Prima Performance Information

Prima Performance is a hands-on product innovation and training company. We transform tired old products into cutting-edge products by applying a methodology proven in industries, ranging from potato chips to computer chips. Frequently, this is accomplished with only minor design changes, that is, by staying 'in the box'. But before describing our services and unique approach to improving performance, we would like to pass on what we have learned about the characteristics of innovation itself. To begin: Innovation has more to do with the systematic search for opportunity than romantic ideas about serendipity or a magic bullet. Great inventions solve fundamental constraints of a system and frequently provide brand new capabilities to the system. Mould-breaking innovations, or 'disruptive technologies', are totally different from incremental improvements. The latter may deliver improved product performance, but they do not conquer new markets or guarantee survival. Disruptive technologies, with features such as being cheaper, smaller, more simple, and easy to use, have the capacity to create new markets; frequently, that lead to the demise of their predecessors. Now, consider some of the familiar landmark examples of product innovation that have changed the ways we live and work. The photography industry replaced the single, double and triple lens cameras with a single zoom lens that was lighter, easier to use and less expensive than its predecessor. In the field of print communications, IBM replaced the 74 characters on the keys of a typewriter with an interchangeable ball with all 74 characters embossed on a single ball. The constraint of many characters requiring many type heads was removed. And eventually the 'ball' was replaced by ink jet printers, and soon thereafter, by laser printers. Today, the printer has become the 'Ideal Printer', a non-existent printer, whose printing function has been taken over by something totally different, the computer monitor. With each successive product generation, its ...