Case study 1- Devonshire's Mitsubishi factory

"Many sectors such as the machinery sectors show a positive relationship between innovation and trade performance" Wakelin, K (1997:75)

Hey everyone!

 My other blogs have not gone into the academic side as much as this one (hopefully) will so I hope you still find it interesting, i'll add pictures and diagrams to make it more interesting :)



The picture above shows the team that won the MotorTrader Industry Aftermarket award for innovation in 2011 for their work at the Devonshire Mitsubishi factory. "The Aftermarket Innovation award recognises the best innovations in customer car, marketing and business management to generate sales growth and profitability." Carpages [online] accessed 30/11/11. The award is given to companies that look for "new aftermarket programmes which are taken up by the consumer, to boost revenue streams and show clear signs of innovative thinking", but is it fair to assume that there is a link between innovation and trade performance? Is it the case that if you are more innovativ,e your companies trade performance will increase? The best way to look at it is by examining a few theorists views on this topic.

 The first theory i'll be looking at is called the "self-reinforcing feedback mechanism". Jon Fagerberg in 1994 considered "the relationship between variables such as R&D and their comparative advantage" Wakelin, K (1997:75) and is one theorist who mentions this theory when describing innovation.
 "Innovation should result in greater productivity because a larger quantity or better product is produced. Firms that achieve higher productivity relative to the average of their industry gain a competitive advantage over less productive rivals, thereby increasing their propensity to access distant markets " Fagerberg (1994) as cited in TLAinc [online] accessed 1/12/11.  In theory this makes sense, for example if we look at the graph below:

What it shows is the correlation between the proportion of spending the top 40 Australian clothes manufactuers spent on R&D and their export proportion. Although it may not seem to suggest anything to begin with, if we look at the graph again with a line of best fit drawn in:

we can see a positive correlation between an increase in R&D spending and an increase in exports- in other words the more a company spent on R&D, the greater amount of exports experienced by the company. This data backs up Fagerbergs theory in the case that this R&D has led to innovative processes within the company and thus the self-reinforcing feedback mechanism has been fulfilled. The self-reinforcing feedback mechanism has also been backed up by theorists such as Feldmen, who in 1999 looked into R&D spendings in Silicone valley and concluded that "R&D output spilled over into other areas, increasing performance" Contesttheory [Online] accesed 1/12/11.

 However, just how realiable is this data? Many errors can occur with measuring innovation leading to these results potentially being incorrect. For example, "practical difficulties in disentangling the direct impact of innovation from other effects on a firm’s productivity " is one, how can we be sure that it was innovation that caused the witnessed changes and not another factor? Also, "innovation in practice is incremental, consisting of small, mundane improvements to a product or process that may not produce patents" Cornish, 1997; Kleinknecht, 1990; Porter, 1990.

So there we go, I hope this blog has been somewhat useful or interesting, I think my next blog I'll focus on when innovation does not lead to success as a sort-of part 2 of this blog :)

All the best :)

Reference List:

Carpages [online], found at: http://www.carpages.co.uk/mitsubishi/mitsubishi-dealer-19-07-11.asp, accessed 30/11/11

Contesttheory [Online], found at: http://www.contesttheory.org/viewappendix.php?id=59&ap=1 accessed 1/12/11

TLA Inc [online] found at: http://www.tlainc.com/articlsi9.htm accessed 1/12/11

Wakelin, K  (1997)"Trade and Innovation: Theory and Evidence", published by: Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd

Surgical Robots through to Virtual visits, another routine check up?

Hey everyone,

So I was reading a really interesting article (honest!) the other day about innovation within the health care and where we will likely be in a couple decades time. I'm not going to paraphrase the article because it's pretty much already shortlisted, so click here and you'll be transported to the website, it only takes about 5 minutes to read and some of the forecasts for the future make for great reading!

So what does everyone think about these predictions? How comfortable would you feel being operated on by a robot? Or having your checkup via Skype? Leave a comment below if you want! :)



I'll post a big blog soon, sorry for the lack of updates! 3 part time jobs means I'm getting very little free time right now!



Reference list

Health care of the future [online], found at: http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2010/03/health_care_of_the_future.html accessed 25/11/11

Home delivery: Innovation on your doorstep!

Hey everyone,

So as promised here is my blog all on the innovation of home delivery services within the UK- again i'll try and keep it short and sweet! As Mullin says in 'management and organisational behaviour': "innovation (includes)...new processes and improvements in all major areas of organisational activity" (1996:304)" and one of the most significant improvements in many stores throughout the UK over the past decade is the introduction of home delivery.

