• reverse them into solution ideas for the origin problem
• evaluate these solution ideas

Question 17

Creativity Tools and Techniques: Starburtsing

Answer 17

• Write the words “Who”, “What”, “Why,” “Where,” “When,” and “How” at the tip of each point of the star
• Brainstorm questions about the idea or product starting with each of these words. The questions radiate out from the central star. Don’t try to answer any of the questions as you go along. Instead, concentrate on thinking up as many questions as you can

Question 18

Creativity Tools and Techniques: Charette Procedure

Answer 18

When an idea-generating session has numerous related issues or numerous stakeholders, simple brainstorming is often inadequate. The Charette Procedure involves organizing people into several small groups, each of which brainstorms ideas one-after-the-other until everyone involved had a chance to contribute fully

Question 19

Creativity Tools and Techniques: Metaphorical Thinking

Answer 19

• metaphor = direct comparison between two unrelated or indirectly linked things
• metaphors can create strong images that can be used to great effect in everyday communications and thinkings

Question 20

Creativity Tools and Techniques: The 5 Whys

Answer 20

• The question “why” is asked 5 times
• then you may have come to the real cause of a problem
• find a solution for it

Question 21

Creativity Tools and Techniques: Provocation

Answer 21

• lateral thinking method: move your thinking outside of established patterns
• make deliberately stupid statements (=provocations)
  
  • stupid statements shock our minds out of existing ways of thinking
  • we suspend judegement
  • use that to generate ideas
• provocations give us original starting points for creative thinking

Question 22

Creativity Tools and Techniques: Random Input

Answer 22

• lateral thinking technique
• we tend to think by recognizing patterns and apply known solutions
• random input links other thinking patterns into the ones we are using
• helps us move outside our normal way of thinking

Question 23

Creativity Tools and Techniques: Scamper

Answer 23

SCAMPER is a checklist that helps you to think of changes you can make to an existing product to create a new one. You can use these changes either as direct suggestions or as starting points for lateral thinking.

• *S** – Substitute – components, materials, people.
• *C** – Combine – mix, combine with other assemblies or services, integrate.
• *A** – Adapt – alter, change function, use part of another element.
• *M** – Modify – increase or reduce in scale, change shape, modify attributes (e.g. colour).
• *P** – Put to another use.
• *E** – Eliminate – remove elements, simplify, reduce to core functionality.
• *R** – Reverse – turn inside out or upside down, or use Reversal.

Question 24

Creativity Tools and Techniques: Morphological Analysis and Matrix Analysis

Answer 24

• good techniques for finding new combinations of products or services
• list the attributes of the product, service or strategy
• draw up a table uising these attributes as column headings
• write down as many variations as possible per column
• select one entry from each column (randomly or by interest)
• result = new product/ service/ strategy
• results are evaluated and improved

Question 25

Creativity Tools and Techniques: Osborn’s Checklist

Answer 25

• tool to support concept generation
• comprehensive list of questions about ideas and problems
  
  • adapt? modify? magnify? minify? substitute? rearrange? reverse? combine?

Question 26

Creativity Tools and Techniques: Mind Map

Answer 26

• write subject title which should be explöred and draw a circle around
• draw lines out of the circle for major subdivisions or subheadings
• other level are added by other lines
• facts/ ideas are linked to the related subheading

Question 27

Creativity Tools and Techniques: Open Innovation

Answer 27

Throughout the years several factors emerged that paved the way for open innovation

paradigms:

1. The increasing availability and mobility of skilled workers
2. The growth of the venture capital market
3. External options for ideas sitting on the shelf
4. The increasing capability of external suppliers

Question 28

Creativity Tools and Techniques: Scenarios

Answer 28

• different scenarios are mapped (e.g. matrix) by varying key scenario variables and evaluate the outcomes of different combinations
• this is done in order to be prepared for future events
• possible extension: add likelihood, calculate NPV. BUT: questionable because this game is only played once

Question 29

What are Porter’s Five Forces?

Answer 29

• New entrants: Threat of new market entrants
  
  • influenced by degree of retaliation, control over resources, switching costs, capital need, product differentiation, access to distribution channels, patents etc
• Buyers: Bargaining power of buyers
  
  • increases with; concentration of buyers, buyer’s share of the company’s total sales, product standardization, low switching costs, declining profits of the buyer, credible backward integration threats of the buyer, market and cost transparency
• Substitutes: Threat of substitutes
  
  • relevant: customer utlity, measures: cross-price elasticities, switching customers
• Suppliers: Bargaining power of suppliers
  
  • increases with: small number of suppliers, non-availability of substitutes, low relevance of the buyer for the supplier, relevance of the delivered products for the buyer, switching costs for the buyer
• Competitors in the industry: Threat of new market entrants
  
  • rivalry increases with: large number of competitors, slow market growth, economies of scale effects, high fixed costs, over-capacities, low levels of differentiation, low switching costs, high strategic stakes, high ecit barriers

Question 30

What is the PESTEL Analysis?

Answer 30

• The Pestel-Analysis combines the industry perspective of Porter’s five forces with an macro environment perspective using the following six dimensions:
  
  • environment
  • political
  • economic
  • legal
  • technological
  • socio-cultural

Question 31

What is “technology-push” and “market-pull”?

Answer 31

• technology push: the company/ R&D department develops a product and places it on the market in order to create customer need
• market pull: the company satisfies existing customer needs with a product brought to the market