Innovation

Innovation = vitality, growth; survival

There is no doubt that innovation and the intrinsic positive change are vital to corporate growth and survival. It is Darwin's "survival of the fittest." Creativity and innovation are absolutely critical factors in all cost reduction and profit improvement initiatives.

Change is difficult. Growth is difficult. Innovation is conspired against by the very forces and factors that make you successful in the first place. Here are just some of what will keep you from innovating and changing to improve your profitability:

Human nature: 75% of your management and staff do not like change from the status quo and 48% of you really, really don't like it. Personalities conspire to stop or slow improvement.
The corporate need for constancy: You must be able to codify and repeat your business processes or quality and performance will suffer. Corporations fail when they can't perform and meet customer needs consistently.
Critical review: Management are trained to think critically. Their decision-making abilities that are highly prized and rewarded by most organizations. The downside is that criticism absolutely kills innovation. It will quickly stifle most of your cost reduction and profit improvement ideas.
Efficiency and productivity: Many companies have cut back and reengineered to the point where everyone is struggling to get their jobs done every day. People are rewarded for getting their jobs done and punished for not doing so. There is no time, energy or motivation for innovation.
Personal risk/reward: Our society is built on personal opportunity and reward. Most cost reduction programs or projects put all but the highest management at some real risk. Fear is sure to make people focus on what's best for them over all else.
Cost cutting is scary: When everyone walks around with a target on their backs it's hard to think about increasing sales and growing the company.
"Corporate memory" is long: People remember the bad things you have done to them ten times longer than the good things you have done for them.

Facilitating innovation and growth

Obviously one can facilitate innovation and growth by moderating some of the key forces and factors listed above. The challenge is to do so in a balanced and positive way that will sustain the core values, processes and products of the company while supporting people in the change process.

People are the absolute key to success. Here are some points to consider:

Process is vital: People must be given a road map to follow. This will enable them to focus on the new task and manage their desires not to change.
Skills are essential: People must be given tools and methods to allow them to enable change. They must be taught how to think and make decisions in a positive way to stop the crushing criticism. People won't have the time and energy to do more work - you must teach them how to do this more efficiently and effectively.
Positive goals are critical: There must be a light at the end of the tunnel; especially if profit improvement means making tough decisions. The survivors must be part of a positive experience. The only way you can make the best of a bad situation is to use process, provide skills, and all work toward a common positive goal (e.g. survival, growth, prosperity).

Business Solutions role

The Profit Improvement Process embodies all of the positive change elements necessary for success. We will teach you these methods, provide you with the turn-key processes and leave you to your success. Our role is to teach you how to succeed. We offer as much or as little as you need:

A World-Class turn-key Profit Improvement Process with everything you need including training and start-up.
Pieces of the process as needed.
Power Idea Sessions that will get you started with a bang.
Review and audit your existing cost reduction and profit improvement processes to make recommendations for world-class performance.
Training in the powerful Creative Problem Solving creativity, innovation and change model. Up to and including train-the-trainer training.
"Creative Approaches for Developing a Cost-Effective Organization" - an invaluable book
"Profit Improvement Executive Analysis" - an essential guide to making cost reduction process decisions
Consulting in world-class cost reduction and profit improvement

Contact us for a no-obligation discussion

Achieving World-Class Profit Improvement: See world-class profit improvement processes. A must-have resource for any cost reduction practitioners.
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Plus a FREE $99 "Profit Improvement Executive Analysis" white paper in electronic format.

Small business owners create over half the U.S. gross domestic product, sign the front of the paychecks of approximately 70 million Americans, and create over 55% of the innovations in the most innovative country on the planet. And America's small business owners will create most of the jobs in this decade and those to come. Let us help you learn how to innovate and create at high speed.

	Change
	Whether we like it or not, change is essential to life.

	Innovation??
	Isn't it ironic that sometimes our greatest strengths are our greatest weaknesses. The ability to reproduce and repeat performance for the customers and employees can be the very thing that strangles the company with an inability to change and adapt as the world changes.