Larry Schmitt: Innovation, Tapping Needs and Desires

By Bud on October 4, 2007 TrackBacks (1) Comments (2)

We begin a discussion with Larry Schmitt, co-founder of Inovo, a partnership that helps companies discover commercially successful innovations.

Filed under: Ann Arbor, MI | Finding Gaps | Inovo | Larry Schmitt | Product Development

In this 11 minute segment (download iPod compatible, 57MB), Larry Schmitt, co-founder of Inovo, describes how Inovo helps companies at the front end of the innovation process. At this stage, companies have a lot of ideas but don't know how to determine which are likely to lead to true innovations, i.e., new products or services that succeed in the market place. Larry and his partner, Steve Schwartz, have developed a proven process for helping companies winnow potential innovation candidates from their ideas.

Some highlights from this segment:

  • Companies come to Inovo to improve their front-end process for determining which ideas to pursue and evolving the initial idea into something customers will really want.
  • Many companies need help, and a process, to explore new “white spaces” where they do not currently have any products or services. This takes place outside their current business operations where they are extending current product offerings.
  • Finding successful innovation opportunities involves assessing the needs and desires of potential customers, a difficult proposition at the early stage of idea development when customers do not have something concrete to react to.

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2 Comments

Brianne Fuller on November 17, 2007 11:01 AM
This interview was particularly interesting because I had never heard of a company like Inovo, that helps entrepreneurs and businesses at the front end of the innovation process. It is a brilliant idea, because, although it is not difficult to come up with potential ideas, it can be very difficult to weed through those ideas to discover what will actually work. It is important for them to stay up on trends to find out what new product or service will work best. I also found the discussion of logical needs v. emotional desires very interesting. It is important to recognize your customer's needs, yet even more important to determine their desires. If you can offer to sell them exactly what they want, then you can differentiate yourself from the competition. As Mr. Schmitt stated, nearly every company lists innovation as a top priority; the founders of Inovo recognized this desire and have found themselves in a strong position after 6 years. Great Job! Kind Regards, Brianne Fuller
Gary Warren on March 26, 2008 1:38 AM
I really enjoyed hearing your interview I heard a lot of good points form it. I have never heard of Inovo but I think that is a great company to utilize because has you said innovation is very important in the business world and a company needs to have good employees that will develop ideas of how to be more innovative so that they can remain on top of the market. It can become very challenging for a group of employees to come up with an idea because there are a ton of ideas out there but it is hard to pick the right one that came become a money maker. To solve this problem this is where your company comes in and tries to make that money making choice which is a great way to ensure that Inovo is on top because people will always need different ways of innovating there products and services. It was fascinating to learn about the emotional and experiential aspects and how it is a people process and that you need to go out and get a first hand look on how people feel about your company and what they want out of your company. The most important thing that you need to figure out is what kind of people you need to find and where they are, and how do you approach them so that you can get innovative ideas. I see that this approach is very important because people are different and Inovo is in the business of doing the qualitative aspects on finding out why do customers choose the things they do and why do they want your services. I have never really thought about how innovation is so important in an ever changing world and Inovo is in the perfect market for helping businesses tackle those issues. Good Luck with your company! Best of Luck Gary Warren

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