Best_Snacks

Response to Task A: The Best Snacks Scenario presents one general problem but several opportunities to correct the problem. The Chief Executive Officer of Best Snacks, Elizabeth Fairchild, recognized the lack of innovation and creativity from Best Snacks employees by analyzing finical loses in their investor’s reports. Due the lack of profits Fairchild believes that several internal changes need to take place, starting with the employee innovation and creativity. To help Elizabeth fulfill her request she has for Sabrina McKay, the Vice President of Organizational Development, to discover how Best Snacks can increase employee innovation and participation on bringing new products to market and increase Best Snacks market share and sales. Best Snacks can regain market share through structured idea management and designing innovative system that meets the needs of the new strategic plan. Employing internal and external resources will promote the organizations creative environment. Elizabeth Fairchild believes the company’s future lies in the development of an innovative organization. She also sees the company’s opportunity to achieve an innovative organization by regularly introducing new products and services to the current market and expand the customer base. Leaders at Best Snacks identified a need for improvement and change. Creativity and innovation have not been the focus and its impact is affecting the bottom line. This change will affect everyone in the organization and hopefully have a positive impact on the company’s market and revenue. - How can Best Snacks implement radical innovation and creativity to improve their financial standing. Response to Task B1: Topics: 1. How culture affects innovation- The research I will be conducting will cover how culture affects innovation. It will help Best Snacks create a strong implementation plan and overall strategy for how to increase innovation and creativity in their organization. Best Snacks will gain knowledge from two larger companies, AT& T and Intel. Best Snack will learn how different organizations promote innovation and create an environment in which creativity is seen as a positive tool to build overall organizational performance 2. Experimentation-Fairbanks and her team can employ experiments into the healthy food market, which Fairbanks has recognized for its emerging market potential. The results of these experiments will help “guide the radical innovation process by defining the right questions and suggesting the best answers” (Davila, Epstein, & Shelton, 2006, p. 130). 3. Risk-taking is an important part of creating an innovative organization because to step forward in any new idea’s the company has to take a risk. The kind of risk is important, companies need to manage and evaluate both the pros and cons of each innovative opportunity (Davila, Epstein, &Shelton, 2006, ch.9). 4. Management’s role in initiating radical innovation and creativity. Radical innovation forces that generate and nurture breakthrough innovation and include: Partnering with outside companies to create new ventures. Management is committed to supporting ideas outside the current strategy in initiating radical innovation and creativity. Availability of resources to support breakthrough ideas is analyzed by management. Barriers to breakthrough innovation include • incentives focused primarily on avoiding risk, • Breakthrough ideas are hard to implement in manufacturing and distribution, • Perceived competition with existing businesses. Radical innovations can create major shifts in an industry and put a company in the lead, however, investments in radical innovation need to be approached with caution. Radical innovations are by their very nature low-probability investments. Investing too much radical innovation can be based on unrealistic expectations and can waste valuable resources that could be better employed on semi-radical or incremental innovations. The key is to maintain a balanced portfolio of radical innovations so that the investment matches the business needs (Davila, Epstein & Shelton, 2006, p.53). 5. Innovation that fits. “A company sometimes unknowingly limits the innovation opportunities it considers or chooses by assuming too narrow a range of opportunities that could fit the company” (Davila, Epstein & Shelton, 2006, p. 134). A company needs to know exactly where they fit; going too or far or staying to close may limit creative opportunities. “The key is to carefully define a company’s competencies and not only focus on the obvious aspects of the business” (Davila, Epstein & Shelton, 2006, p. 134). Task B2: Generic Benchmarking: Companies Response to Task B2: AT&T AT&T is one of the technology giants in the world with their main priority in the cellular technology market. The partnership with Apple has increased AT&T profit line over the last three years and has helped make them one of leading cell phone providers among their competitors. AT&T internally is also thriving with new technology with the help of their innovative employees. In their European plant in 2008 employees participated in AT&T’s first internal social networking opportunity. In order for AT&T to see if this new internal communication would be valuable to the organization they conducted an employee. In this survey employees were asked what the benefits were for internal social networking. One of the top responses from the survey was “improving creativity” with 31%of the vote. By creating a cultural that allows social networking AT&T has shown how an open communication cultural can affect employees ability to be innovative. Best Snacks can gain valuable information from AT&T’s social networking idea to create a more innovative work environment among its employees. The results from the AT&T employee survey indicate that the social networking did increase not only creativity among its employees but also added sparking innovation, improving the question and answer process, increasing knowledge, and creating team bonding. Best Snacks can take what AT&T has created successfully and integrate this into their cultural. By providing social networking systems they will create an innovation cultural by allowing employee to communicate quickly and efficiently through social networking. The social networking system in Best Snacks will follow similar system as AT&T. The social networking will be for non-work related items, it will be available to employees after hours, and it will give employees from different teams a chance to communicate. This innovation system, “Innovation systems are established policies, procedures, and information mechanisms that facilitate the innovation process within and across organizations” (Davila, Epstein, & Shelton, 2006, p. 130), will help to manage the social networking process within Best Snack. Intel Intel is name that is heard, seen, or read about weekly. Intel is one of the largest technology corporations in the world and is in the leader of innovative ideas. To continue to be on top Intel has