The innovative product will win.

The crisis describes a phenomenon, which is described in different manners and disciplines such as medicine, psychology, system theory, sociology or economics. Fundamentally the crisis always identifies a problematic situation linked to a turning point, or said in another way, the crisis describes a situation where you have to decide, how to move forward, because like previously it does not function anymore.

To lament about the origin of the crisis, to be annoyed with yourself, to be afraid or to wish something bad to dubious financialists and short sighted politicians, is legitimate, but it doesn’t help you progress.
Moreover you should ask yourself the question, if the developments of the last years had not found an end in any case by now.

With the given distance it feels easy, to "shake your head" to the American consumer behaviour and their limitless ideology of debts, but doesn’t it look similar in other markets? Also in ours? And hasn’t the crisis taken us out of a consumer dream or better said nightmare, in that we believed we must have everything and also the possibility we can have everything. Whether ringtone-subscriptions, or bigger screen size for superstar-TV’s, more BHP for your second car or 18 months interest-free-credit furniture.
"Shop yourself silly" was the motto, but now the dream is over, we recognize that we don’t need so many things surrounding us. As a result we live recently in a world where we ultimately think carefully about what we really need and buy.

Here also lie the chances.

Every decision maker, every company, whether smaller medium-sized business or corporate group, must now ask themselves, which consequences they have to take out of the actual situation. One consequence is: The financial crisis may not actually lead the companies to a product crisis.

Companies will still offer products and services, and consumers will still buy them, when also in a smaller scale. The need for a purchase is thought over more and more by the consumer, who has developed the ability to scrutinize. The same is true for the traders. As a result the selection criteria such as functionality, quality and longevity will stand in focus and has strong influence on the brand- and product-landscape in the middle term. The reflection of these selection criteria has to become a key-discipline for companies.

Companies, who now wait and delay necessary developments and new positioning of the upcoming product generations, will lose in the near future market shares compared to those, who today develop products more actively for the needs of tomorrow and therefore come out of the crisis stronger.

It´s a good time for innovations!