Green Innovation in a Struggling Economy

Despite the state of the economy, companies must incorporate green innovation process and design eco-friendly products. In fact, an Aberdeen Group study found 62% of manufacturers are pursuing green product development initiatives. Yet, most companies are unsure about where to begin, how to prioritize investments and justify the high cost of going green. 

Needless to say, going green is a business imperative that drives a company’s bottom-line and competitiveness.  Green innovation is primarily about new product development and redesigning existing products so they are environmentally compliant.

Here are some tips on going green the right way, based on observations and conversations with leading innovation companies:  

• Identify a sustainability executive to champion and measure green innovation initiatives. The program must tie to the company’s business objectives and drive revenue.     
• Operationalize green across the enterprise so ‘design for green’ becomes part of the standard innovation process – whether it’s new product development or redesigning products, they must comply with the sustainability guidelines.
• Assess and understand what percentage of your company’s intellectual property portfolio is green compliant and quickly transform those patents into market-leading, eco-friendly products.  
• Use innovation software to generate concepts that identify green compatible material substitutions to upgrade strategic products so they meet environmental and regulatory standards.    
• Utilize semantic technology to research and apply revolutionary principals such as biomimicry to design eco-friendly products.

In short, companies that adopt and drive green innovation initiatives will gain financial and competitive edge, which in turn will help foster people, planet and profitability. 

What are your thoughts on going green?

Innovation Trends in 2010

This is the time when everyone is recapping the year and forecasting trends in the coming year. So, let me jump on the bandwagon and reiterate some of the trends I have been talking about based on customer interactions.

Innovate to Dominate: Innovation will continue to be a focus for all Best-in-Class companies. No surprise there. In NESTA’s recent ‘Everyday Innovation’ report, 78% of participants said innovation is key to improving their products and services and 70% said their focus on innovation has been reinforced. Also, 80% claimed innovation is an important part of their role. However, just ‘innovation’ is not enough.

Reign of process and collaboration: In 2010, we’ll see large enterprises as well as small and medium businesses focusing more on structured and sustainable innovation vs. an ad hoc innovation process. Sustainable innovation is the only way for companies to compete globally and drive the innovation economy. In addition, global collaboration with experts will become an integral part of the innovation process so teams can leverage innovation intelligence and deliver the right products the first time.

Changing of the guard: Emerging companies and countries around the world will become more innovative. Innovation leadership will no longer be exclusive to Global 2000 companies or established global powers.  In fact, Singapore, South Korea and Switzerland topped the 2008 list of world’s most innovative countries, while the US dropped to number eight. Don’t be surprised to see China and India topping next year’s list. Emerging growth companies will also become innovation leaders as they can quickly amass greater market cap values and overtake or take over yesterday’s leaders. This is possible because lower stock prices in this economy have made multinational companies more vulnerable to acquisitions.

Ideation to productization: In 2009, the US patent applications dropped by 2.3 percent, primarily due to the economy, according to experts. Perhaps this trend will continue as companies will focus more on transforming ideas into commercial, revenue generating products and leverage existing technology from different industries to design new products or solve problems. After all, a company’s true success is measured by its revenue and products sold, not number of patents.

Green is the new black: Companies will continue on the path of green innovation. Today, many companies and government are still talking the green talk. But few are able to design cost efficient products that meet customer demands. In 2010 we expect to see more companies operationalise green innovation across an enterprise, making it a key business imperative for driving profitability and competitive-edge.

These are my top predictions. What are yours?