Concept Generation

1.Preparation and Alternatives

Outlin
e
Finding the right people

Managements role in making creative

people productive

The New Product Concept

The Concept
Statement
Summary

Outlines:

Todays lecture would take us through several topics

below:

First, to managers comes the task of preparing the firm

for ideation i.e. the first step in (figure1). This means
getting

the

right

people,

putting

them

in

right

environment and generally getting them ready for the

ideation process.

Second, a creative person needs to know what is being

searched for that is, what is a concept and how it is
typically found and identified?

Outlines:

Third, We will explore a specific system of concept

generation. One part of the system-using employees
and non employees in a search for ready made ideas
will also be discussed.

Outlines:

Figure 1: Concept generation

Finding the right people :

Organizations known for their innovative product programs

are also known for being staffed with highly creative people.
Unconventional
Individuals: Those
with
diverse
experiences, great enthusiasm for innovation and more
foreign experience are better bets to come up with successful
innovations.
Thinking Reproductively: Nobel prize winning physicist
Richard Feynman called it inventing new ways to think.

Example : What is the half of 13?

Finding the right people :

But by redefining the problems we can identify

other solutions

One half of thirteen is thir.

One half of 1-3 is 1.
Cutting XIII horizontally through the middle
gives VIII

o
o

Finding the right people :

o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o

Genius Thinking Strategies:

Genius finds many different ways to find a problem.
Genius make their thoughts visible.
Genius reproduce.
Genius make novel combinations.
Genius focus relationships.
Genius thinks in opposites.
Genius thinks metaphorically.
Genius prepare themselves for chance.

Finding the right people :

Forms

of Human Creativity

Figure 2: Forms of human creativity

Finding the right people :

Forms

of Human Creativity

Research reports suggest two different types of creative people

o Those with artistic creativity
o Those with scientific creativity
o But new product creative types (inventors) need both as
depicted in the Figure 2.
Engineers without the touch of artist and artists without
scientific strength are probably less successful in the new
product ideation.
Creativity can be measured using the standard MBTI(MeyersBriggs Type Indicator).

Managements role in making creative people

productive :
Trainings

Creative people can benefit from training. Training

programs range from introductory classes in
traditional brain storming to elaborate sessions, but
often overlooked, training includes companys
products, its market, competition, technologies used,
and so forth.
Activities
o
o

Encourage the creative function

Removal of road blocks

Managements role in making creative

people productive :
o Encourage the creative function
1) Accommodative
2) Free time
3) Need for novelty
o Removal of road blocks
It simply wont work
I believe we tried that once before
Its against our policy
Its good but impractical
That wont work in our market
Production wont accept that
Where are you going to get the OK, but lets slow down a bit
money for that
Killer phrases : road blocks to creativity
in the generation of new product concepts

Managements role in making creative

people productive :
o Removal of road blocks
Some organizations use a technique called itemized
response. All client trainees must practice it personally. When
an idea comes up, listeners must first cite all of its advantages .
Then they can address the negatives, but only in the positive
mode.
Special Rewards
1) Group rewards
2) Dinner
3) Cash
4) Promotions

The Concept:
A new product comes into being when it is successful- that is
when it meets the goals/objectives assigned to the project. When
launched, it is still in the tentative form, because the changes are
quite apt to be necessary to make it successful. Therefore, we say
it is still a concept, an idea that is not fulfilled.
Back before technical work was finished, the product was even
more of a concept. To understand this, and see how it relates
to the ideation process
We have to look at three inputs required by the creation
process.
1) Form
2) Technology
3) Benefit

The Concept:
Form: This is the physical thing created, or in the case of a
service, it is the sequence of steps by which the service will
be created.
Example 1: With a new steel alloy, form is the actual bar or
rod of material.
Example 2: On a new mobile phone service it includes the
hardware, software , people, procedure and so on by which
calls are made and received.

The Concept
Technology: This is the source by which the form was
attained.
Example : For the steel alloy, it included the steel or other
chemicals used for the alloy, the science of metallurgy,
product forming machines, cutting machines and more.
Benefit: The product has value only as it provides some
benefit to the customer that a customer sees a need or
desire for.
If any of those three is missing, there cannot be product
innovation.

The Concept

Figure 3 : The new product concept

The Concept
The innovation process can start with any one of the
three dimensions, and can vary what happen second
(Figure 3). Here are the primary statements.
Customer has a NEED, which a firm find out about. It calls on
its TECHNOLOGY to produce a FORM that is then sold to the
customers.
A firm has a TECHNOLOGY that it matches with a given
market group, and then finds out a NEED that group has,
which is then met by a particular FORM of product.
A firm envisions a FORM of product, which is then created
by use of a TECHNOLOGY and then given to customers to
see if it has any BENEFIT.

The Concept Statement:

Figure

3 showed that any two of the three (form,

benefit, technology) can come together to make a

concept, a potential product.
All

three together produce a new

product that

may or may not be successful.

Once

a concept appears with two of the three

dimensions (technology, form, benefit) before

under taking development and it requires what we
call a product concept statement.

The Concept Statement:

Technical people and intended customers must tell us the
concept is worthy of development.
In short we can say that:
A concept then is a verbal and /or prototype expression that tells
what is going to be changed and how the customer stands to
gain (and lose). Early on the information is quite incomplete, but
when marketed the concept is (hopefully) complete. Anything that
does not communicate gain and lose to the intended buyer, is still
just an idea that needs work.

The Concept Statement:

Two Basic Approaches
How should we go about generating new product
concepts?
We can make this concept clear by taking an example of
getting a new garment.
We can buy one readymade or make it ourselves.
Here we will discuss the ready made source.
Example 1: Food Manufacturer
It usually will not even read new product suggestions sent in by
consumers. They have more than enough concepts of their own.
Consumer suggestions are very repetitive or old ideas.
Glancing at hundreds of thousands of ideas every year would be
almost impossible.

The Concept Statement:

Example 2 : Toy Inventors thrive
In some other industries (e.g toy) inventors thrive.
There are even inventors fair, where inventors are
invited to display their creations. Haystack Toy Inc.
periodically holds a Great American Toy Hunt, inviting
toy inventors from all over the US. To present their
prototype products, each inventor gets 15 minutes to
present his product before haystack judges. About 100
make the final judging and of these Haystack will select
most 10 to develop and market.

 Gathering concepts already created

Experience in the field of
product innovation has,
that 40-50 percent of new
product ideas are ready
made.

Figure 4 : Sources of ready

made new product concept

 Gathering concepts already created

In some industries end user plays a quiet different role.
Example1: Manufacturers of scientific instruments report
the majority of their successful new products came
originally from customers.
Example 2: Manufacturers of Engineering polymers and
of chemical additives for plastics reports no projects
coming from customers.

Summary
Introduction of concept generation for new products.
The role of management to prepare an organization
for concept generation. Finding and training creative
people, and then creating an environment for them
to work in where they can be motivated to produce.
Next came a look at concept itself that what is it and
how it comes into existence. The concept is build
around the ideas of technology, form and benefit,
and is tested whether it can communicate to an
intended buyer what the proposed product is all
about and whether it appears useful.

 After noticing that there are two broad categories of

approaches to get good new concepts, we explored
the one that involves looking for ready made
concepts and most of the firms use this approach
heavily.