TIM Lecture 10

Question 1

Analysis of needs and demand: Tools

Answer 1

• How will the market / techno- logy develop in the long run?(Delphi analysis, long term)
• Are there attractive niches in the market? (Positioning, medium term)
• What should the ideal product look like? (Conjoint analysis, short term)
• What are the risks of the innovation? (Risk analysis)

Question 2

Delphi Analysis

Answer 2

• Choice and formulation of problem
• Identification of participating experts
• Experts receive and fill out a questionnaire
• Questionnaires are evaluated
• Request to justify responses that deviate from average
• Feedback to experts (Loop to the third one)
• Delphi projection

Question 3

Delphi Analysis pros and cons

Answer 3

Pros
- suitable for long-term predictions in complex situations with little structure (on topics related to needs, demand, technology, ...)
- avoids group pressure
- convergence of expert
opinions
- holistic approach

Cons

• time-consuming
• participants may drop out
• no sound theoretical basis
• no direct discussion between experts
• results depending on choice of experts

Question 4

Positioning

Answer 4

Positioning models provide a quick overview over the market.
They allow to identify niches and opportunities for innovation.
Basic idea: Reduce dimensionality of relevant space

Question 5

Conjoint Analysis

Answer 5

Conjoint analysis” denotes methods of preference analysis that allow to derive the preference for individual characteristics and realizations from “holistic” judgments.

Question 6

Conjoint Analysis: Pros and cons

Answer 6

Pros:

• Natural decision situation
• Respondents are not overstrained
• Importance of characteristics (e.g., horsepower) and realizations (100 / 150 / 200) is identified
• K.O. criteria and trade-offs are identified

Cons:

• Only limited number of characteristics / realizations possible
• Correct choice of relevant characteristics required

Question 7

Monitoring: Methods of data collection

Answer 7

• Fieldobservation (Test of new products, reverse engineering, visits to factories)
• Direct contact to experts (e.g., scientists, lead users: Long-standing cooperation, interviews)
• Indirect contact to experts (via consultants, contacts within JVs and licensing agreements)
• Publications (Technical / academic, company publications, industry news, conference proceedings, patent reports)
• Databases (Patents, business data (possibly panel data)
• Organizations (Industry associations, networks)

Question 8

Roadmapping

Answer 8

Technology strategy should account for both the product and technology space => roadmapping is a tool that helps in this regard

Roadmapping:
“process that contributes to the integration of business and technology and to the definition of technology strategy by displaying the interaction between products and technologies over time”

Product and technology roadmap are linked in order to analyze the use of and need for technologies.

Question 9

Benefits of roadmapping

Answer 9

• Establishment of a shared product-technology strategy
• Interlinked approach for long-range product and technology planning
• Stimulation of learning and improvement of cross-functional communication
• Improvement of time-to-market and time-to-money

Question 10

Summary

Answer 10

• Design, implementation of innovation strategy depends on the availability of high-quality information
• A sheer endless list of tools exist which can be applied to generate and analyze information, or help devise a strategy based on gathered information
• Awareness of these tools and selection as appropriate given a specific context is key