The flow and growth of creativity and innovation are the driving forces behind the success of any business. Modern day challenges such as globalisation, increasing competition and advances in technology mean organisations must be continually adapting in order to succeed.
True innovation, according to Stuart Behncken, Head of Product Innovation at Consumer Healthcare, sanofi – aventis, is something that is disruptive and will cause a change in the way people operate. It is real enough to cause an effect in the market place, he says.
Behncken is a speaker at the marcus evans Innovate 2011: Profitable Product Development Conference taking place in Sydney on 22- 23 February.
However, impediments have always and will always exist when it comes to new product development, he says.
“Not having an ability to predict the future is always an issue and as a result you have to accept some risk and know that you will make mistakes when it comes to a new product. However, you won’t know what those mistakes are until you’ve actually entered the market.
With more attention being paid to cost controls these days, there is a fear that capping budgets may curtail innovation. However, this doesn’t exactly ring through, according to Behncken.
“I don’t think it necessarily hinders innovation per se but it does increase the risk of finding out whether the innovations are going to work or not. Capturing an idea and developing it in its early stage doesn’t cost much but capping the budget means you can only follow through on a few of those ideas to see if it will work or not.