Sony has an Innovation Problem?

I have been posting a series of items on
selecting a PLM vendor in this blog, but I have to take a step back
and talk about this. Sony, who at least from my perspective
appears to have more new products on the market than most of the
companies on the planet, says they have an innovation
problem! I am not a consumer electronics analyst, but come
on! If Sony thinks they have an innovation problem, then the rest
of the world has a really big problem with innovation:

Sony CEO says after revamp,
company to focus on innovation
Forbes 
TOKYO (Thomson Financial) - After a sweeping
restructuring drive, Sony Corp is focusing on innovation as the
next phase of its recovery, pinning its hopes on new products with
the ‘wow factor,’ its chief executive said
Tuesday.

Sony’s Quest for Innovation - and
Growth
So maybe Sony didn’t bring out the iPod, and the
Nintendo Wii seems to be selling pretty well, but I have seen a
tremendous number of new models in their digital camera  and
videocamera lines. But it brings up the question, why is innovation
so important that Sony’s CEO (among others) has to sing about it
from the rooftops? Clearly it’s profitability. In 2005 we conducted
a study at Aberdeen known as the Product Innovation Agenda. In that
study, it was clear that companies are placing the majority of
their emphasis on innovation to drive top-line growth. Although the
study also found that product innovation improvements can also help
reduce product costs, shrink product development costs, and
increase the value of intellectual property - product innovation
(and the PLM technologies that support it) are the one area that we
see companies consistently turn to for growth. It’s a nice contrast
to the other initiatives that we follow that are primariliy focused
on cost cutting. Sony has had their share of cost cutting, and now
they are returning to the promise of innovative
products.

Sony’s next Steps?
So what will Sony do? There are a lot of options in front of
companies like Sony to help drive innovation and the ‘wow factor’
they are looking for. In our upcoming Product Innovation 2010
benchmark, we see a number of trends coming. We see a lot of
companies starting to focus on operationalizing innovation. What
does that mean? And is it even possible? Too many companies are
frustrated by sinking money into R&D without knowing what the
returns will be. As a friend of mine at a small, innovate
software company called SmartOrg reminded me yesterday,
product development should all be focused on the economic value of
the potential product. Too few companies manage to economic value.
But we are seeing a drive towards product innovation as a process
and open innovation. Software companies like Invention Machine are
developing solutions to try help manufacturers turn product
innovation into a repeatable, manageable process. Even more
encouringly, is that we see companies putting Chief Product
Officers or Chief Innovation Officers in place. With the right
focus and leadership at the executive level, other solutions to
operationalize innovation should fall into place.

We are closing out our product innovation study,
but if you would like your voice heard please feel free to fill out the
survey.

I will get back to our “regularly scheduled
program” later this week, but I couldn’t help having a reaction to
such the Sony story. Amazing.

I look forward to your comments.