Product Innovation

Entrepreneurship is making use of opportunities by taking a non-insurable risk. The question behind every successful entrepreneurship is which opportunities to utilize (and which not to) and how to manage the risks that may occur. How does it work when you have a product idea and want to turn it into a business? This applies mainly when the product idea is new to the market and requires considerable investments, as is the case with ideas for high-tech, medical and consumer products? How does the entrepreneur realize product innovation?

Value creation

Innovation is creating new value. Value is the extent of scarcity expressed in monetary value. Scarcity is the area of tension between needs and available goods and it is expressed in needs that remain unfulfilled. People’s needs are unlimited and this basically means there is infinite room for innovation. People do not spring into action, however, until the difference between the current and the desired situation becomes too great and the effort to bridge this difference is found worthwhile. That is why not every unfulfilled need is strong enough to base a business on.

Innovation management

Unfulfilled needs lead to frustration. That is why the search for solutions to frustrations is a good source for finding innovation opportunities. In addition to such conscious needs, there are also subconscious or latent needs. Needs you did not know you had, until someone offers a product or service that fills this need. This makes the assessment criteria for a good product idea the following:

• Desirability : is an unfulfilled need filled?

• Profitability : can money be made with it?

• Feasibility : is the solution realisable in practice?

The trick for the entrepreneur is to keep these criteria balanced at all times during the growth of the idea into a business. However, this is not a trick but ‘merely’ a profession. A profession with its base in creativity and risk management, because being an entrepreneur means utilizing opportunities by taking non-insurable risks. This is a profession that Witec has mastered and that we love helping our customers with: Innovating Together

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