The Leaves of Innovation

Dears,

The world is lot better every day with innovations. I call this article as leaves of innovation simply to say innovation is continuous process and leaves will fall and new ones will come up but every leaf serves its purpose to make the tree (corporations) stronger and helps to survive the seasons. The innovation distinguishes between leader and a follower. What is innovation? To me it is reinventing the self and organization to make something better for the world. Look at some of the yesteryear great corporations, some of them survived and many of them couldn’t stand a chance to comeback and they have nothing new to offer. The scenario is very much the same for the today’s successful corporation and this law of karma will never change. You will start dying, the moment you stop innovating. I want to you walk through some of the great innovations and best practices followed by the corporate game changers.

3M, the Master of Innovation

3M has specific metrics to measure innovation performance

·         30% of sales must be generated by products launched within last 4 years

·         10% by products launched in last year

·         Number of patents awarded.

Culture of innovation generates enormous satisfaction for those who work at 3M.  Culture of innovation is backed up by a culture of communication.  There is an unwritten rule that allows employees to spend 15% of their time on a project of their own invention.  There is acceptance of a high failure rate – 90% of ideas fail at one of the various gateposts before reaching status of formal project.  Key is to spot losers early.  Tolerance and delegation are critical. 

Wal-Mart’s ETDT & Cross Docking

Wal-Mart’s ETDT Committee which meets monthly to review processes and ensure that outdated ones are removed from the company manual. They call this ETDT – Eliminate the Dumb Things. Wal-Mart pioneered a great many innovations how it purchased and distributed goods. One of the best known of these is cross-docking, in which goods trucked to a distribution center from suppliers are immediately transferred to trucks bound for stores without ever being placed into storage. Cross-docking and companion innovations led to lower inventory levels and lower operating costs, which Wal-Mart –translated into lower prices.

Sun Microsystems’s Afternoon session

On the last Friday of every month the innovation unit of the company stops work for the afternoon to join in a stimulus sessions involving something people would never normally do.  The aim is to structure some freshness into the work place to break patterns

Electronic Arts

EA’s recruiting process involves not asking for a resume when people click through to web site but for answers to a few basic questions - type of work they are looking for, interests, experience and where they live.  If there is no current fit, EA asks whether candidate would like to receive future correspondence – strategic updates, notification of new openings.  (Roughly 60% have said yes).  EA have also built up a top 40 list of the most talented people in the world who, EA hopes, will someday work with the company.

Harley Davidson

Harley owners group boasts 450,000 members and sponsors an annual rally where the tattoo contest is one of the most keenly followed events.  As the company says “it’s one thing for people to buy your products.  It’s another for them to tattoo your name on their bodies.

Proflowers.com

During peak demand periods – Valentine’s Day, Mothers Day – rather than bring in temporary employees everybody gets involved in customer service.  As well as avoiding morale problems it helps everyone to feel the customer.  Everyone gets trained in customer service, even the programmers.  And the front-line experience helps them be more customer-sensitive in their everyday jobs.

Loud Cloud

The senior mgt of the company always keeps a list of the 10 most serious threats to the company.  It’s called “Ten reasons why we are going out of business”.  It builds up what seems like paranoia but is really clear-eyed objectivity. They keep a close eye on those 10 items.

GE’s Strategic Planning

Rather than a plan that can be beaten, GE operates a stretch environment with teams producing “operating plans” that reflect their dreams – the highest numbers they think they have a shot at.  Discussion revolves around new directions and growth.  Everyone leaves with a good idea of what the business will do and what the team will try to do.  And an operating plan is drafted to reflect that reality.  The team knows that it will be measured against prior year and relative performance against competitors, not against a negotiated internal number.

Ford’s Customer Experience

The Chief Customer Experience of Ford says “To see how we can improve our customer satisfaction we often ask two dozen or so customers to come in and bring their cars with them. The chief engineers, the product planners and I join them and ask each customer why they bought the car. What did you like about it? What don’t you like about it? What would you improve? This really helps us identify things our people wouldn’t have thought of. 

Gillette’s Razor Technologies

Consider Gillette’s sophisticated management of its innovation pipeline. Over the past 35 years, the company has parlayed its unparalleled understanding of men’s grooming needs to drive the development and mass adoption of successive razor technologies…Today, Gillette dominates its market, with more than a 60% dollar-market share in North America across its portfolio. Given its strong position in the category, Gillette has to be extremely thoughtful about the timing and strategy for each new product launch so it can grow the category while minimizing cannibalization of existing product sales. Since the introduction of its trendsetting Trac II, the company has rolled out a series of increasingly advanced razors, including the Atra, SensorExcel, Mach3Turbo, and M3Power, each of which outperformed its predecessor. For each of these innovative new products, the company’s elaborate revenue projections include detailed analyses of revenue sources and, crucially, the potential effect of these new products on existing product revenue streams

Samsung

Korean consumer-electronics giant Samsung offers another example of a shrewdly managed innovation pipeline and marketing machine. Five years ago, Samsung bet the ranch on digital technology and transformed itself from a middling manufacturer of analog televisions into one of the leading consumer electronics companies in the world. Samsung’s 25,000 scientists are charged with translating insights gleaned from the company’s massive customer research programs into a flow of new product concepts that can be moved from the drawing board commercialization in less than five months. From among to these innovations, the chief marketing officer selects and most likely to win in the marketplace and is given additional marketing dollars to back them.

Toyota’s Open Door

Toyota has confidently opened its factories to visitors from other automakers and yet continues to expand its productivity lead. 

The Innovation is not always about some great products and generation next technologies it is also about how do we make things better today and keep changing for the best future. Innovation has to be seen as way of work and way of living than to push people to innovate just for the sake of it.  Mind is like a parachute it works only when it is open and Innovation requires open minds first and health work environment to create some newer stuff.

Cheers

DC*