Innovation must emancipate the mind and overcome misunderstandings
Some people, when they talk about innovation, the first thing they think of is "technical breakthrough." Must have new technologies that have not appeared before, and these talents are aware of the existence and possibility of "innovation". For example, the projector industry is now vigorously talking about laser light source technology, talking about the era of laser projection-this kind of innovation obviously depends on one or two core technology "big" breakthroughs. However, since it is a "core technology", then it is obviously not possible to make a major breakthrough "every day".
In the large-screen video industry, in many branches, it is not a high probability event to seek a short-term "big breakthrough in core technology". More often, the so-called innovation is focused on the slow improvement of demand experience and the iterative development of market demand. These innovations may not necessarily result in the emergence of brand-new products and technologies, but they can change the ranking of competitiveness among enterprises. "Gather the sand into a tower": This truth is easy to understand. However, it is not easy to achieve long-term investment and perseverance. Therefore, the innovation of the large-screen industry must not only focus on the big technological breakthroughs, but also see the accumulation and sharpening of small technologies.
Others, when talking about innovation, often have the problem of "not having a broad vision". That is to innovate behind closed doors. However, the large-screen video industry and products are not a "sourced" industrial system. The large-screen video industry is precisely an "application service category" that relies on multiple upstream industry technologies such as communications, information, electronics, and display. The nature of this industry determines that the degree of openness of vision will determine the success or failure of "innovation".
Observe related industries, similar industries, upstream industries, and collaborative industries to find out which new technologies they have applied, and what major progress and changes they have made. To discover the secrets of success of the dominant companies in these industries, and then use them for your own use, this is the most critical mode of iterative innovation in the large-screen industry. For example, the current co-development of the signal processing industry and the IT communication industry; another example is the video surveillance industry's trend of realizing the development of IP surveillance and signal power collinear development. These industry innovations are not produced by the realization of huge technological breakthroughs in the industry technology, but by extensively drawing on the mature industry chain system of other industries, and formed for my use.
There are some people who have a misunderstanding about innovation: innovation is addition, and successful companies will make more money. This is one of the most significant misunderstandings.
What is the purpose of innovation? It is not to make more money immediately, nor to increase the marketing amount immediately, but to enhance the sustainable competitiveness of the company, and to achieve differentiation from the peers. For example, some technologies, such as network-powered monitoring systems, have a direct effect of "reducing system implementation costs." Such innovation will not increase the revenue of the entire industry, but will reduce the turnover of the entire industry. However, the system using this product has a higher degree of customer friendliness. Especially for small and medium monitoring system users, the network power supply function is likely to determine which brand the customer chooses. Therefore, the core of innovation is competitiveness, and the key to competitiveness is the bargaining chip to defeat competitors through the improvement of user experience. And low cost is also a key user experience.
There are many similar examples, such as signal processing, the popularity of ARM architecture products, the competition between IT switches of the signal exchange system and traditional matrixes, etc. These innovations all have a trend of reducing the service cost of the entire industry.
Therefore, when it comes to innovation, of course there must be addition, but we must also know how to do subtraction. Innovation must see that it can win incremental benefits, but it must also be able to withstand losses on the other side. The core of innovation is the competitiveness of enterprises, which is to allow enterprises to survive continuously. The benefits of innovation for enterprises are always "comparative value", not absolute value. Successful innovation does not mean an inevitable incremental effect on the absolute value of business operations. However, successful innovation must mean an increase in the competitiveness of the company and its peers.
Aware of the above-mentioned "traditional knowledge" misunderstandings in innovation, this is the prerequisite for enterprises to successfully embark on the road of innovation.
Where to practice innovation in the large-screen video industry
Innovation is not only a strategy, but also a tactic; it is not only a question of direction, but also a question of specific implementation steps. Regarding the latter, where should the innovation of large-screen companies be practiced? The author believes that there are no more than four levels: first, compared with foreign industry giants, and those aspects that have not achieved autonomy; second, dig into customer needs, in which aspects user needs have not been met; third, in existing How to achieve "saving and good" in products; fourth, innovate in the direction of customer relations.
