Please join us in welcoming Paula Gray, Anthropologist in residence, AIPMM as she shares her thoughts on recent Product Innovation Portfolio research conducted by AIPMM and Accept.

A recent study conducted by Accept Corporation and the AIPMM (Association of International Product Marketing & Management) found that though industry executives view innovation as a key to success, they aren't happy about how they manage the process. The study found that even though companies may be at the cutting edge of technology, 85% of them are stuck back in the 90's using manual tools like MS Excel and MS Power Point to manage the innovation process. They also note that they struggle making decision about what to keep or toss and reconciling bottom up and top down plans. What's wrong with this picture?

At the end of last month we finally unveiled the results of the annual innovation priorities and challenges survey dubbed “The Return to Profitability – 2011 Product Innovation Priorities Report” which was conducted in partnership with the Association of International Product Marketing & Management. You can download the complete report for free on our resource page, but we also wanted to share a snapshot of the results and analysis here.

At the highest level, our survey confirms previous estimates that about 50% of all products fail. In our case we found that 50% of respondents had a less than 50% success rate, but we dive deeper into why so many products fail and what product executives are planning to do about it next year. We found four major factors in failing products.

As we continue our poll series to understand the priorities and challenges that product executives face, I wanted to share the results from our latest poll keeping with the Halloween theme: what is the scariest product innovation mishap you’ve experienced?

There were again over 200 responses representing a solid cross-section of product management, sales, marketing and development roles across all types of industries and geographies.

40% of the respondents believe their scariest innovation mishaps occurred when they let engineers determine the market needs.

It's that time of the week again - webinar time! The New Innovation Economy webinar this week features Hector del Castillo from AIPMM and our own Hari Candadai, discussing risk reduction and turning innovation to profit.

As companies begin to look beyond the latest global economic crisis, many are refocusing on growth and innovation has once again become a priority. The approach companies use to generate ideas and turn them into products and services has changed little since before the global economic crisis. In the past few years the core barriers to successful innovation haven’t changed, yet companies have made little progress in surmounting them. Many of the challenges such as finding the right talent, encouraging collaboration and risk taking, and organizing the innovation process from beginning to end are consistent across companies and industries. Many executives understand that innovation is very important, but their companies’ approach to it is often informal, and leaders lack confidence in their decisions.