One way to establish market differentiation is through the introduction of innovative new products. Establishing that differentiation is one thing, but maintaining it is quite another. Here we have put together a ten part series on how to generate higher returns from your innovation investments.

From our series of highly informational articles, companies will learn: how to treat innovation as a cross-functional business process, how to align innovation execution and business strategy; how to create sustainable innovation; how to train your senior executives to successfully execute innovation initiatives; how to effectively manage process and project management; how to measure performance of your processes; how to ensure broad stakeholder buy-in; how to understand the importance of product roadmaps; how to provide the tools necessary for successful product innovation; and finally, how to ensure that portfolio management coincides with process management.

Here is one of the ten practices that leading innovators use to increase the payback from innovation spending: Ensuring that Portfolio Management Coincides with Process Management.

Ensuring that Portfolio Management Coincides with Process Management

A word to the wise for organizations intent on adopting a product portfolio management system that does not also support your innovation process: it won’t work!

Effective product portfolio management requires good quality technical and business data that can be gathered and analyzed on a regular basis to support smart innovation investment decisions. Unfortunately, most organizations lack a dependable, systematic way of gathering and accessing the information necessary to make informed judgments about proposed new products.

The best way to support effective decision-making is to implement a rigorous innovation process and an automation solution that will make that process easy-to-use. A viable, technology-enabled innovation process blends process and portfolio management capabilities that make data-entry intuitive.

With the right system in place, documents, product roadmaps, and other project information needed for gate meetings and other decision-making forums can be completed in minutes. This represents practical value to end-users who, because the system makes their lives easier, are inclined to use it. Adoption rates are higher, and there is a corresponding increase in the quality of data in the system.

If everyone in your company is vested in the process, innovation will no longer be a corporate buzz-word. It will be the way you do business.

For more information on the top practices that leading innovators use to increase their returns on innovation spending, look for the preceding articles of this ten-part series: Providing the Tools Necessary for Successful Product Innovation, Understanding the Importance of Product Roadmaps, and several other informative articles on generating higher returns from innovation investments.

Consumer’s Sample

For the purpose of consumer’s view regarding their needs, wants and satisfaction, stratified random sample was taken comprising of 70 customers. 18 (?25%) customers were interviewed for in-depth study.

Sampling Technique

The technique utilized is purposive and convenience sampling for retailers and stratified random sample for consumers.

Research Tools

A questionnaire was prepared for conducting interviews of customers In addition to this tool financial and statistical techniques were used wherever necessary for the analysis of data.

Data Collection

For the purpose of this study both primary as well as secondary data was collected.

-Primary Data

For collection of primary data, surveys, interviews and observation techniques were used. A small survey was conducted to collect information from a sample of customers to ascertain their views about their satisfaction and perception.

-Secondary Data

For collection of secondary data the following journals, periodicals, newspapers and books were referred.

(i) DFU (DEALERS FOR YOU) – Garments & textile monthly.

(ii) Images Panorama

(iii) Desire (Series of books & surveys) Desire – Denim & jeans Survey, Desire – Shirts Survey, Desire – Accessories & Machinery, Desire – Knits.

(iv) Newspapers – The Economic Times, The Times of India, Rajasthan Patrika.

FACTS AND FINDINGS

Consumer’s Satisfaction

25.71% of respondents are fully satisfied with the retail rates of shopkeepers, 58% respondents are sometimes not satisfied, whereas 15.71% are not satisfied at all

Table 1.1: Satisfaction with Retail Rates

Satisfied with retail rates of shopkeeper No. of Respondents Percentage

Yes 18 25.71

No 11 15.71

Sometimes 40 57.14

No Response 1 1.43

Total 70 100.00

47.14% find the retail rates of readymade garments high in context to quality, 38.57% find it normal, 12.86% find it very high and 1.43% had no idea about the retail rates prevailing in the market (Table 1.2).

Table 1.2:Price of readymade garment w.r.t. quality

Price of readymade garment w.r.t. quality No. of Respondents Percentage

Very High 9 12.86

Normal 27 38.57

High 33 47.14

No Response 1 1.43

Total 70 100.00

61.43% prefer fixed price, 21.43% prefer 10% – 20% discount after tag price, 10% prefer 21% to 40% discount after tag price whereas 7.14% prefer to buy goods after good bargaining only (Table 1.3).

Table 1.3: Type of Prices Preferred

Type of Prices Preferred No. of Respondents Percentage

Fixed Price 43 61.43

10-20% Disc 15 21.43

21-40% Disc 7 10.00

Good Bargain 5 7.14

Total 70 100.00

In response to the question whether customer feel satisfied or cheated after they buy goods on good bargain or discount, 61.43% feel satisfied, whereas 32.86% feel cheated, only 2.86% feel highly satisfied and 2.86% would repurchase from the same place in similar manner (Table 1.4).

Table 1.4: Feeling after buying goods on good bargain

Feeling after buying goods on good bargain No. of Respondents Percentage

Highly Satisfied 2 2.86

Cheated 23 32.86

Satisfied 43 61.43

Repurchase 2 2.86

Total 70 100.00

Talking about the profit margin of the retailers, 51.43% are of the opinion that the margin is between 20% to 50%. 18.57% respondents say it is between 50% to 100%, 7.14% say it is above 100%, 8.57% say it is below 20% and 12.86% have no idea about the profit margin of retailers, whereas 1.43% did not respond (Table 1.5).

Table1.5: Profit Margin of Retailer

Profit Margin of Retailer No. of Respondents Percentage

>100% 5 7.14

50-100% 13 18.57

20-50% 36 51.43