Segmented innovation to drive interdisciplinary design efforts

Continuous innovation is the cornerstone of competitiveness in technological product and services companies. However, maintaining that competitive edge over time requires a company to have business practices that offer repeatable success. One way to achieve that is to ensure that all relevant functional groups across a company have responsibility for driving innovative designs, rather than simply being shepherds of products that designers deliver. For one, product planning groups with marketing and finance functions need to drive new product development towards customers' desires. Second, there needs to be intellectual property functions focused on the goal of identifying innovative opportunities, rather than simply protecting ideas that developed. Finally, the R&D component of a company needs to be directed towards the development of innovative designs. Evidence shows that if any one of these three functions is lacking, a company will not be effective in developing innovative products over the long-term. This paper proposes best practices for identifying and dividing innovation tasks across functional groups so that interdisciplinary groups have ownership of future designs.