Numerous organizations in a variety of cultures keep pointing at one critical enabler of innovation. Engaged and caring employees who care for each other, their customers, suppliers and stake holders. For only those who care,care to really listen. And that converts ideas into products and services- that can be profitably implemented. Employee engagement is hardContinue reading “Innovation and creativity: comes from engaged and caring employees”
Category Archives: Leadership and Management
2012 Yale Consumer Insights Conference gets better as Practitioners and Academics engage
The 2012 Yale Center for Consumer Insights Conference was the 7th one and reached a new level of excellence over the last weekend. This blog has covered past YCCI conferences but this year both Academics and Practitioners seemed really wanting to engage. Perhaps both groups feel overwhelmed with rapid technology changes,globalization, uncertain economies and aContinue reading “2012 Yale Consumer Insights Conference gets better as Practitioners and Academics engage”
No change in the ecosystem : why losers win in contested corporate mergers
When corporate mergers are contested i.e. there are two competing suitors for a target company and there is a bidding war, the loser actually wins says recent research according to Stephen Gandel in CNN Money. That's because the bidder organization that lost did not have to deal with making the merger work, the execution challengeContinue reading “No change in the ecosystem : why losers win in contested corporate mergers”
Innovation : top management need to get involved in the first three stages
It’s sort of amazing when top management in a variety of industries from high tech aerospace to comparatively low tech outer packaging seem to be disengaged and “hands off” in the first three stages of of innovation (see previous post on the 5 stages). Top leaders start taking interest when the product is in serious development(Stage 4) and many top managers become alert and awake as the product is getting launched(Stage 5). At this time things are too far ahead to change except at high cost. These include airfreight when sea freight might have worked on the supply chain side, customer apathy in the market because concept testing was not done well and there was no time to do product and market testing because top management was so un-involved that the budgets were not approved when the New Product team had put them up.
Innovation is always in context of customers,stakeholders and society
If we think of innovation, invariably we think of radical innovations like the iPhone or Facebook. By doing so, individuals succeed in just beating up themselves and their organizations – and for no reason. Consider that after the iPhone or Facebook started taking off entire industries (eg. smartphone for iPhone) and social media (eg. LinkedInContinue reading “Innovation is always in context of customers,stakeholders and society”
Organizational bases of power: what’s up and what’s down with the Internet ?
"Power" in distribution channels is a fascinating topic and so is the notion of organizational power on which Jeffery Pfeffer had a book out that this blog discussed in an earlier post. But this post is about the six bases of power (see the lower part of the Wikipedia page) that seem to be changingContinue reading “Organizational bases of power: what’s up and what’s down with the Internet ?”
US Healthcare: 5% people account for 50% of the cost: the Camden experiment
You have heard of the 80:20 or Pareto principle, but the 5:50 with US healthcare costs is just amazing. And guess what – all those in that bottom of pyramid 5% who go innumerable times to the Hospital Emergency Rooms (ER) and rack up what becomes 50% of the cost- are rather unhappy with USContinue reading “US Healthcare: 5% people account for 50% of the cost: the Camden experiment”
Why Encyclopedia Britannica took twenty years to go digital- the sales force angle
Finally, Encyclopedia Britannica has gone digital (Reuters 2012) And it took 20 years for the 200 year old organization to do so.Above is a 1988 TV commercial and you can see the PC in evidence. PC makers were already giving free Grolier Encyclopedia discs alongwith the IBM PC’s that came with Windows DOS. But BritannicaContinue reading “Why Encyclopedia Britannica took twenty years to go digital- the sales force angle”
Marketing is about segmenting and diversity is about *not* segmenting
Marketing is all about segmenting so that you have viable “buckets” of customers for whom you can develop product or service offerings, get a reasonable price as you communicate your offering and deliver it without excessive cost. “Stereotyping” is thus at the heart of conventional marketing and it is “stereotyping” that is at the core of diversity issues in organizations.
Happy 100th Birthday to Oreo cookies: keeping the soul of a brand
In a rapidly changing world- Oreo cookies give you a sense of stability and comfort and that is the soul of the Oreo brand. The largest selling cookie of the 20th century has survived numerous wars,technology upheavals,financial meltdowns and extreme globalization. If you were used in childhood to "twist,lick and dunk" and are now watchingContinue reading “Happy 100th Birthday to Oreo cookies: keeping the soul of a brand”