 Just looking at a couple of examples, Argos offer "a range of delivery services depending on the type of products you order" in order to coincide with the advent of their online store, the "second largest e-commerce website in the UK", with 21% of their orders being from their online store every week (working out to roughly 440,000 orders) Argos (online) accessed 12/11/11. Comet retailers carry out 1.3 million deliveries annually, equating to "13 home delivery platforms circa 650 employees" Presscomet (online) accessed 12/11/11. With such vast amounts of deliveries being required from these companies, their logistics department has a huge task on co-ordinating all these deliveries to ensure they reach their destination as quick as possible, which in turn does result in some issues. For example, one customer wrote on netmuts "I'm so annoyed with Argos. I was finally given a delivery date (6 weeks after she ordered) and when the delivery men turned up they brought the wrong items". Accessed 12/11/11. However, a majority of the comments on that site were positive and so this shows that scenarios like this are rare at best.

 You can argue that home delivery is still in it's early stages of being used, and we can look forward to more innovative processes to come in terms of home delivery. Already standard home delivery has evolved into customers being able to pick and choose options such as express delivery, standard delivery, next day delivery as well as being able to choose within a 2 hour time scale when they actually want their products to be delivered. With the growing amount of customers who choose to use internet sites to do their shopping, we can expect to see home delivery to evolve even more, giving customers even more flexibility as to when they want their products being received.

 I'm not 100% sure what my next blog will be about, I want to do something with the medical field so keep checking back and i'll be sure to update this soon!


Reference list:

Argos [online] found at: http://www.argos.co.uk/static/StaticDisplay/includeName/OrderingForHomeDelivery.htm#combo Accessed 12/11/11

Netmums [online] http://www.netmums.com/coffeehouse/house-garden-194/kitchen-household-14/376844-argos-home-delivery.html accessed 12/11/11

Mullins, L (1996)"Management and Organisational Behaviour"London: Prentice Hall

Comet [online]. found at: http://press.comet.co.uk/facts-and-figures accessed 12/11/11


Bibliography

Argos [online] found at: http://www.argos.co.uk/static/StaticDisplay/includeName/OrderingForHomeDelivery.htm#combo Accessed 12/11/11

Netmums [online] http://www.netmums.com/coffeehouse/house-garden-194/kitchen-household-14/376844-argos-home-delivery.html accessed 12/11/11

Mullins, L (1996)"Management and Organisational Behaviour"London: Prentice Hall

Comet [online]. found at: http://press.comet.co.uk/facts-and-figures accessed 12/11/11

More tricks, treats and innovation

Hey everyone,



So as you can see I went to Alton Towers yesterday and it gave me a good idea for a blog! Linking in from last weeks blog on Halloween innovation, I thought I would link both Halloween, innovation and the theme park industry together. Over the past few years, major theme park chains within the UK have seen the impact on profits when it comes to hosting events themed around popular holidays. For example, Alton Towers hold an annual "scarefest", which offers " tons of terrific rides, blockbusting attractions, amazing live shows, and weird and wonderful costume characters". (Scarefest online accessed 07/10/11). This years event was arguably the most innovative they have had, with a larger selection of halloween-based attractions and shows, plus an increase in the number of days the event ran on. However, it was not just the increase in attractions and dates that made this year more innovative, the attractions themselves were, thanks in part due to the increased pressure on designers to produce attractions similiar to the ones Universal Studios or Disneyland have on offer. Therefore, the attractions themselves had much more elaborate set designs and even more innovative methods in scaring guests (hiding the actors in with the sets, hidden compartments).

 However, halloween aside, Alton Towers has become more innovative in a number of different ways recently. They have introduced a system called "fast track", to combat queue time problems. By inserting your card into a machine near the ride, you are given an alloted time to return to the ride to skip the queue, reducing both queue times and the amount the park have to pay on refurnishing the queue lines due to bored guests graffiting them. As well as this, they have become more innovative in terms of reducing the costs of running their attractions. Recent rides such as Oblivion have been sponsored by major companies (Oblivion by Fanta, Duel by Kodak) and so this reduces the costs of running the attractions as these companies have agreed to subsidise the costs of this as long as they get their product promoted around the park.

Sorry for making this bried, like I mentioned earlier I've already posted one blog about halloween so didn't want this blog to become too "same-y". Next blog I'll be talking about innovation with home delivery services offered by major companies within the UK!


For the link to the scarefest website, click here.
Also, check out my friends innovation blog! Click here to view it!



Reference List

Alton Towers [online] http://www.altontowers.com/ accessed 7/11/11

Tricks, treats and innovation!

Image from - ulsterweaversblog (online), accessed 31/10/11


Hey everyone,

So with halloween today I thought it would be apt to make a blog post all about halloween and innovation surrounding it. An article in The Sun newspaper on Thursday 27th October stated that this year alone we will be spending "a record £315 million this year on spooky costumes, party gear and sweets for trick-or-treaters — 26 times as much as ten years ago. " But what is with this dramatic increase in spending in an economic climate where families are on tight budgets? And how does innovation link into all of this? As cliche as it sounds, the answer is all around us! 10 years ago you would not have found items such as halloween costumes for pets through to halloween lawn decorations, but these have bombarded the shelves in shops and supermarkets throughout the country as we try to keep up with our American counterparts with this age-old tradition.



