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Innovation to obtain new product and new customers, or Innovation to serve existing customers better?

Do companies look for innovative ways to serve their customers better or is the main goal of R&D and research departments to produce a new product and new customer base along with it? Which is more norm in the computer science industry? is it a little bit of both?

Answer 8874

I would say a bit of both.

  1. Think of Sharp or Panasonic who neglected to invest in cell phone or touch tablet technology and instead directed their energy into existing products like large LCD displays when plasma and OLED started to be more common place, and big stereo’s were replaced with digital players and cable phones got replaced with feature/smartphones.
  2. Ask yourself how many people you know who have purchased a CD during the last 12months as another example…

Running a business is like running a marathon - it is as important for you to see what is directly in front of you as it is to know what is some distance down the road.


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