Innovation in 2007

From time to time we at OVO will create a white paper or forecast on some issues regarding innovation that we find to be interesting or don't believe are adequately covered by the media. We've just released a paper that looks back at 2006 and looks ahead to 2007 to investigate some of the factors of innovation that we think will become more important in 2007.

This white paper is available to our newsletter subscribers - you can register for the newsletter in the right hand margin of the blog page or by clicking here. The white paper is also available on our website on this page, titled 2007 Innovation Forecast.

If you have a chance to read it and care to send thoughts or comments, they are welcome. I look forward to a year in which we'll see a lot of emphasis placed on product innovation and new opportunities emerging in service innovation.

If you think innovation doesn't matter, just take a look at Bob Nardelli at Home Depot. Yes, the final straw for Nardelli was his compensation package, but what killed his support at Home Depot was the absolute lack of innovation at Home Depot. A number of articles written about Nardelli's recent demise pegged investor and shareholder dissatisfaction squarely on the fact that Nardelli failed to grow and differentiate Home Depot. See an article from Bruce Nussbaum at BusinessWeek on this topic here.

CEOs and senior management teams that can demonstrate organic growth through innovation are going to be rewarded handsomely by the stock market. In fact several innovation consultants have created an Innovators' Index, a sort of mutual fund made up of the leading "innovators" in a number of different industries.