This Month
The recent business issues be it Business Week, Harvard Business Review,
Forbes or Fortune have all been focusing on companies that are investing
a lot of time, energy and resources on thinking of ways to stay ahead
in the game of business. The ideas that are being tried out by these organizations
are truly innovative and bold.
If you or your organization is looking for ways to stay ahead, be sure
to read every one of them and delve deeper by reading the articles linked
in the resources section.
This month, reader Ravindra Oberai has a tip on an open source Antivirus
software.
As always, I look forward to your feedback and suggestions.
Warm wishes,
Deepa
(www.jigyasaconsulting.com) |
Three best practises
of leading organizations
| 1. |
Listening, responding and collaborating with
external groups: customers, partners and even competitors.
|
| |
| Taco Bell sought out the
feedback of about 10,200 participants to choose from various
categories of fixings to create a hot selling burrito. To
the shock of the dieticians at Taco Bell, instead of a low
calorie item, most respondents wanted an 'indulgent' burrito
and they were willing to pay extra for it. |
| P&G wants to derive
half of its invention from external sources. Today it is about
35%, up from about 20% four years ago. It is open to working
with outside companies too. For example, when managers found
an eraser that took marks off walls, it hired German chemical
giant, BASF to make the key foam ingredient and created their
own product called "Mr Clean Magic Eraser" It even
formed an alliance with its competitor Clorox to sell its
patented adhesive film technology through a product called
"Glad Press 'n Seal" |
| Commerce Bank one of the
fastest growing banks in the US does everything that traditional
banks would shudder to do. First of all it keeps its banks
open when customers want them to. Seven days a week! Its 10-minute
rule means branches open 10 minutes early and stay open 10
minutes late, an added convenience for early birds and procrastinators.
In one of its busiest branches on Friday, this turns out to
be at 10 minutes past midnight! |
|
| |
|
| 2. |
Innovating your way to success
Innovation comes from passionate people who truly believe something
can be done in a better way.
|
| |
At Apple, Steve Jobs believes
"Innovation comes from people meeting up in the hallways
or calling each other at 10:30 at night with a new idea, or
because they realized something that shoots holes in how we've
been thinking about a problem. Its ad hoc meetings of six
people called by someone who thinks he has figured out the
coolest new thing ever and who wants to know what other people
think of his idea."
"And it comes from
saying no to 1,000 things to make sure we don't get on the
wrong track or try to do too much. We're always thinking about
new markets we could enter, but it's only by saying no that
you can concentrate on the things that are really important." |
| At GE, Business leaders
must submit at least three "Imagination Breakthrough"
proposals per year to the council for review and discussion.
The criteria for selecting a proposal is that it should take
GE into a new line of business, geographic area or customer
base and also has to give GE incremental growth of at least
$100 million. |
| IDEO which helps companies
innovate, is held in great respect by many business leaders
like A G Lafley and Steve Jobs. IDEO's people, culture and
methods make it stand out. The rules stencilled on their walls
are: "Be Visual. Defer judgment. Encourage Wild Ideas.
Build on the Ideas of Others. Go for Quantity. One Conversation
at a Time. Stay Focused on the Topic." IDEO believes
that people working there are T-shaped: broad and deep. Broad
in their skills and able to work with a wide range of people.
Deep in their knowledge and experience in one or more disciplines. |
|
| 3. |
Empowering your employees
|
| |
| IBM has allocated upto
$5000 annually for each front line manager, no questions asked,
to spend on responding to extraordinary situations that will
enable them to generate business, develop client relationships
or respond to any employee's emergency need. With 22,000 front
line managers, Sam Palmisano calls it their "$100 million
bet on trust". |
| P&G gets its 7500 R&D
people located in 20 technical facilities in nine countries
to interact in "communities of practice" dedicated
to areas of expertise. They also post their problems on their
internal website. Annually CEO A G Lafley conducts half-day
innovation reviews for each business unit where he evaluates
ideas from scientists and marketers. |
| Google requires all its
employees to spend 20% of their time on their pet projects.
Larry Page and Sergey Brin keep a list of the top 100 of the
promising projects. Just imagine the culture of creativity
and the energy coursing through the company. |
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Quote
of the Week
