Insights

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) need to realize that being small is only an interim stage on the way to becoming larger enterprises. How SMEs can grow is to leverage on innovation opportunities to transition to that next stage.
(Knowledge@SMU - April 3, 2008)

We help them generate high-impact innovations.

12.05.08: Innovation is the key engine both for getting to the top and staying on top - for growing big and staying big

"Nearly 60% of Fortune 500 companies disappeared from the list between 1975 and 1995. A key reason for the high attrition rate was that those companies lacked sustained innovation."
(Desai Arcot Narasimhalu - Professor at Singapore Management University).

It is not just about coming up with new products. It is about coming up with solutions to the problems of customers, to their needs and wants.
You will value our experts' deep undersanding of innovation and the leading technologies provided by our research partners - no matter which innovation model you follow; be it (i) sustaining / incremental innovation (e.g. improving and existing product) or (ii) disruptive innovation / blue ocean strategy (e.g. offering new value to customers that is not offered by existing products / finding new market segments that are not currently occupied by other companies).

12.05.08: Most of the universities and research institutes face difficulties in creating spin-off

Academic entrepreneurship by means of University spin-offs commercializes technological breakthroughs, which may otherwise remain unexploited. However, many universities and research institutes face difficulties in creating spin-offs.

We help entrepreneurs and work intensively with them to turn visionary ideas into successful innovations.

We provide expertise in New Product Development (e.g. PDMA best practices). Our services also include business plan and product concept elaboration, as well as interim management.

Our focus lies on information technologies and intelligent information systems.

We cooperate with research groups to identify and transfer promising research results out-of-the-lab into the marketplace.

12.05.08: The survival rate of new technology ventures is the lowest among new ventures in general

The analysis of 11,259 new technology ventures established between 1991 and 2000 in the United States reveals the following empirical results: after four years only 36 percent (4062) of companies with more than 5 full-time employees had survived. After five years, the survival rate fell to 21.9 percent, leaving only 2,471 firms with more than five full-time employees still in operation.
(M. song et al. - The Journal of Product Innovation Management 2008;25:7-27)

12.05.08: Good investment climate, fast and sustainable economic growth

Average growth in the Sub-Saharan economies was 5.4 percent in 2005 and 2006. The consensus projection is 5.3 percent for 2007 and 5.4 percent for 2008. Policies in many Sub-Saharan countries have also been getting better. Infl ation, budget defi cits, exchange rates, and foreign debt payments are more manageable. Economies are more open to trade and private enterprise. Governance is also on the mend, with more democracies and more assaults on corruption. (Africa Development Indicators 2007 – World Bank)

Contact us to seize valuable business opportunities in these promising markets that will also help you ensure substantial and sustainable growth for your business.