Typical Client Problems
You know it is important to innovate, but it is hard to find the time and money. You realize that having some unique competitive edge for your film or product might help you get the funding your project needs, but you are so busy with your day-to-day work you just can’t seem to find the time to do things differently. Many imaging companies have the same problem. Keeping the alligators and wolves at bay doesn’t leave much time for innovation or research.
You just don’t have the staff or experience in some new area you want to pursue. You have an idea of a new feature, niche or service that you feel might be profitable to pursue, but staffing is tight and you don’t have all the skills, knowledge or experience to research and develop your idea. Perhaps you want to get into 3D stereo cinematography. You and your staff feel overloaded and overworked already without adding more R&D work. Adding head count just isn’t going to happen any time soon, so you have to leverage expertise from outside your group.
Perhaps you are a filmmaker struggling to fund a new film. With declining run windows, marginal ROI from exhibition and increased competition in a buyers’ market, you don’t have many funds to spare for development and pre-production research. You can’t rival the mega players in your field for funding, but you want a competitive edge, something to set your new film and your company apart from the competition. You believe some novel equipment or shooting technique might help you get the outside funding you need, and give you a unique competitive advantage.
Maybe you just don’t feel up-to-date on all the latest technological developments. You have heard interesting rumors or seen some promising demonstrations, but don’t know how “real” a solution is – are some of these new digital developments or film and video products good enough for your application? You don’t have the time or money needed to go to every new conference or read all the trade journals and you wonder if you are missing something. What is coming soon? Who can you call for expertise and advice who really knows the technology?
You are smart, and work hard but you face a difficult deadline. But such production and deadline pressure is not conducive to long term innovation and you worry about the future. New imaging techniques, products and services are being released all the time by your competition but you just can’t seem to find the time to do the R&D work you know is required to keep you on top. You could use a little or a lot of help in managing a new project or meeting a fast-looming deadline. How will you pull it off?
Perhaps you have a great new idea, or at least you think it is a great new idea, but you need some help in doing a reality check and developing it into a winning proposition. You need to know if some expert somewhere has done it before, or if it really is practical and achievable with today’s technology. At the very least, you don’t want to pour your limited time and money into something without a solid outside opinion on feasibility. If it passes muster, you need help in professionally planning and executing your project to get outside funding or government help that you need by a winning proposal and project plan.
You value excellence and image quality, but you can’t always afford to do things the expensive way. You need to find a way to achieve the same kind of quality faster, cheaper and ideally even better in quality. You may be a non-profit institution or educational organization that wants to put the same or less money into areas that fulfill your mission better by innovative and creative alternatives. You need to attract outside funding with unique projects that are professionally planned and practical to implement with your current resources, and a little help from strategic partners in industry and commerce.
Your imaging business is suffering from the recession. Perhaps you are a Large Format Film professional with an educational or entertainment mandate, but admissions are down, attendance is off and so your budgets are cut. If you are a LF filmmaker, getting funding is critical and you are looking for innovative ways to cut production and post costs. If you are an exhibitor, you wonder if R&D can reveal ways to boost sales and attendance. Consumers are saturated with advertised options and choices, and you need a way to cut through the noise and attract some attention and boost attendance.
You need an Edge – a newer, smarter way of doing things. You may not be the biggest or best-positioned company in your field, or the best funded. You need to build on your unique competitive advantage and differentiate yourself from the competition. You have a strong suspicion that innovation in some part of your niche is the key. But you need help to do it.
Maybe you ARE already a Market Leader, and want to stay on top. You are middle or upper management in one of the elite and front-runners in your industry or institutional field, but realize the importance of strategic partnerships and out-sourcing R&D. Your in-house labor rates and high overheads make R&D incredibly expensive, and you are finding it actually cheaper and faster to shop out development work to specialists. You need contacts in other disciplines and technologies, and need help in forming alliances and finding cost-effective and proficient suppliers.
Please click here to see who we work with or contact me below for more information. Or click here for FREE STUFF!
