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Wanted: CEOs from India

: An interesting question for your company is “How many new products and services did you launch in the last five years?” Companies will give different answers to this. The 3M Company would cite many new products. In fact, the company makes a point of wanting to derive 30% of its current revenue from products introduced in the last five years.

On the other hand, major companies such as Coca-Cola and Procter & Gamble (P&G) give a less rosy answer. In the case of Coca-Cola, the most successful new beverages—fruit juices, energy beverages, bottled water—were introduced by competitors first. At best, Coca-Cola followed them and in some cases grew by acquiring them.

The great P&G cannot boast of introducing many successful new products in the last five years through their own R&D. To compensate, P&G has gone on an acquisition binge, growing by buying companies in cosmetics, toiletries, and food.

The lack of company innovation points either to a company that fails to find and research new opportunities or to one that invests in many new opportunities but with disappointing results. Good opportunities can be ruined by poor new product management processes. Somehow the company either lets poor opportunities go through or botches up good opportunities at some stage such as concept development, concept testing, prototype development, prototype testing, business and marketing planning, test marketing, or product launch.

Some companies believe there are no new opportunities. They say their industry is mature. Or they say that they are selling a commodity. But there is no such thing as a mature market or a commodity. It’s only that your beliefs are getting in the way of your imagination. Starbucks didn’t see the coffee market as mature.

No company has to go without new ideas. First of all, the company’s employees probably have many ideas for improvement. All they lack is knowing where to send these ideas and the motivation to send them. Second, the company’s suppliers, distributors, advertising agency, and other partners probably could suggest many new ideas. Third, there are systematic ways to help employees generate new ideas.