IBM funds research to define 'innovation'

Big Blue donates US$80,000 to the University of Georgia.

IBM is funding research at the University of Georgia to find out what makes good innovation. 

Big Blue has given US$80,000 worth of its systems to the university's Terry College of Business where boffins will work alongside IBM research and market intelligence staff. 

The project is being led by Dr Srinivas K Reddy, Robert O Arnold Professor of Business and director of the Coca-Cola Centre for Marketing Studies at Terry College.

"The future of successful companies will depend not on how much they spend on research and development but on how efficiently they direct their innovative efforts to provide solutions to real customer problems and convert their inventions into marketable and profitable offerings," he said.

The marketing students will provide IBM with a set of guidelines on how it has come to develop innovation that matters to both the company and its clients.

The team will develop the 'roadmap' by researching how IBM has found creative, cost-efficient and convenient solutions and inventions for customers in the past.

In addition, a published report will document how certain business practices can turn into profitable innovations.

Besides studying innovations that have led to actual products, the team will also study a wide range statistics and data from industries other than technology, such as pharmaceuticals.

They will analyse a company's successes and attempts at marketing certain innovations, and the findings will help researchers to develop guidelines and determine how innovations can affect a company's profits.

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