Restructuring the business of innovation

Telephony has a story on a new Accenture survey that suggests many telecom companies may need to re-think how they innovate. If that seems like obvious advice during troubling economic times, the issues at hand are not purely financial, but also have to do with getting the most out of a company's innovation structure, processes and openness to outside contributions.

Accenture found that 70 percent of 270 senior executives surveyed were forced to end new product development projects in the past year, often because the projects were over-budget, hit delays or lacked the right staff expertise. While companies may tighten their R&D budgets, they need to take the obvious next step of pursuing the technology projects most connected to increasing shareholder value. In addition to re-prioritizing, they also might consider being more open to development partnerships with other firms.

Though the story doesn't mention it, product development outsourcing could be another option, particularly if a company doesn't feel they have the right kind or expertise or enough of it to develop a new product. GlobalLogic and Tech Mahindra are among some of the companies that provide that outsourcing help.

For more:
- Telephony has this story

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