For the first point, this is what many large-screen video companies are working hard to practice. For example, when talking about small-pitch LED screens and P4.0 standard products five years ago, the domestic market still mainly depends on the level of European and American companies; but now when talking about small-pitch LED screens, the P1.0 standard is the world's focus on China. This is the process of localization and autonomy of typical market products to replace imported products. This process is happening quickly or slowly in many market segments of the large-screen video industry. Even domestic companies with new technologies such as small-pitch LEDs and laser projection have stood at the forefront of the world.
The second point is to dig into user needs. This includes two levels of industry significance: 1. The user's conditions have changed, and the demand for its video technology products will also change. For example, in the past two years, Haier, Changhong, etc. have established many unmanned workshops and automated factories; the accelerated popularization of Industry 4.0, intelligent manufacturing, and robot workers will inevitably produce new changes in the manufacturing industry’s demand for large-screen video products. 2. Under the condition of unchanged user conditions, further user value mining. For example, the current concept of a visual data information system emphasizes how existing users, or even existing applications, can use new information methods to deepen customer value. Of these two points, one emphasizes horizontal market demand changes, and the other emphasizes vertical market demand changes. However, no matter how to grasp the increase in market demand, large-screen video companies are required to "must in-depth study of customer value."
The third point is called "saving and good" products and systems. This is a standard for incremental experience value. For example, the network cable replaced the coaxial cable in the transmission system, and now there are network power supply technology and network power supply switch products-such product changes obviously did not solve the problem of whether there are functional problems or the difference in functional experience, but Aimed at the cost and ease of implementation in the project, to provide customers with new value. Nowadays, information, electronics, communications, display and other technologies are advancing very fast, and the large-screen video industry can get more and more new power support from the upstream industry. In this context, if it is assumed that the functionality of customer needs remains unchanged, the cost factor supporting the same function will decrease. Innovating towards low cost should become one of the biggest innovation focuses of the industry.
The fourth point of customer relationship innovation is a problem that many large-screen companies have not studied in depth. This issue is roughly divided into three levels by the author. The first level is a broader and diversified demand structure. For example, monitoring products, large state-owned enterprises, self-employed stores, and household individuals have different needs and consumption habits. If a security company wants to enter these different levels of the market at the same time, it is bound to build different customer public relations systems. On the second level, even for traditional customers, their "consumption thinking" is also changing. This change can be summarized as Internet thinking and "Xiaomi-like culture." In other words, products that are "young, fast, friendly, and get rid of excess profit thinking" are becoming a popular element. The third level is to realize the "networking" and "cloud" of technology for large-screen video, and the "software" and "value of data" for in-depth mining of functions. "Service thinking" has changed. The essence of this change is the reconstruction of customer relationships, which is the difference between "one-shot sale" and "long-term efficient and precise service".
In short, the direction of innovation is diversified, and the connotation of innovation is not limited to "hard" products. Only when large-screen video companies truly build a sufficiently three-dimensional, multi-dimensional innovation system and practice can they truly form long-term internal competitiveness growth capabilities through innovation.
The main line of innovation in the large-screen video industry is the upstream and application environment
The large-screen video industry needs innovation, which requires no argument. But what is the "line" that affects the "kite" of innovation in the large-screen video industry? In other words, if an enterprise in the large-screen video industry wants to innovate, where does his thinking start? The answer is not complicated: upstream and application environment.
From the upstream perspective, the large-screen video industry involves a variety of technologies such as display, electronics, semiconductors, computers, and communications. Large-screen video systems are more of the "application-side integration" of these industries. At the same time, the large-screen industry rarely has its own unique major special technology.
The characteristics of this industry determine that the "new" development of the upstream industry is the most significant starting point for the "innovation" of the large-screen video industry. For example, the maturity of LED light sources has promoted the development of LED light source DLP splicing walls and also promoted the development of small-pitch LED screens. For another example, the development and maturity of ARM technology has promoted the digital signage player market toward a single and increasingly standardized solution system.
In recent years, the upstream market of the video industry has developed rapidly. On the one hand, the performance of LED lamp beads, high-quality photoelectric sensors, semiconductor storage and logic devices has greatly improved, and costs have fallen rapidly. This not only changes the experience value of related products in the large-screen video industry, but also reduces the cost of customer ownership, becoming one of the key forces driving the industry forward. On the other hand, laser light source technology has accelerated its maturity, OLED display products have entered the market, cheap unlimited broadband technology represented by 4G has entered the popularization period, diversified sensor technology has developed rapidly, and cloud application technology has gradually become popular. These new technologies provide brand-new "system innovation" materials for the large-screen video industry, enabling the industry to produce products and functional experiences that have never been seen before.
