Innovation is about perception of value - innovators need to match their perception of value and that of the market.
This is according to Henning du Preez, co-founder and chief innovation architect at TMARA, speaking at the Customer Centricity Forum 2016, which was hosted by Interactive Intelligence in association with ITWeb in Johannesburg yesterday.
Du Preez said there is a challenge in matching the perception of value - the innovators think world domination is going to come from the innovations, but the market might not be so enthusiastic about it.
He points out that about 90% of products that are designed and innovated today are not wanted by the market.
"We now live in the era of innovation and our performance is much more dependent on innovation. What we want is to come to a point of having a must-have product, instead of just a nice-to-have product."
Du Preez noted that there are two principals of innovation.
The first principle is: innovation can create value, if and only if, it diminishes a limitation. And the second principal is that innovation is necessary but not sufficient, the market must adopt new rules to realise the full value.
Du Preez says an innovation's value is created by removing a significant limitation for the customer, in a way that was not possible before.
"Innovation is not about solving a problem or need - it expands the human space - it moves limitation which has been assumed by mankind as a given - until some innovator comes and moves it for us."
However, he notes for customer to realise full value from the innovation they need to adopt new rules and let go of old ways. As long as the old rules or traits are obeyed, the end result is the same as if the limitation still exists. "In other words, don't expect significant benefits."
Du Preez gave an example of his mother who still calls him after work hours using the cellphone, because she is still observing the limitations of the landline.
"Introducing a new product that diminishes a limitation for the market, causes a departure from the norm and this departure requires a mindset adjustment."
Most of the time people don't prepare the mindset of the target market, and end up with a very low conversion to realised value, explained Du Preez. "If you are a game changer, remember, you are also changing the rules."
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