Technology Innovation » Target

Having Innovation in Business

admin — Sun, 09 May 2010 12:59:03 +0000

Today innovation is important in any business that wants to be successful. Since 2000, there are a lot of businesses that opened. These small businesses are reaching out to global market through the internet. For business growth, competition is highly important. The truth is it is also fierce because the level of competition is on the global level. Aside from innovation, entrepreneurship is important in setting up a business no mater what the size of the company.

Innovation is coming up with different products, things and methods. When it comes to business ideas, innovation can be brought up in any aspect of the company. It could be from equipment, people and process. In work force, you would need to introduce leadership skills. You would need to handle the employees the right way. Team building is quite important in this endeavor. The business enterprise should be skills friendly. They should be adjusting to the skill level of the employee.
Innovation doesn’t end there as it should be applied to tools and other equipments that are used in running a business. Good machineries are not enough when it comes to innovation. There are some businesses that go for green environment. This is to help in preserving the environment. Hand crafting tools are making a comeback these days.

Remember that product and service is dependent on the innovation. It is important that business should invest on procedures related to its growth like in creativity, strategy, technology and research. In becoming an entrepreneur, initiative and risk are its characteristic. Specialization is the key to success. It should have a more target niche. The initiative of the business owner to move to a certain path is essential. It means conquering a market equipped with good product and service. This is the most basic idea that moved small businesses to become known in the global market. It is important to find your business niche.

To be successful, you need to be risky. Seek and market appropriately. Determination is the key. Explore market dimensions if you want to be profitable. This would lead to new niche and market.

By: Jes B

The Innovation Imperative – Why Companies Must Innovate Or Perish

admin — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:21:57 +0000

Some time ago, Steve Jobs was quoted as saying, “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower;” and that statement has never been more meaningful than it is today. At a time when the even the most fundamental elements of business success are being reevaluated and redefined, one thing becomes increasingly clear: innovation is no longer a “nice to have;” it’s a “must have.” If innovation distinguished between leaders and followers in the recent past, today it increasingly distinguishes between survivors and the barely breathing. Innovation is the new Darwinism in business; the choice facing companies today is simple: innovate, or perish.

The companies that will survive today’s economic environment and succeed in tomorrow’s are those willing to continually reinvent themselves, their products, their brands, their processes-in short, the way they do business. Many organizations are even looking for innovative ways to innovate, replacing traditional brainstorming techniques with new, more inventive processes. Introduce the world to the new new thing, the bleeding edge technology, the better mousetrap, the reinvented paradigm and there’s a good bet you’ll remain ahead of the curve and be around to reap the rewards in the future.

The Innovators

The topic of innovation certainly isn’t new; it’s been the business buzz word for several years now. We’ve all read about it in business magazines and heard the reports on financial news stations. Harvard Business School professors lecture on it at conferences and scores of books address it. And the same companies are consistently held up as the elite innovators-Apple, Google, Nintendo, JetBlue, Toyota, Target (and today again, WalMart). And there are hundreds and even thousands more you’ve never heard of, visionary companies that are seizing the opportunities (yes, opportunities) presented by the current economic phase, breaking the rules, establishing new standards, delivering incredible value, and then starting that process all over again…and again, and again. These companies come in all shapes and sizes, and exist in every industry-technology, biotech, pharma, automotive, consumer packaged goods, retail, you name it, they’re out there, outthinking and outdoing everyone else in their fields. Whatever they’re playing field, they all have one thing in common: they innovate.

Three Not-So-Easy Choices

Today, businesses face three choices. In many cases, none may be easy to make.

1. Actively innovate. Stay at the forefront of their industry and their competitive set, doing whatever it takes to meet constantly evolving market conditions and consumer demand.

2. React. Wait for others to set the standard and play catch-up, forever scrambling to match the latest development introduced by market leaders.

3. Do nothing. Stay right where they are, do their best to survive, and almost certainly stagnate, eventually drifting into irrelevance, and finally, extinction. Innovate or perish.

