To the point: innovation trap

You look for something surprising, unprecedented, reshuffle all the cards and try to awaken the demand for what you have developed among customers and consumers. It is possible that the competition is already a nose ahead with the development, so that one can either sow on already prepared breeding ground (= luck) or will remain the eternal second, third or tenth (= bad luck).

If a device already has all the functions that the user needs, product developers are sure to find another button, an additional function that is only the latest craze and will soon be standard. I remember searching in vain for a cell phone without a camera a few years ago. I didn't need this feature because I always had my Nikon with me. Why take pixelated pictures if I can't use them for anything anyway?

Today, the cell phone camera is standard and on city trips I'm looked at like a Martian when I point the lens of my Nikon (which still accompanies me) at a subject, while smartphones and tablets are stretched up in the air around me. Yes, of course, the resolution of my cell phone is now almost as good as that of my camera. It's also smaller, lighter, and I can send and share the pictures immediately... Still, the old Nikon has flair. My Martians, once snapped, end up in the data graveyard. I look at the photos I took with the camera again - at least while I'm loading them onto my computer.

In many industries, the race for innovation, the hunt for the latest trend, forces those involved into a hamster wheel that turns ever faster. At some point, being there is everything; not being there puts you at a disadvantage. However, wanting to be there at all costs can also lead to death.

That must have been what happened to Volkswagen: If a car can already drive, looks nice, is comfortable and safe, gets you to a certain destination, consumes relatively little gasoline, and offers good value for money - where are the levers to boost sales? Environment! That's the idea! And since it is absurd that a diesel is a "clean car" - there is no such thing as an "egg-laying lizard", even if the advertising claims there is - the development department of the car manufacturer probably felt compelled to make a miracle possible, at least mathematically. After all, consumers today demand not only gripping advertising, but also proof of the advertising promises. Gone are the days when people didn't wonder if someone was bathing their hands in dishwashing liquid.

The massive criticism of Volkswagen is justified. But we should also take a look at our own nose; not just to hold it shut. As consumers, we are all too willing to be naïve when it makes us feel good: "I'm driving a clean diesel! Palm oil production secures jobs. If I don't buy the cheap clothing produced in China, the seamstresses' children won't have anything to eat." Hmmmm.

I can't shake the feeling that the automotive lobby is helping to hammer Volkswagen instead of addressing the fundamental problems behind this case of fraud. After all, a prominent culprit diverts attention from all those who are also cheating.

Ruf Lanz currently sends an old VBZ streetcar into the race as a "clean Volkswagen". Not a Cobra. Because the old tram has flair. It's hard to decide where to put one's foot on the ground between the old and the new. The best orientation in this balancing act is provided by one's own gut and the target group. The German PR agency Edelman has just published its latest Trust Barometer. Of 33,000 respondents in 27 countries, 57 percent said that the speed at which new business ideas are developed and product worlds are changed is too fast. The technology landscape is also viewed skeptically: For 51 percent of respondents, changes are happening too quickly. Only 21 percent rate innovation cycles as too slow. "Companies face a balancing act: they have to innovate to secure their future. At the same time, they run the risk of losing their customers if they develop business ideas, products and services too quickly and do not explain them adequately," says Susanne Marell, CEO of Edelman Germany.

What can we learn from this? That a little Nikon, diesel soot and squeaky streetcars can do a lot of good. We need that flair. And that new developments only make sense if they effectively bring us additional benefits and a better feeling or increase our trust in a product or company. Innovation for innovation's sake can quickly become a trap. A worthwhile innovation, a real USP of products, for example, would be that they give us more time for what is important to us.

It is important for me to take this opportunity to remind you of Pierre C. Meier. Tomorrow, Saturday, October 3, will be the first anniversary of Pierre's death. Our memory of him is still very fresh.

Anne-Friederike Heinrich, Editor-in-Chief
f.heinrich@werbewoche.ch