We found this terrific article at Peppersand Rogers.com
Innovation, Employees and Customer Value
By Don Peppers and Martha Rogers, Ph.D.
There simply is no hotter word for senior level executives right now than innovation. It drives almost every discussion of growth that we hear and one factor contributing to this push for innovation is the increasing amount of attention companies are paying to customer value — not just in the short term, but in the long term as well.
These days the business journals and news magazines are filled with examples of bellwether companies driving innovative services and products forward. It’s not just the innovative “usual suspects” like Apple, Tesco, Google, Zara, Intuit, Nokia, or GE, either. Even Wal-Mart is coming up with new ideas to improve its already highly successful retailing formula. In addition to its efforts to tailor individual store product inventories to the local demands of the communities being served (see related article), the company recently launched an innovative pricing program for prescription drugs, announcing that it plans to sell generic prescriptions for as little as $4 per.
Whirlpool innovates customer value
But if innovation is to mean more to a business than a momentary fashion, the business itself has to organize around the creation and implementation of new ideas. Among the success stories in terms of creating innovative customer value is Whirlpool. Its executives are held accountable not only for the development of new products and services, but also for the creation of processes and systems that foster innovation.Whirlpool uses a knowledge management system called “Innovation E-Space” to provide a ”dashboard” view of its innovation activities, track the mix of incremental versus radical ideas and to engage innovators throughout the organization. To debunk the myth that innovation has to be risky and costly, it has established a seed fund for innovation in each region that is accessible to all employees, not only business unit heads. Whirlpool has also created a team of Innovation Consultants whose job is to teach others in the organization about innovation. In the first quarter of 2006 this approach contributed to a 37 percent increase in earnings, record unit shipments and “productivity improvements.”
As the executives at Whirlpool know, the surest way to strengthen a firm’s “innovation quotient” is through its employees. Successful, consistently innovative companies encourage and cultivate new ideas from employees, and measure the results from the ideas that employees generate. In their April Harvard Business Review article “Manage Customer-Centric Innovation Systematically,” Larry Selden and Ian MacMillan point out that employees must be relied on to fuel the innovation engine. “It is essential for frontline employees to be at the center of the customer R&D process,” they wrote. “The only way to sustain customer R&D is by putting customer-facing employees behind the wheel. The benefit is two-fold: Companies exponentially expand their knowledge of their customers and employees become engaged as they contribute their insight and energy.”
One tactic for engaging employees in the innovation process is something Carlson Marketing’s Director of Performance Improvement Jennifer Rosenzweig, calls “appreciative inquiry.” This is a technique for emphasizing a company’s unique strengths (appreciative) while at the same time developing a meaningful and robust dialogue with employees (inquiry) that seeks to help management understand when the company is moving in the right direction or not.
Carlson Marketing’s research shows that given the opportunity, nearly 50 percent of employees will engage in identifying and implementing ideas. But “squandered” or untapped ideas are a major source of employee frustration and disengagement. A recent Gallup report shows that 17 percent of all the employees it surveyed consider themselves “disengaged” at work.
Toyota engages innovative employees
Toyota may be one of the world’s most accomplished companies when it comes to engaging employees with this kind of strength-based questioning and dialogue. They don’t call it “appreciative inquiry,” but the Toyota Way is well known and has been written about extensively. According to the Economist (19 January 2006), Toyota’s strong corporate culture of employee participation and engagement is what generates a nearly constant stream of innovation at the firm.Once everyone has bought in to the Toyota Way, decision-making can be pushed down into the very front-line organization, whether it’s manufacturing, distribution, or sales. Toyota’s famous “just in time” provisioning, enabling it to operate manufacturing plants efficiently in 58 countries around the world is only made possible by the fact that line employees are actively engaged in making decisions with respect to parts supply and production. Part of the Toyota Way leads employees to come to work each day with a determination to become just a little better at their job than they were the day before. Continuous employee engagement like this increases the likelihood of developing consistent innovation. Inquiry, recognition and reward must all be part of an organized process. (see PeppersandRogers.com for rest of the article)
Corra prides itself in innovation and flexibilty. As such, we can’t agree more with this article in acknowledging that employee innovation provides a company with that added, special dimension that will ultimately move it to the top of its industry.
The article also admonishes that employers should be patient, since innovation takes a bit longer to generate its much appreciated advantages. Your Human Resource Department should also exhibit that patience in making sure they hire the right top of employee, those are not only able to be innovative but who can also adapt to the innovation of others as well.
Like always, the selection of the right candidate begins with a pre-employment background check. It is most important to review a candidate’s possible criminal record as well as the patterns of behavior certain pre-employment searches will reflect. To assess patterns, an HR Manager may want to offer credit checks, MVR Records as well as education and employment verification. You may want to look into a candidate’s civil records to examine how he behaves with neighbors and others with whom he has been involved.
So seek to be innovative, and have the patience necessary to allow innovation to take root as part of your company culture. And remember, as Corra says, check them out before you hire.
