Applying Necessary Expertise

It is important to ensure that all necessary skill sets are involved in the process along the way.

Taking ideas through form conception to successful implementation involves bringing together multiple knowledge sets through a series of phases staged over time. It is important to ensure that all necessary skill sets are involved in the process along the way.

One way of doing this is to run it as a simple sequential process, with responsibility for the project moving to different functional groups in the organization as it progresses. For example, in developing a physical product, the sequence might be:

• Marketing team initiates a new product concept.
• R&D team studies feasibility and demand.
• Small-scale production team develops and tests a prototype
• Production department begins full-scale manufacture.
• Sales and marketing begin to promote the product that is ready for launch.

ACTION POINT: This model works a little like a relay race, with one group passing the baton on to the next, and may be suitable for projects where time is not a factor, and the success of the project is uncertain in the initial stages.

Communication and Productivity

We intend to grow by continuously improving productivity.

We encourage open communications and respond to criticisms and questions in a sensitive and intelligent way. We want our actions a decisions to be guided by sound reasoning and facts, not shaded opinions or distorted facts used to justify or rationalize poor judgement or failure.

We intend to grow by continuously improving productivity. We will constantly measure our productivity and include improvement programs in six primary areas:

• Employee Recruitment
• Training Programs
• Organizational Structure
• Policies and Procedures
• The Working Environment
• Departmental Tools (Resources)

We believe consistent profitable growth is always obtainable. It comes after mixing hard work, intelligence and team effort.

ACTION POINT: Work hard, smart and as a team.

Making it Relevant

The demands of the market altered.

The Ford Edsel was one of Ford's best-researched product concepts ever. Market analysis had led Fort to believe that a new luxury car priced in between its two nearest rivals would be an instant hit.

The car was developed at great expense hyped with aggressive marketing, and released with much fanfare in 1957, but the final product failed. The Edsel was conceived during the economic growth of the early 1950's. By the time of its release in 1957, the US was on the brink of a recession, and consumers were turning to smaller cheaper cars. The demands of the market altered.

ACTION POINT: The Edsel remains a classic example of the dangers of not reviewing an innovation process.

Choosing the Right Method

You need to think about different project types

Innovations come in all shapes and sizes. You need to think about different project types -- is it a simple incremental development or a radical breakthrough? Does it need people from different areas to cooperate and share knowledge or can it be done by a small group from the same department? Is it a joint venture with other organizations? Is it something completely different from anything you have done before and needs different ways of working?

You can think about a number of options on a spectrum of project structures to help deal with each of these:

• In-line structures: carried out within the established group or by an individual as part of their work.
• Matrix Structures: where people work some time on the project and the rest on their mainstream job.
• Dedicated project team: people work full tie on the project and have dedicated resources.
• Breakthrough or "skunk works" team: the team operates independently of the main organization.

ACTION POINT: Consider all of the options for carrying out innovations.

Managing the Process

You need a project management system that regularly reviews the status of projects

All of this means that you need to have good project-management practices as your innovation develops, and also the flexibility to review and change your projects -- to cancel those that are going nowhere, to modify others to meet changes in circumstances, and to continue to support only those that look like they are really going to produce real benefits.

You need a project management system that regularly reviews the status of projects, identifies the risks associated with progressing them further, and only allocates additional resources to those projects that still meet strategic criteria and have a high probability of success.

ACTION POINT: Allow sufficient flexibility in the system for small fast-track projects to take place.

Developing Your Idea

there is also the challenge of uncertainty

Having picked your idea and decided to back it as an innovation project, you now have the challenge of turning it into a real product, service, or process for people. This is where you need to put in place structures and systems to help manage projects effectively. But it's not just managing in terms of resources and budgets -- there is also the challenge of uncertainty.

In innovation there is not such thing as guaranteed success -- you might find out after you start that the technology that looked so exciting at the start actually doesn't work or do what you want it to do. Or else you might find that the market you thought was there for your new idea actually isn't that interested.

Or maybe a competitor has come up on your blind side and offered something better. Or the government has changed the rules of the game on you. Or some other unexpected thing has happened -- remember Murphy's Law -- if something can go wrong it probably will.

ACTION POINT: Understand that uncertainty is part of innovation.

Dirty Knuckles

Often they go overlooked and are under appreciated.

Most work involves getting your knuckles dirty. Every job has it's share of the "dishes that need to be washed." These things just come with the territory. Often they go overlooked and are under appreciated.

So if you ever feel like what you are doing is not flashy, or exciting or glamorous enough watch the the following:

http://www.youtube.com/user/TEDtalksDirector#p/search/0/IRVdiHu1VCc

ACTION POINT: Thank those workers that gladly get their knuckles dirty as part of their job.

How to Build a Successful Territory

Understand how your organization works

FSG is a sales driven organization. Success begins at the territory level in the local market. Divisions are built upon successful territories and FSG is built upon successful divisions.

