Benchmarking competitors

New ideas come to those who carefully and systematically study the methods of competitors. Opportunities for improvement can be identified by benchmarking against industry leaders. Stars are systematic in their methods of looking outside their companies, and of scanning their environment regularly for collaborative opportunities. For example, many Indian companies use ideas from foreign competitors, who then become collaborators.

Marketing practices

The marketing and sales departments are the eyes and ears of the company in the marketplace. They are part of the market intelligence system that keeps company officials informed about the rapidly changing conditions in the micro and macro environment. The gathering of this information is usually casual, depending on the individual’s own interest. This may consist of market gossip, newspaper and trade reports, clues from the field force and information from outside sources. The information is often random and sketchy. The company may learn too late about a dealer’s need or a customer’s changing aspirations or a competitor’s aggressive move, to respond effectively. Stars are able to excel due to their practice of the following: • Training sales staff in the process and systems of collecting information • Using the internet, media and contacts to gather all available information • Buying information from specialized market research companies

Benchmarking competitors

New ideas come to those who carefully and systematically study the methods of competitors. Opportunities for improvement can be identified by benchmarking against industry leaders. Stars are systematic in their methods of looking outside their companies, and of scanning their environment regularly for collaborative opportunities. For example, many Indian companies use ideas from foreign competitors, who then become collaborators.

Nurturing the Workplace

Gandhiji knew it when he filled the streets with people singing Vande Mataram. A national anthem celebrates nationhood, the blood, sweat andtears of creating a country. It aims to transcend logic and unleash the tigers of passion. The Americans stand there, hand on heart, before their flag and sing the Stars and Stripes. It creates a wave of national pride and primes people for leadership. The Japanese use this same force to create love for the company they work in. Vivekananda carried the message of India to the world with his matchless talk which starts, “Arise, Awake, stop not till the goal is reached”! Words absorb and radiate power because of their meaning and usage. Gandhiji created a few words, “bullets” of truth that turned a large passive lake of humanity into a tsunami, which forced the British to leave India. They were: • Quit India! • Do or Die! • Purna Swaraj! (Total freedom) • Vande Mataram! • Jai Hind! • Be Indian, Buy Indian! • Swadeshi! • Satyameve Jayathe! Mantras or brief prayer-words were created by ancient seers to enter the heart and regenerate the awareness of the soul.’ When you infuse a sense of pride and joy in what you do, it becomes a joyful experience, instead of a chore. To work at something you love, to be “self-actualised”, in Maslow’s terms, is to protect yourself against dying young.’ ‘People can be very happy if they love their work.

Factors that Drive Innovation

An over-emphasis on doing things right the first time inhibits innovation. • The way creative individuals are treated has a major impact on organizational innovation. Organizations must reward successes produced by innovations and keep encouraging people in the face of so-called failures. Rewards nurture creativity through affirming its value to the organization. While most Aspirants and Non-Starters had no reward for individual creativity, all Stars did. • Turf protection and barriers between different functional areas are major obstacles to innovation. Encouraging cultural, racial and gender diversity helps reduce these barriers. • Non-Starters choose to spend most of their time on making small improvements to existing products, while devoting very little attention to new product development. They need to focus more on breakthroughs and radical changes. • All employees should be involved in innovation by learning the tools of creativity and providing a positive, enabling field. Stars make use of a strategic planning approach that involves the whole team in not just executing strategies, but actually planning them. This approach creates buy-in from team members. • Top management should drive the process by providing a personal example. Management needs to talk less about innovation and do more on the ground. • Most Stars have an idea generation process, but not all of them use it. This shows that having information is different from using it. People may know a process theoretically; organizations alone can ensure that it is used. Top management commitment is critical to universal understanding and sharing of thinking tools. • Time and resources need to be allocated for learning innovation tools and processes. Stars studied more books on innovation than Aspirants or Non-Starters. Additionally, Stars attended more training programs on innovation. • Stars spend much less time in meetings. Additionally, the productivity of meetings for Stars was

Idea generation

Stars make extensive use of brainstorming to generate ideas. Idea generation is most productive when it is used to tackle a specific business problem. The rules for a successful idea generation are: suspend judgment, postpone reaction and extend effort. In addition to brainstorming, Stars make use of many other tools for the generation of ideas.

Celebrate Everyday

The poorest among mankind celebrate and give thanksgiving to the gift of life and the bounty of Nature. All over the world, harvest is a time for rejoicing. In early January, the whole village celebrates Pongal in Tamil Nadu. The four-day long festivities are like an island of joy in the midst of life’s stormy business. All old things are burnt in a huge bonfire. New clothes are worn. Overflowing joy and good fortune are celebrated by the Pongal pot of plenty which boils over with rice and jaggery that will be eaten at the celebration. The house is newly painted and decorated. A whole day is devoted to tending to cows. Their horns are painted and bodies decorated, and they are given rest and good food. The last day is devoted to going out and seeing friends and relatives, watching movies and generally celebrating life. The saying is that when the ‘Thai’ month (that starts in mid-January every year) is born, a way will be found to solve all problems. Celebrations lift you out of the trough of despondency. They fill you with the energy to make a new beginning with the help of God and the family. Why can’t we make every day an occasion to rejoice? It is up to each family to celebrate and enjoy life on a regular basis. A special movie on television can be celebrated with hot popcorn, dinners on Saturday nights can be an opportunity to dress up. We can make affirmations for the family a way of life

Consistent Innovation

Once the returns from an innovation start to pour in, the organization may begin to focus on maximizing the returns through routine implementation. Harvesting is a mechanical and essential process. Perhaps every organization requires a section of its people to focus on creativity and innovation. An Innovation Center could provide the foundation for a long-term initiative. Large, tradition bound, successful organizations, tend to prefer the stability that formalized procedures provide. Older organizations tend to become more bureaucratic. Large companies may have more resources, while smaller companies may find it easier to change course. Even though most companies accept the idea of innovation being important for success, most are not committed enough to practice it on a long-term basis. Most are not aware of the underlying process required to make it work on a consistent basis. In the Innovation Movement itself, there are not enough clearly defined structures and processes that a company could follow. There are few consultant organizations, which can handhold and support long-term innovation initiatives. There is a feeling that innovation and creativity is for intellectuals or geniuses. Innovation as a concept needs to be demystified for use across the organization. Management is bottom-line driven. They are extremely result oriented in the short term and lose faith in concepts very fast. Innovation is a concept that requires a long-term buy-in and takes time to be fully ingrained in the organizational culture.