Innovation: Getting More for Less

Abstract

‘Everybody wants to be innovative at something, but few are willing to bear the risks involved’, is how one consultant summed up his experience. Clients vary in the degree to which they want to be leading-edge. Some see it as a matter of pride to think ‘outside the box’ in all aspects of their business, however mundane. Some focus their innovation on those areas where they believe they have a lead over their competitors — their core competencies — and are content to follow others where less important parts of their business are concerned. No one wants to look ill-informed. But innovation involves risk — risk that you might fail, that the return might be negative, risk that you cannibalise your existing products or lose existing customers.

To survive, let alone thrive, in the future, consulting firms are going to have to redefine what business they’re in — they’re going to have to re-invent themselves. If they’re going to provide the highly specialised input their clients are increasingly demanding, and protect their services from being absorbed into the large-scale technology companies, then they’re going to have to be focused much more around the process of identifying and exploiting their clients under-used intellectual property.

John Kerr, Managing Partner for Business Consulting, Western Europe, Andersen