Measuring innovation is important because it allows companies to track performance and efficacy. Davila, Epstein, and Shelton (2013) state that companies often look at the time to value, risk and value of their innovations to gauge the efficiency. However, there are other indicators of success that can help measure innovation like looking at the organizations culture, infrastructure, and exposure to stimuli (Davila, Epstein, & Shelton, 2013). Zappos.com has created a “Culture of Happiness” and uses the organizations culture as its gauge for innovation efficacy.
Zappos.com is an online shoe retailer but their main focus is customer service. Tony Hsieh is the CEO for Zappos.com and he seems to really understand the innovation strategy and culture of the company. Hsieh believes that if his employees are happy, they will be able to provide better services to the consumers (Perschel, 2010). Hsieh allows his employees to dress like superheroes, play with silly string, and engage in other non-traditional activities while working because he believes this allows employees to be more creative,...
Zappos is an online shoe and clothing store. The idea of an online shoe store originally came from Nick Swinmurn in the year 1999. He then pitched the idea to Alfred Lin and Zappos’ current CEO Tony Hsieh. Zappos quick rise to success is mostly attributed to their ten core values. These values vary from creating fun and weirdness to being humble. However, the root of this company’s success lies only on one important thing: their regard for customer service. They value the quality time spent with customers over the phone rather than the quantity of customers.
Innovation, what is innovation? Innovation is the creation and implementation of new ideas, methods, or strategies that facilitate a process, add value, or improve quality (Tidd & Bessant, 2013). In fact, innovation is the reason for all the new amenities of today’s 21st century. Moreover, innovation has brought forth new perspectives and ideas that have inspired numerous of businesses to expand and improve their daily operations, increase productivity, resolve dilemmas, and attain a level of success. However, such success cannot be attained without properly examining, planning, embracing, and managing innovation. In other words, organizations must carefully map the process of innovation in order to succeed.
The business model of the company could be categorized into formal and informal. As the name implies, the formal aspect of the Zappos was concerned with all the traditional aspects just like that of other companies. The formal aspects of Zappos had included Human resources, policies, procedures, operations, measurement of performances and compensation to employees on the basis of their performances. The informal aspect of the company dealt with the behavior of employees in an organization which was highlighted by Zappos in their corporate philosophy. According to their philosophy to get happy customers it was important to have happy employees and for happy employees an inspired culture was essential.
Defining ”innovation”could be rather a difficult task as it is a “multi-faceted phenomenon”, and a widely u...
store managers and frontline personnel, play a critical role in the context of Zara’s business model. Using customised PDAs, store managers constantly communicate customer feedback, either hard data such as orders and sales trends or soft data like customer reactions to a new style or the “buzz” around a new design, to Zara’s HQ where the feedback is used by designers to quickly develop new garments based on customers’ wishes (Ferdows et al., 2004). Frontline employees assist their superiors in collecting the feedback. Zara’s store managers and shop assistants thus close the communication loop between shoppers and Zara’s HQ (Ferdows et al., 2004) and therefore contribute hugely to Zara being able to first understand what customers like and then design and produce it (Buck, 2014). Accounting for their key role, Zara pays store managers an above-average salary and up to 100% of their salary in bonuses if they hit sales targets (Ruddick,
Business leaders must change how they think about innovation and must change how their company cultures reflect that thinking. Innovation can be bolstered anywhere if people are given opportunities and rewards for taking good ideas. Innovations are a matter of taking developed ideas and applying them in new situations.
Davila, T., Epstein, M. J., & Shelton, R. D. (2013). Making innovation work: How to manage it, measure it, and profit from it (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education Inc.
Using the Meaning-Centered Approach, Zappos has created an organization through ongoing human interaction. Their core values are communicated through training and employees respond positively with a shared understanding, as they experience an environment of family and happiness at all times. If you’ve ever heard the term “one bad apple spoiling the bunch”, you would
Zappos.com is a website that started off just selling shoes but now sells items such as handbags, clothing, and housewares in addition to shoes. Their company logo includes their catchy name with an explanation point as the end in the shape of shoe print which leads consumers to believe Zappos has strong feelings about the service they provide to their consumers. Zappos believe that customer service is the number one priority and is focused on cultivating repeat customers which is why they have always provided free shipping on both orders and returns; occasionally provides upgraded shipping so customers can receive their shoes the same day that they are ordered even though this is very expensive to the company; and they only show products on their website that they actually have in stock albeit they lose 25 percent of their potential business by doing so (Walker, 2009). For a compa...
Zappos strategy for delivering happiness to customers: Zappos adopted the unique strategy for delivering happiness to the customer that describes below:
Kelley,T. (2005, Oct.). The 10 faces of innovation. Fast Company, 74-77. Retrieved 6th March’ 2014 from http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=9&sid=1d6a17b7-c5f7-4f00-bea4 db1d84cbef55%40sessionmgr10&hid=28&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=bth&AN=18386009
Innovations are basically when an specific idea is transformed into a better idea(Quinn p.287). According to Quinn, the best innovations come from teamwork. This means that when a managers is able to develop creative thinking among his employees, the value of the organization increases. Nonetheless, there are several barriers to creative thinking. Some of the barriers could be either cultural or personal. Cultural barriers are those barriers that keep society in their usual lifestyle. For instance, same sex marriage could be a cultural barrier since it is not accepted in most religions. “If we are able to diminish our cultural barriers to creative thinking, we enhance our abilities to think differently and develop skills for creativity (Quinn p.290).” Many ideas may not be accepted by society at the beginning, but at the end, that 's what makes someone unique and trendy. Similar to cultural barriers, personal barriers are those that make people fear failure and those barriers that are against an individual beliefs. Examples of personal barrier are Resistance to change, fear of making a mistake, fear or failure or looking foolish, inability to tolerate ambiguity or to relax, tendency to judge rather than to generate ideas, self- criticism, conformity, stereotyping, lack of information (Quinn
Over the course of this class I have learned how important it is to be creative and innovative in the way that businesses are conducted within the organizations. The ability to innovate is the “secret sauce” of business success (Dyer, et al., 2009). However, creativity and innovation cannot take place if the leaders are not willing to foster a culture of innovation within the organization. Amabile & Khaire (2008) asserted that, it is essential to motivate people to contribute ideas by making it safe to fail. Stress that the goal is to experiment constantly, fail early and often—and learn as much as possible in the process. Convince people that they won’t be punished or humiliated if they speak up or make mistakes (Amabile & Khaire, 2008).
Innovation may be defined as exploiting new ideas leading to the creation of a new product, process or service. It is not just the invention of a new idea that is important, but it is actually
Innovation is very important to the long term success of an organization. Therefore, it is essential to understand what innovation is. The Business Dictionary defines innovation as “The process