Innovate now or loose market share

Is it wise to invest in this current economic climate was one of the most intriguing question that was flagged up very often in the past one year.

In a recently concluded Cambridge Wireless international event the above topic was discussed at length. Most of the speakers in the event recommended that now is the right time to invest but innovation is the key behind any success rather than investment alone.

There has never been an urgency like today to innovate in order to get out of the current recession and hence build the success for the future. A sensible investment backed with the right focus and indefatigable innovative ideas will no doubt lead us on the road to success and build the next generation wireless world.

Richard Traherne , Director of Cambridge Consultants’ Wireless Division advised delegates at Cambridge Wireless International Conference to innovate now, or lose market share. While speaking to an audience of international business leaders in the wireless communications industry at the Cambridge Wireless International Conference, Richard Traherne said the following:
“To survive in a market like this, it is not enough to stand still. It is critical to have the confidence to be innovative, by which we mean making business out of creativity.”

Key innovation now will certainly help businesses buck the trend in a recession and gain market share. Mr Traherne continued, “Key to this endeavour is to recognise that customers’ needs change in a downturn and so it’s critical to re-calibrate to ensure that they get what they now need, when they need it. There are plenty of examples of companies that grew out of past recessions: Virgin, Apple, Google, to name but three. We are dealing with companies that are being far bolder in the current recession than they would have been in the past, investing hard in technology despite making cuts elsewhere, to ensure that they grow market share and exit the downturn with competitive advantage.”

Most of the business delegates at the event shared the insights into innovative strategies, gained from nearly 50 years in the business of developing breakthrough technology-based products for clients in the medical technology, consumer, transport, cleantech and wireless industries.

To beat the current recession one of the obvious approaches suggested during the event was to reducing product cost but at the same time insisting on other more technologically innovative opportunities. It is very important that the idea regarding the product to enter the market is clear and well defined focus is a must together with the innovation and creativity. The picture below shows one such process as an example:

A company could, for example, seek to achieve premium price positioning by adding new functionality, or it could introduce a novel new service strategy to carve out market share. Another option is to develop an eco-system of partners in different markets to scale business and share risk.

What we are seeing a lot of today, and what is equally recommend even in a growth market, is the selective re-deployment of existing technology in new product applications. The mobile phone manufacturers are a shining example of this, and continue to be so.

The two day conference on 30 April and 1 May 2009, entitled ‘The Future of Wireless’, was conceived to provide a strategic vision of how mobile and wireless markets will develop over the next five years, looking at what technology is likely to deliver, balanced against customer expectations and real-world economic factors.