Engineering Innovation and the Technology Adoption Life Cycle

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Engineering Innovation and the Technology
Adoption Life Cycle

• ELE 41EMT / ELE 41 EIB

George Alexander G.Alexander_at_latrobe.edu.au www.la
trobe.edu.au/eemanage/
15 March, 2005
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Activities Schedule

• Teams formation 08 March
• Individuals Executive summary 15 March
• Selection of a service/product 22 March
• Executive summary presentation 5 April
• Business plan preparation On-going
• Tutorials and group meetings On-going
• Business plan presentations 24 May
• Business plan presentations 31 May
• Submission of the Business Plan 10 June

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Individuals Executive summary due 15 March

• Due today
• Remember to attach Statement of Authorship
• Post in designated box.
• Late enrolments requiring extensions please
  email me.

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Teams

• Should now be formed.
• Any problems?
• Send me copies of minutes, including team member
  names.

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What is Innovation ?

• Purposeful, deliberate, and pragmatic process to
  create new or different ways of carrying out
  business which results in added value to

• Customers,
• Suppliers,
• Employees, and
• Shareholders.

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What is not Innovation ?
Just Invention and Commercialisation of New
Products
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The Innovative Business
A Top-Down approach
Business Concept Definition
What business are we in?
What we offer and to whom? Whom do we compete
against?
Product / Service /Market Definition
Timeliness Responsiveness
Concept to Market and Order Acquisition to Order
Fulfilment Process
Enabling System Managing Performance, Resources
and Information
How we do it?
Maximum Advantage
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The Innovation Process
Open and challenging culture
Appropriate technology materials
Skilled challenged people
New Value Adding Change
Inputs
Outputs

• Strong leadership commitment.
• Understanding of market realities.

• Stronger customer loyalty.
• Ability to command prices.
• Share improvement.
• Market leader.

Lateral parallel thinking
Enabling systems
Effective efficient processes
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Eureka Prizes

• Run by Australian Museum
• Sponsored by public and private institutions
• Innovation in the fields of
• Education
• Innovation and Leadership
• Research
• Science Communication

http//www.amonline.net.au/eureka/index.htmindust
ry
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Other innovation activities

• LTU Quest
• Business planning for students
• To be launched end of April
• YAA
• Young Achievement Australia
• Australia-wide
• Sponsored by the business community
• La Trobe YAA 30points over two semesters
• http//www.latrobe.edu.au/yaa/html/ltu_yaa.htm
• http//www.yaa.org.au/about.html

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So, What is Innovation!

• a better way of achieving the same outcome!
• improvement of a product or a process as a result
  of new ideas!
• optimisation of a process to make good use of
  scarce resources!
• flashes of inspiration at unexpected times!
• a result of Research Development!
• others!

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The Electric Car
Lets assume that the Electric Car is finally a
reality and is being sold on the market ! When
are you going to buy one ?
http//www.gmev.com
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Some reasons for buying

• I need a new car anyway
• My best friend just bought one
• Cant wait to see how it performs
• I enjoy having the latest technology
• It would be better for the environment

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Some reasons for not buying

• Too expensive
• Just bought a new car
• I doubt the claimed performance
• My idea of a car is to get me from A to B
• I would like to see someone else buy it first

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Recall from before ...
Innovation is a purposeful, deliberate, and
pragmatic process to create new or different ways
of carrying out business which results in added
value to customers, suppliers, employees, and
shareholders.
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Innovation involves Change

• Change in product characteristics
• Change in the way we use products
• Change in manufacturing processes
• Change in the way we run business
• Change in the way we live
• etc. .

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Why change ?
We want you to have the best
Making life easier
Because Im worth it
For a very special person, you !
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Why not change ?

• Disruption to current practices
• What is wrong with the way we doing it now ?
• Current investment and stock
• Dramatic loss in economy
• Negative impact on employment
• Who is going to gain from the change ?

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Western Union - internal memo 1876
This telephone has too many shortcomings to be
seriously considered as a means of communication.
The device is inherently of no value to us.
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Some more quotes ...
Everything that can be invented has been
invented
Charles H Duell, Commissioner, US Patents, 1899
There is no reason anyone would want a computer
in their home
Ken Olsen, Chairman of Digital Equipment, 1977
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Types of Innovations

• Continuous innovations
• Discontinuous innovations

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Continuous innovations

• No significant change in the way customer uses
  the product
• No significant change in the infrastructure
• Increase in the level of benefits and usefulness
  of the product

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Discontinuous innovations

• No compatibility between old and new product
• New infrastructure required
• throw away existing product
• may bring more benefits and features

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Examples for discussion

• Colour TV
• Digital Camera
• Compact Discs
• E-mail / Voicemail/ Fax-mail
• Data Communication over PSTN
• PC (286, 386, 486, Pentium, etc. )
• Airbags and Anti Lock Brakes on cars
• Mobile Phones (AMPS / GSM / CDMA / WCDMA)

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Technology Adoption Life Cycle
Laggards
Innovators
Late Majority
Early Adopters
Early Majority
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Innovators

• Technology is central interest, regardless of
  actual function it performs.
• Strong desire to explore the new devices
  properties.
• The number of innovators in any given market
  segment is usually small.

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Early Adopters

• Like innovators, early adopters buy into new
  product concepts very early in the life cycle.
• Unlike innovators, early adopters are not
  technologists.
• Early adopters relate new technologies to
  benefits, and generally willing to take some
  risks.

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Early Majority

• Early majority shares some of the early adopters
  ability to relate to technology.
• Early majority is driven by strong sense of
  practicality.
• Early majority is a less risk-taking group, well
  established references are require before any
  substantial investment.

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Late Majority

• Late majority shares the same concerns of the
  early majority.
• People in the late majority are generally not
  comfortable with handling new technologies.
• Late majority buys after product have been well
  established and standardised.

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Laggards

• Laggards simply dont want anything to do with
  new technology.
• Rejecting technology can be for a variety of
  reasons, some of which are personal and some are
  economic.

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Revised Model
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13.5
2.5
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Laggards
Innovators
Late Majority
Early Adopters
Early Majority
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Cracks in the Bell

• Gaps in the revised model symbolise the
  dissociation between the adjacent groups.
• Each gap represents an opportunity for marketing
  to lose momentum and miss the transition to the
  next segment.

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Thanks for your attention