In the current business context, a critical issue leaders have to grapple with is - how to stay competitive. At a recent conference on innovation, Kumar Mangalam Birla, commented that organizations having "squeezed the lemon" of cost-cutting, improved productivity, cutting the flab etc., "dry," it was now the turn of innovation.
Navi Adjou, a thought leader and strategy consultant from the University of Cambridge calls innovations "a solution designed to address a particular pain point." Lutz Kothe, the newly appointed head of marketing of Volkswagen India , understood his companies pain points rather painfully! Wanting to check into a hotel, he identified himself from VW and was in for rude shock. The name failed to ring a bell for the front office staff! That's when Kothe realized the pain point he had to address - make Europe's largest carmaker a better known entity in India.
So how could Kothe's company go about the task of establishing the VW brand in the highly competitive Indian market? They decided to focus on innovations as a strategy - spend time collecting insights unique to the Indian consumer. They came up with several! They noted that Indian car-owners do not remove the factory fitted plastic covers after buying their cars. This became a cue to focus on providing more durable upholstery. They noted that many Indians kept idols of gods or their mobile phones on the dashboards. This was cue for making larger dashboards so that cars could accommodate both. The hot weather demanded a stronger airconditioning while the Indian penchant for honking louder horns!
Pain points in organizations can range from improvements in technology to poor skills and processes. Or as in the case of VW, poor brand recall. In a market where car makers have announced the launch of 60 new models for 2012, only innovations such as VW's sharp consumer insights can help them succeed. It should also go some way to make VW live up to it's tagline - "Das Auto" or "The Car" of Indian consumers. And a long way to make Lutz Kothe a happy man!
Pain points in organizations can range from improvements in technology to poor skills and processes. Or as in the case of VW, poor brand recall. In a market where car makers have announced the launch of 60 new models for 2012, only innovations such as VW's sharp consumer insights can help them succeed. It should also go some way to make VW live up to it's tagline - "Das Auto" or "The Car" of Indian consumers. And a long way to make Lutz Kothe a happy man!