Building a successful sales territory requires the following:

• Educate yourself intensely. Read all that you can about your products and services. Read all that you can about the craft of selling. There is more information written on selling than almost any other subject. It is up to you to put it to use.

• Invest 60 hours a week in your career, every week. In three years and 4 months you will have enough experience to begin to master the art of sales.

• Genuinely love the customers you are calling on. Consider their needs above your own.

• Understand how your organization works, know who your key support departments and people are and what it is they do and how it affects customers.

• Know your competition thoroughly. What are they best at, where are they weak?

• Build industry allies. Your vendor relationships are every bit as important as your customer relationships. Use them wisely. Work to be smarter than they are.

• Be humble and stay hungry.

ACTION POINT: Follow the steps above to build a top tier territory.

Implementing Your Choice

can you actually make it happen?

The process of implementing an innovation is about project management -- making something happen within a budget and to a set timescale. Strategic implementation means thinking about the downstream side of this -- can you actually make it happen?

Do you have the knowledge and skills that you need -- of if not, do you know where to get them? Remember that many innovations involve making strategic alliances, so not having knowledge and skills in-house is not necessarily a barrier here.

Have you thought about change-management issues -- how to ensure that people elsewhere in the organization will buy in to your planned change? And how will you organize your team to make the innovation happen -- who will lead, what balance of skills and experience do you require, and how will you build a high-performing team to deliver the project?

ACTION POINT: All these factors above must be considered in advance to give your innovation the best chance of success.

Choosing Projects

...is it a good fit with your wider business strategy?

When considering a potential innovation project, there are there are three important questions to ask:

• First, does the idea have promise -- does it have achievable potential to improve your organization?
• Second, is it a good fit with your wider business strategy? There is no sense pursuing an innovation to improve a product strand that is being phased out, for example. An idea should also be considered looking at risk and reward in your overall innovation portfolio.
• Finally, does the idea build on skills and resources that your organization possesses and can take advantage of? And, if not, can you obtain the knowledge and expertise required to make it work?

ACTION POINT: Recognize the promise, fit and baseline skills and resources associated with any innovation you are considering.

Analyzing the Options

what knowledge, experience, and resources can you bring to bear?

Strategic analysis is about gaining strategic advantage through innovation. It means make sure you know where you are in terms of overall strategy. And it means knowing what you can realistically make happen -- what knowledge, experience, and resources can you bring to bear?

If you are an ice-cream salesman, then moving into nuclear power to capitalize on growing energy demand my be a nice idea, but not feasible. But moving into a new range of food products that could be delivered door-to-door would build on your experience and knowledge would be a good bet.

ACTION POINT: Consider innovations that are within the realm of your experience, resources and knowledge.

Making a Strategic Selection

Use techniques and structures to help you in the selection process

Effective innovators choose projects on the basis of clear ground rules. Use techniques and structures to help you in the selection process, and make sure these are flexible enough to help monitor and adapt projects over time as ideas become concrete innovations.

If a project doesn't perform, you should have mechanisms in place either to rethink it or scrap it altogether.

ACTION POINT: There are plenty of opportunities for innovation, so make sure you have some clear decision criteria to help choose the best options.

Article 8.3 Financial Performance

We must not limit our goals, but invest

Financial performance will be judged by such factors as:

• Sales performance
• Percent sales growth
• Return on investment
• Net profit to assets
• Net profit to net worth
• Profit margin performance
• Net profit to sales
• Gross profit to sales - stock sales - direct sales
• Overall operating expenses
• Total operating expenses to gross profit
• Compensation expenses to gross profit
• Non-people expenses to gross profit
• Functional area expense control
• Selling expense to gross profit
• Delivery expense to gross profit
• Warehouse expense to gross profit
• Occupancy expense to gross profit
• General and administrative expense to gross profit
• Functional cost per invoice
• Functional cost per delivery
• Overall people productivity
• Sale per employee
• Gross margin per employee
• Average compensation per employee
• Functional staffing as a percent of sales

We must not wait for a perfect environment, it won't happen. That ship won't come in. Totally safe bets aren't available for the achievers. We must release our energies. Rather than drift through life, we must pursue our goals. Rather than doubt our abilities, we must trust in ourselves and the principles we hold firm. We must not limit our goals, but invest and give to achieve the success we desire.

ACTION POINT: Invest, give, achieve.

How Open to Innovation is Your Organization

Do you look ahead in a structured way

There are some things you can ask yourself to determine how open your organization is to innovation. Questions include:

• Do you have good relationships with your suppliers and pick up a steady stream of ideas from them?
• Are you good at understanding the needs of your customers/end users?
• Do you work well with universities and other research centers to help you develop your knowledge?
• Are your people involved in suggesting ideas for improvements to products or processes?
• Do you look ahead in a structured way (using forecasting tools and techniques) to try and imagine future threats and opportunities?

