Innovation Paradox Paralyzes Producers

May 11, 2004

A study of 650 companies by Deloitte, a professional services firm in New York, says that manufacturers cite new products and services as the number one driver of revenue growth, yet they also view the support of product innovation as one of their least important priorities.

This might help explain why the study, "Mastering the Innovation Paradox," says 50-70% of all new product introductions fail. For example, if a company fails to support a new product introduction with proper marketing, such as research, public relations, advertising and other elements, it is bound to fail.

The study also says that products representing more than 70% of today's sales will be obsolete by 2010.

Although companies realize they need to bring new products and services to market, they are unable to do so because of insufficient information on customer needs, a reluctance to allocate spending on R&D, and a disjointed approach to innovation across product, customer and supply chain operations.

The study can be downloaded from http://www.deloitte.com.