The reform of the large-screen video industry based on the revolution and development of the upstream industry has been enough to make this industry change every year and change drastically in three years. However, this is not all the main lines of the innovation space of the large-screen video industry: in another dimension, the force of change in the application environment is equally strong.
Why should the innovation of the large-screen video industry emphasize the importance of changes in the "application environment"? Because the large-screen video industry itself is an industry that takes "application services" as its industrial fundamentals. Leaving the specific project environment, it is impossible to talk about how to "service".
So, what kind of "application environment" changes does the large-screen video industry face? The answer lies in the following aspects: First, the formation of an Internet and intelligent society. Hard changes such as 4G networks, smart factories, and digital cities, and soft changes such as the strengthening of people's awareness of network consumption and information consumption. Second, the formation of the concept of eco-friendliness and consumer economy. The former is like people's concern about smog, and the latter is like the domestic movie box office and tourism industry revenues are rising steadily. Third, the advent of the era of robots. Such as the concept of Industry 4.0 and the concept of self-driving cars. Fourth, changes in social governance structure. Such as the rise of third-party organizations, service government, the construction of intensive government, the reform of state-owned enterprises from project management to capital management, etc.
These so-called "application environment" changes are extremely broad and diversified, and their impact on large-screen video systems will also be profound and complex. For example, Industry 4.0 will inevitably directly create more manufacturing demand for large-screen video systems; the construction of intensive government will affect the selection criteria of government and public institutions’ procurement projects; an eco-friendly social atmosphere will create environmental protection Industry opportunities, and people’s concerns about whether any industrial product is environmentally friendly...
In other words, the changes in the “application environment” for large-screen video companies may represent new space and opportunities for industrial development; it may also mean changes in customer relationships and service methods; and it may also be some specific small functions and small features. The need for detailed innovation... Even the "application environment" will also include many more specific areas of innovation, such as indoor and outdoor, underwater applications, temperature or chemical environments, and other different requirements.
In essence, the innovative clue of "upstream industry progress" determines what kind of products the large-screen video industry can ultimately provide; while the clue of "application environment" determines what large-screen video products and large-screen video products are needed by the market. How can screen video companies successfully market their products? ——Only two aspects can be precisely connected, that is, product capabilities and requirements can be matched before innovation can finally become "competitive".
Innovation is the core of the "supply-side" reform of the large-screen video industry
Although demand is the foundation of economic activities, as an enterprise, how to meet demand is the main content of its business activities. Also, "supply" is the core of the social production process. This is why the country attaches great importance to "supply-side reform".
Specific to the large-screen video industry, the current core issue is not the “absolute surplus” crisis such as steel, coal, cement, etc., but how to bear the “lower increment and lower willingness to purchase, or even lower cost”. Under the market of “force”, the problem of leveraging the market. The essence of this question is "what kind of large-screen video product is more suitable for the current'new economic normal'".
For this kind of industrial dilemma, the term of economics is "structural" contradiction. That is, it is not a total crisis, but a matching problem between supply and demand, and a structural problem within the supply. The solution to these problems can only be solved by innovating the "supply mode", improving the "supply quality", and reducing the "supply cost". This kind of structural industrial reconstruction can be solved. Therefore, innovation is now not only the key to the competitiveness of large-screen video companies, but also the key to the development of the industry.
At present, it coincides that the entire society is undergoing a major transformation of the civilized structure centered on networking and intelligence. In this unprecedented wave of social change, the opportunities for the large-screen video industry are enormous. However, due to the impact of the global economic environment and the superimposition of domestic economic development and the turbulence of the shift period of structural transformation, large-screen video companies are also facing certain operating pressures. In this regard, large-screen video companies are urgently needed to firm up their confidence in "innovation" opportunities, and large-screen video companies are also required to have a "sense of crisis" in order to survive and innovate. In short, trying new things is a proposition that can't be circumvented, and those who can only keep old times will inevitably be eliminated by history.
