In close collaboration with clients we develop solutions for a variety of typical, practical problems in the field of technology and innovation management. Based on our areas of expertise we offer you answers/ solutions for following questions (examples):

• Innovation Management
  Why do we need innovation management in our firm?
  What are characteristics of a successful innovation management and how should it be designed to meet the requirements of our firm and their network-partners?

• Organization of the Innovation Management Process
  How to successfully structure the innovation management process (from ideation to implementation)?
  What are particular challenges of the (fuzzy) front end of innovation (pre-development phase: from ideation to prototyping) and how can a firm organize this phase effectively and efficiently?

• Generating and Assessing Ideas for Innovative Products, Services and Processes
  Which methods and tools can we use to generate and assess innovative ideas for new products, services and processes?
  Which methods are suitable for our company (regarding our competences, organization and market environment)?

• Customer-Centered Innovation
  Which innovative methods can we use to identify our customers’ true (latent as well as open) needs?
  How can we integrate (potential) customers into the process of generating and assessing new ideas?

• Open Innovation
  How can we improve our innovation success rate by collaborating with external partners?
  How do we find suitable external partners and how do we organize successful collaboration?

• Lead User Approach
  What is the role of lead users (leading edge users that are engaging in innovation) regarding the creation of innovations in our industry?
  How do we identify lead users and integrate them successfully into our innovation process?

• Frugal Innovations
  Are frugal innovations relevant for our business-model and if yes, how can they improve our competitiveness?
  What resources and expertise (e.g. specific processes, approaches and tools) do we need to successfully establish frugal innovations both emerging markets and industrialized nations?

• Healthcare Innovation
  What are the needs of our customers / users of our products (medical staff, patients and relatives/ care-givers)?
  Which target groups in the healthcare sector need to be specifically addressed with regard to our innovations and how can we reach them at best?
  What are useful ways and methods to identify needs in the healthcare sector and how can these be transformed into innovative concepts?

• Sustainable Innovation
  What constitutes sustainable innovation?
  How can sustainable innovations be successfully implemented?

Our consulting services build on extensive experiences including project references in the fields mentioned above. Should you require any further information regarding our services, please contact:

Prof. Dr. Cornelius Herstatt, Mail: c.herstatt@tuhh.de, Tel.: 040-42878-3777 or
Dr. Stephan Buse, Mail: stephan.buse@tuhh.de, Tel.: 040-42878-3829