Innovators – Not Imitators

ANKOM Technology is a small company with BIG IDEAS. We view product development as investigators trying to solve problems. We build teams that are tasked to understand the customer's point of view. We attempt to chronicle a day or week in the life of the end user.
To drive innovation we ask a lot of questions. If you participated in one of our R&D meetings, you'd hear someone saying "So what?" on a regular basis. Not because we want to be difficult on our technicians and researchers, but because we want to push the limits. The "so what" question is always seeking the next step, the next improvement. It forces us to again step into the shoes of the potential user and address his or her needs

Like a child constantly seeking answers, we constantly seek new approaches. We want to break down the barriers that hinder our customers. Is a process time consuming? We want to save time. Is it labor intensive? We want to automate. Is it imprecise? We want to make it rigorous. Is the process costly? We want to make it economical.

We work hard to make sure that we don't foster unhealthy paradigms. We take risks and try new ideas. Sure, we build on our experience and document our learnings, but we don't want our people to fear saying "what if." When we get to the stage of prototype, you'll find us on the phone with the other researchers and users of our products. We outline ideas and seek their input. In some cases we even have them trial the prototype and make improvement suggestions while they help validate our direction. Our customers are part of the team.

When we introduce a new product or procedure, the questions don't stop. We continue to listen for the voice of our users. Did we satisfy their needs? Did we make their life easier? Did we help their business acheive its goals? Can we improve even more?

Innovators don't stop, because there are always opportunities for change and improvement. Others may choose to be imitators; at ANKOM we choose to be innovators.