KNOWLEDGE, INNOVATION AND NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT Assignment

KNOWLEDGE, INNOVATION AND NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT - Assignment Example Such information may include those in applications, specific markets and users. Proper harnessing of these information resources, can contribute enormously to making innovation effective in the organization. Also, organizations partner with others to fulfill specific business goals and objectives. In doing so, invaluable knowledge resources can be created. If a structured approach exists for capturing and sharing these resources, it can aid the innovation process tremendously. It must be added that, a structured approach to acquiring organizational knowledge can by itself be self-financing, in that knowledge is an important source of sustainable wealth creation. It is also cost-effective to the organization in the sense that projects that are unlikely to succeed on the market can be identified on time by the structures created and abandoned. Such an approach sharpens the innovative process and thereby increases Institution of the needed structures is only part of the process of making innovation effective in an organization. In addition to that, there must be a well defined strategy and also a supportive culture for the process. It has been estimated that around 30 percent of western consumers would be aged 50 by 2009. Available reports indicate that this age group would like to maintain youthful looks (Pitman, 2006). Hair care products with anti-ageing properties should therefore be appealing to them. Financially, this category of users is more endowed than their younger counterparts and therefore spends more money on such products. Targeting this category of consumers with naturally occurring hair care products should find ready acceptance with them. Developing a natural hair product for this market would require a seven step processes to be followed. These steps are (i) new product strategy development (ii) idea generation (iii) idea screening and evaluation (iv) business analysis (v) product development (vi) market testing and (vii) commercialization. Many manufacturing companies have a clearly defined new product development strategy that defines the role a particular new product is to help fulfill its overall objectives. Such a policy sharpens the focus of the idea generated for the company. This also prevents the company from dissipating its resources on work that does not help achieve its vision and goals. The naturally occurring hair product with anti-aging properties to be developed is strategically consistent with the company's objective of being recognized as an environmentally friendly. The conception of the idea of producing a naturally occurring hair product emerged from desk research. The researcher came across articles that extolled the properties of some hair care ingredients as well as the emerging trends among male adults to maintain their youthfulness. On the strength of these pieces of information, the idea to manufacture a hair product was conceived. Subsequently, several alternative ingredients were explored. Several product ideas