ACTION POINT: Consider the questions above to determine your openness to innovation.

Finding Inspiration from Outside

As a manager, you should develop external networks of people who can help provide ideas...

In addition to benchmarking by observing other companies, you may choose to collaborate with them directly to develop new ideas. As a manager, you should develop external networks of people who can help provide ideas--those with specialized knowledge, for example.

You can also work closely with lead users--clients, customers, or employees at the forefront of innovation--to develop new products and services. A final source of ideas are your own mistakes, and those of your competitors. When a project flops, or a team under performs, examine how this came about and consider what innovations could protect you against similar failures.

ACTION POINT: Use customers, competitors and your own mistakes to find new ideas.

Benchmarking for Improvement

It aids you in comparative profiling of products and services.

Looking at what other companies do and comparing them to your own organization can give insights into new directions for product, process, or service innovations. This approach is known as "benchmarking."

It aids you in comparative profiling of products and services. Benchmarking processes can be undertaken between similar activities within the same organization, between similar activities in different divisions of a large organization, between similar activities in different firms within a sector, and between similar activities in different firms and sectors.

ACTION POINT: Compare your products and processes with those of other firms systematically and regularly.

Tapping the Future

You can even write your own "science-fiction" stories about alternative futures to explore the possibilities, and how your organization might respond to them.

Looking at a selection of alternatives often provides clues about new innovation possibilities. Tools you can use to do this include trend extrapolation--where you research market or performance trends and make future plans on the assumption that those trends will continue--and for casting tools such as economic planning.

You could gather panels of experts (also known as "Delphi panels") to discuss the most likely outcomes of current events and help you tailor your plans to expected developments. You can even write your own "science-fiction" stories about alternative futures to explore the possibilities, and how your organization might respond to them.

ACTION POINT: Take account of current events in your future planning even if they do not seem to affect you directly. Remember that innovations can come from any area.

Article 8.2 Technological Achievement

Using proven techniques to assure performance is a must in today's highly competitive environment.

Technological achievement will be judged by factors such as:

• Design and specification sales.
• Sales growth in application products.
• Technological expertise of in house sales people.

Corporate strategy is a long run, time phased plan designed to achieve a high rate of return on investment, a market position so advantageous that competition can retaliate only over an extended time interval and at a prohibitive cost.

Using proven techniques to assure performance is a must in today's highly competitive environment. Most firms will not adhere to these guidelines leaving pathways for committed firms with clear vision to be consistent leaders.

ACTION POINT: Our style will be such to ensure bright futures for all.

Getting Ideas form Outside

keep monitoring...its continuing relevance to end users.

Procter and Gamble (P&G) used to spend around $3 billion each year on technology research, and employed more than 7,000 people to carry it out. However, it has now committed to sourcing half of its innovations from outside the company. In doing so , it has had to develop completely new ways of working, sharing its unused ideas with a wider world, and picking up on other people's ideas in the most unlikely of places.

For example, the idea of Pringles potato chips having messages printed on them was made a reality not by P&G research scientists but by connecting with a small bakery in bologna, Italy, that had developed a special edible ink and spraying process for the ink. The connection was made through one of the increasing number of Internet knowledge broker sites--a kind of eBay of innovation.

ACTION POINT: As our project progresses, keep monitoring not only expenditure and performance, but also its continuing relevance to end users. Otherwise you may find yourself with a perfectly executed innovation that your customers no longer want.

Getting Ideas from Users

the frustration experienced by users...can be channeled to create ideas and prototypes for innovations.

A potential source of innovation can be frustration: the frustration experienced by users who want something additional or different from the products and services they use. This can be channeled to create ideas and prototypes for innovations.

For example, Linux is not a product developed by a large corporation, but the result of collaboration among a community of users who wanted software that better suited their needs, and they continue improving and updating it.

Going to an older example: the pickup truck was not invented in Detroit by the large American car companies, but emerged on farms where farmers had bought the early trucks, stripped out the seats, taken off the roof, and improvised a truck more suited to their farm needs.

ACTION POINT: Work with "lead users" to capture their insights and prototypes. During process innovation inside the organization, use suggestion programs to capture employee ideas. Use web communities-- "crowd sourcing" -- to help create ideas for innovation or improve on what is already there.

Meeting Demand

...demand pull works inside the organization as well, as a driver of process innovation.

Necessity is the mother of invention, so making sure you understand user needs will help you pick up clear signals for innovation. Getting close to actual or potential customers and understanding their needs will help you understand user needs.

Market research is one good source of this, as are customer service and complaint records. Needs are not just about external markets for products and services -- demand pull works inside the organization as well, as a driver of process innovation.

ACTION POINT: Pay attention to sources of frustration highlighted by your workforce, and plan innovation to ease them.