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,...
The Target Corporation prides itself on their department store roots with a constant obligation to great prices and stylish originality. The main focus of every Target store is the customer, whom the corporation refers to as a "guest", making them feel more personal. Each guest can expect to walk into a clean, organized, and easy to navigate store with "high quality, stylishly designed items plus all the essentials for his or her life".1 The company also has a significant focus on design. The company employs a "design for all" strategy that says great design is for everyone to enjoy, everyday. The product designers know how to create products you will "love to live with and low prices you can't live without".1 The commitment to design has become a key technique of attracting and keeping their shoppers coming back.
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.
Lowe’s tries to foster collaboration and strength in a variety of methods; many are through leadership training tracks and supporting employees and their families. During times economic uncertainty, it is important that individuals know that they an organization that cares and supports them. In a comprehensive report released by Lowes, the company detailed improvements Lowe’s achieved in important focus areas, including the health, safety and engagement of employees, the company’s advancement towards its 2020 goals and its partnership with suppliers to maintain the highest ethical standards and improve the products it sells (Lowe’s Companies, 2015a). According to Lowe’s Companies (2015a), “For the first time in Lowe’s annual Employee Opinion Survey, all of its U.S. stores, distribution centers and customer support centers all reached the company’s benchmark engagement goal of 65 percent, indicating a highly engaged and satisfied staff” (para 4).. “Career Bliss recognized Lowe’s as one of the 10 happiest retailers to work for in 2014” (Lowe’s Companies, 2015, para 5). To keep an organization running efficiently and effectively, you need a good customer base; you cannot achieve this without helpful, courteous and willing employees. Lowe’s understand that to keep up in the industry, they need to ensure they employees are taken care of
The concept of Innovation: Innovation generally refers to changing or creating more effective processes, products and ideas, and can increase the likelihood of a business succeeding. Businesses that innovate create more efficient work processes and have better productivity and performance (Innovation, 2015)
First, in relation to the organization’s most important asset, people, Sears has failed to recognize the distinctive competences that lie in the skills and abilities of their own employees. Sears once was a very successful organization in relation to how they treat their employees. Sears was one of the pioneers of measuring employee engagement in the retail industry by creating a set of measures known as Total Performance Indicators. People who enjoy going to work every day, as a result of a high-performing company culture, increases their productivity, giving them a higher return on salary. This model of employee engagement worked very well for Sears in the past, however, in recent years, Sears has strayed away from this core competency.
Today, many innovative firms and entrepreneurs put extensive attention on how to make the innovation comply with the marketing mechanism instead of thinking how to make the products more advantage and sophisticated. If innovators could focus more on issues like products development (effectiveness) and cost control (efficiency), they are likely to have a better competitive edge than the competitors. Today’s economy suggests that institutions as well as customers are more welcome to the novel ideas than before, if innovation was shaped and modified too much with the purpose of enriching social understanding and acceptance, the result may worsen. Therefore, it is very important for innovators and entrepreneurs to carefully think about the balance between acquiring acceptance within social context and presenting the novelty to public.
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.
Zappos strategy for delivering happiness to customers: Zappos adopted the unique strategy for delivering happiness to the customer that describes below:
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,
Davila, T., Epstein, M., & Shelton, R. (2013). Making innovation work: How to manage it, measure it, and profit from it. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.
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
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
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.
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.
Importance of organisational culture Organisational culture is one of the most valuable assets of an organization. Many studies state that the culture is one of the key elements that benefits the performance and affects the success of the company (Kerr & Slocum 2005). This can be measured by the income of the company, and market share. Also, an appropriate culture within the society can bring advantages to the company which helps to perform with the demand of the industry environment. For example, a company with a flexible, and innovative organisational culture will create competitive advantages that benefit the organisation's performance.