Innovation of the Individual

By the way, the innovation imperative doesn’t only apply to businesses; it’s a challenge facing individuals, as well, again, even more so today. Each and every one of us who collects (or hopes to collect) a paycheck has at least one consumer, the person responsible for our professional future. Individual employees must also continually reassess their approach and establish their value, or face the same dismal fate as their corporate counterparts. In fact, while we are currently facing increasing jobless numbers, still more than 90% of the workforce remains employed. While in many cases circumstances beyond the control of the individual are responsible, what might that 10% do, innovatively, that could help them make it back into the 90%?

Work Your Innovation Chops

The time to develop an innovation orientation is not tomorrow or next week or in the third quarter. It’s now.

Begin actively searching for new, better, more productive ways of doing things. Utilize proven innovation tools-advanced ideation techniques, new technologies, breakthrough processes. Adopt an “innovation mindset,” asking yourself every day, “How could I do this better?” Turn yourself and your organization into an Innovation Machine. You will not only survive this evolutionary upheaval, you will thrive.

By: Keith Harmeyer

How to Engage Employees, Improve Productivity & Sustain Improvements Over the Long Haul

admin — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 09:26:55 +0000

There is an urgent need for every company in this global economy to improve its processes continuously. The ongoing strive to be better than everybody else and become better than oneself the day before, is at the core of survival. And the key to the success of the program lies in sustaining the gains from every step!

Step 1. Get Everyone Engaged

To sustain the results for your continuous improvement process, you must first engage all employees involved in the business. This should also include those contractors and suppliers you do business with for an extended period of time. Here’s why:

* By including the biggest number of people with insight in your business processes, you open the widest idea pool.

* When every person impacted feels as if they are a driving part of the change, they are more likely to accept changes and new ideas.

Step 2: Visualize

To sustain success, you must visualize the process and the progress achieved for every person in the company. The visualization needs to be physically present for all managers, team leaders and employees as well. Everybody needs to see the rules of the program and the baseline, target, and ongoing progress for the key performance indicators (KPI).

Step 3: Use Realistic Optimism

Your company’s business process key performance indicators need to be determined in a way that directly indicates how successful your improvement efforts are. Here’s how…

* Start with the baseline performance from the last one or two business periods.

* Targets for the KPIs should be set with “realistic optimism” from your baseline data. They must pose challenging goals while not being out of reach.

* Ongoing progress needs to be measured in a timely manner

* Representation of the KPIs should be given in graphics, not purely numerically.

When improvements are implemented, the KPIs will show the positive impact. They also will show the sustained achievement. Or if things fall back, it will give you early feedback so corrective actions can be started fast.

Step 4: Balance the Workload

As your company moves forward with the continuous improvement program, teams should be established for ongoing administration and support and for specific improvement projects. This means your employees will be responsible for additional tasks including completing the required training in the new processes and tools and collecting data for the control.

Your management team will need to acknowledge this additional workload. A certain amount of add-on work will be unavoidable to start the process. But it is urgent to introduce a way to free people for the work in the improvement process from the normal tasks of their jobs. Maintaining hours worked during a time of lower production or adding additional people to create dedicated improvement teams are ways to start a great program. The advancement of the improvement process will pay for the added labor costs fast.

Step 5: Celebrate Milestones and End Results

Build personnel engagement for the continuous improvement process by celebrating successes. Appreciation for progress made in all different layers of the improvement process must be shown in a timely way by management from the CEO to the direct supervisor and his or her peers of every team member.

Appreciation can be shown in many ways, from lunch or dinner invitations, gift certificates, or direct monetary rewards to the individually targeted public acknowledgement of the success or a special service provided to the employees. Rewards work best when every employee feels they are appropriate for the success achieved and when they fit the needs of the individual employee. One of the most effective appreciations for reaching a milestone was the personal effort of the team facilitator in washing every team member’s car in front of the company building.

Your 3 Action Items for Success

To improve productivity and sustain improvements over the long haul your employees must drive the continuous improvement process and be at the core of sustaining it. In order to make effective strides forward your company must work to engage every employee in the process. So start performing these 3 action items for success today:

1. Visualize the steps it will take to achieve results so that every person involved sees it every day

2. Make organizational adjustments to allow people the time to participate in the effort

3. Develop milestones and celebration schedule to show your company’s appreciation for every successful step forward in a balanced way.

Bottom line: Think positively about it, put your best support forward for it, and feel part of it!

By: Bernhard Opitz