Image from- trendhunter (online) accessed 31/10/11


Even companies are exploiting this holiday to sell more of a product, releasing a plethora of marketing campaigns to advertise their products, again something unseen 10 years ago. But how does innovation link into all of this? As mentioned in the previous blog, innovation is one of two things, firstly it can be " the process of creating a new product or service ", so in this case we have the addition of halloween lawn decoration, halloween cake decorations and spooky window treatments (a solution you rub onto your windows to make them seem bloodstained), but also innovation can be "improving a product or service", in which case we have the improvements of better quality and more complex costumes at a cheaper price due innovation in the manufacturing world (i'll post a blog about this next week) and also the improvements in terms of a wider selection of sweets being designed especially for halloween (Haribo "horror mix" being one example).


Overall, it is fair to say that Halloween has become less of a public holiday and more of a marketing campaign, with innovative products being released especially for this time of the year and companies exploiting it to see an increase in revenue and profits. I'll post a blog soon as well about the innovation of halloween within the theme park market, there was too much to talk about to just add it to the bottom of this blog!


Refence list:


Trend hunter [online] found at: http://www.trendhunter.com/slideshow/halloween-marketing#26 accessed 31/10/11
The Sun [online] found at: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/features/3897219/Hallow-earn.html accessed 31/10/11
Ulster Weaver Blog [online], found at: http://www.ulsterweaversblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/halloween-pumpkin.jpg accessed 31/10/11

A warm welcome!

Hey everyone!


So I basically created this blog to demonstrate the importance of innovation and how it is used within everyday life. Apart from covering the obvious examples such as innovation within the market place (for example to innovative advancements in the mobile phone markets, computer markets etc), I will also be exploring the more abstract uses of innovation; everything from electronic queue jump tickets in theme parks to innovation within the 4 seasons markets (all will be clear!).


Whilst keeping this blog academic: bringing in theories and examples from everyday life, I also want to aim to keep this informal as to make it less boring to read!

Just a quick side note: if you see a number in brackets at the end of a sentence, e.g. (1), it indicates I have used a reference and you will find the reference list and bibliography at the bottom of each blog post.


Innovation, invention and the differences


Just to clear this up, although they are similar, "invention" is the process of creating a new product or service for a market place, whereas innovation can be seen as improving a product or service and is seen as having a generally positive impact on the business. Innovation relies on employees creativity and imagination and so workplaces are encouraged to have a free-thinking philosophy when it comes to new ideas; as this increases the changes of creating an innovative product- as Walter Lippman said "If we are all thinking alike, then no one is thinking" (1).

So why innovate?

Innovation has changed the world we live in, even in the past 5 years we have seen huge innovative advancements in the form of High Definiation television (HDTV); touch screen technology all the way through to more everyday essentials such as innovation in skin care products and in the way our clothing is manufactured. Innovation has led to new, more time-effective/cost-effective ways of producing goods and services, for example HTC Sweden switched to an innovative new piece of machinary called 'Digital Prototyping' to produce some of their products,  which in turn "cut product development costs by approximately 97%" (2). Put simply, innovation has led to a positive change in our everyday life-individually it has led to cheaper goods due to decreasing production costs and also an increase in the goods and services available to us, whereas as a business it has led to an increase in the number of products being produced, an increase in profits and also a greater range of products being produced.


" Innovation gives us a temporary monopoly and higher profits. People will pay for quality products and we need quality products to sustain margins in a mature industry. If it’s not innovative there’s not enough profit in it.” (3)
Mark Henry, Group CEO and Chief Design Engineer, Furitechnics



References
Picture- Demontive Us [online] found at: http://www.demotivateus.com/ accessed 24/10/11

(2)- Industry week [online] found at :  http://www.industryweek.com/articles/product_design_innovations_reduce_costs_and_increase_customer_satisfaction_21025.aspx

(3)- Innovation toolbox [online] found at: http://www.innovationtoolbox.com.au/why-innovate accessed 24/10/11
(1)-Leadership now [online] found at: http://www.leadershipnow.com/creativityquotes.html accessed 24/10/11



Bibliography


Picture- Demontive Us [online] found at: http://www.demotivateus.com/ accessed 24/10/11

(2)- Industry week [online] found at : http://www.industryweek.com/articles/product_design_innovations_reduce_costs_and_increase_customer_satisfaction_21025.aspx

(3)- Innovated toolbox [online] found at: http://www.innovationtoolbox.com.au/why-innovate accessed 24/10/11

(1)-Leadership now [online] found at: http://www.leadershipnow.com/creativityquotes.html accessed 24/10/11

Marchington, M "Managing the Team" (1998), published by Blackwell Business