Innovate or die

Innovate or die
The recent ZED Innovation and New Product Development Forum had its genesis at AUT University, was hosted by business commentator Rod Oram and branded by Maxim.

This well-attended forum was addressed by a number of speakers who are successful innovators, including Bill Day of Seaworks, a former Entrepreneur of the Year.

Maxim’s contribution was three-fold. First as an event sponsor, secondly as a speaker and thirdly as a participant.

In the last capacity, according to Mary Davy, Maxim’s Creative Director, one of the main takeouts was that innovation is not a random activity,

“Coming up with an idea can appear to be a spontaneous act, but inevitably it takes place within a process that has filters and regular check points. And interestingly it is a process that has many similarities to branding and design,’ she said.

This was a theme that Maxim’s Managing Director, Lezlie Mearns covered in her presentation.

However, she also spoke about the relationship between the two. “If an innovation is to be commercialised, by definition it needs to be branded. And the key issue here is the timing of the introduction of the brand to a new service or product’, Mearns commented.

‘In our opinion the introduction should be sooner rather than later as the branding can help to ‘sell’ the innovation internally to a board, the senior managers and the financial team.

“And just as importantly it can provide impetus and focus to the process of innovation.”