found many ways to promote innovation, creative thinking, and change among it 30,000 employees. This type of innovation and creativity is done in teamwork environments and employee collaborations, according to Ben Jacklet. An example of quantum innovations, “new products or operating systems that incorporate quantum technological improvements” (Davila, Epstein, & Shelton, 2006, p. 120 ), comes from one of Intel’s managers, Ajaj Bhatt. While at home working Ajaj was difficulty with the process of opening up his computer applications and files. When Ajaj arrived to work at Intel the next day, he took this problem to his team. Within one-week the creation of USB was started by an internal team of employees who were presented with a problem and arrived at a solution. The creation of the USB port helped put Intel back at the top of the market and they are yet to be challenged by any other competitors. Ben Jacklet clearly stated that “...while that explanation is technically accurate in many instances, it omits the vital human factor: the creativity and drive of the people who make these things happen” (Jacklet, 2009). This type of innovation and technology change allowed an organization through its innovative cultural create one of the most technology advanced systems of it is time. Best Snacks can take Intel’s process of team collaboration and foster an environment in which teams across Best Snacks can work together to create new and innovative ideas. Best Snacks cultural will be changed drastically from it is current framework to create one that promotes cross functional collaboration to improve Best Snack market share. This type of cultural change will challenge management to create teams that can work together and create a new product or change in technology. According to the article Team Level Predictors of Innovation at Work, “..it is of course the case that within organizations new ideas will usually be proposed and pursued toward implementation by work teams” (Anderson, Hulsheger, & Salgado, 2009, p. 125). By Best Snacks taking a team approach they will increase their chances of success, allow employees a place to create with other employees, and create a system that offers support for innovation. General Electric General Electric (GE) has been successful in developing innovative programs for their employees. The CENCOR (calibrate, explore, create, organize, and realize) encourages creative thinking and innovation (Magee, 2009). The management team at GE is also put through training that helps them develop creative and innovative skills (Magee, 2009). To address the gaps in the innovative process “GE uses three tools that combine to form the core of their innovation process. The workout, best practices, and process mapping. These tools are aimed at improving productivity, thus competitiveness” (Higgins, 1995, p. 1). Best Snacks could use either of these programs to help set the foundation for the enhanced business model. The GE programs are geared toward management and Best Snacks could use this process to change the mindset of the existing leadership team. Encouraging innovation and creativity at this level will filter down through the organization and maximize the firm’s creative potential in their employees. Disney Disney was the first company to introduce the “concept of managing creativity and innovation (Lynch, 2001, p.1). To gain the buy in of the employees Walt Disney defined the culture to encourage creativity and innovation through experimentation and identifying the gaps in the entertainment market. Through controlled risk-taking Disney could foster an innovative culture dedicated to the power of creativity (Lynch, 2001). Disney aligned the company’s objective and culture through a process he coined the Three Ws: “Who you are, what you do, and Where you’re going” (Lynch, 2001, p. 3). This concept allowed the creative process to flow yet is controlled. These simple concepts helped Disney through the SIM process, by encouraging ideas with risk and leading the company to introduce new technology and ideas that shaped the entertainment industry. Best Snacks can use this best practice to help guide them through the radical innovation process. Understanding that radical innovation comes with risk, yet learning to control that risk and not stifle the creative side of the firm will enable the company to pursue their objective and maximize their innovative potential. Google Google has 10 golden key principles to make knowledge workers effective. Knowledge workers are employees who are paid to be effective, not to work on a schedule. The creation of ever- changing culture has contributed to Google’s success as a technology company. The 10 key principles are cater to their every need, pack them in (create a shared space, put the team s in a share office), make coordination easy, eat your own dog food (the workers are the most demanding customers), encourage creativity, try to reach consensus, the atmosphere has respect and tolerance, let the data drive the decisions, and communicate effectively Best Snacks Incorporated can use many of the key principles to manage the staff and help encourage an innovative culture change with strong incentives. Google understands the possibilities of technological changes, and where to look for the small companies with the big ideas. Google know it is important to offer new services and ideas consistently to remain a competitive company. Google looks out for new technology and services ideas to help bring the company to the next level. (Kirby , 2009) Best Snacks Incorporated can use the model set by Google to add consistently new product and services and keep up with the changing technologies to help in all areas of the company. Best Snacks can use technology changes to find new and improved ways to keep up with the competition. Brinker Incorporated Brinker Incorporated employs a risk management team. According to Kim Sanders, when the infrastructure or the development agreement is established by corporate, the risk management team project. After reviewing the information the risk management team gives advice to the management about the hurdles and issues the project may face (Brodsky, 2010). Best Snacks Incorporated can form a risk management department to help analyze development and products. A risk management department can help the company to be proactive when taking risks, so informed risks can be taken. Wal-Mart The Economist Intelligence Unit (2009) describes Wal-Mart as a company that represents capitalism, globalization and the power of a brand. The mega- retailer had revenues of $405.6 billion in 2008/09, making it the largest retailer in the world. Wal-Mart owes its success largely to a world-class supply chain and hard bargaining with its approximately 60,000 suppliers, who forced are to keep prices low to deal with the world’s largest retailer. Instead of hoarding the savings, Wal-Mart passes them onto consumers to win their loyalty. Wal-Mart’s success is because of their creative and innovative initiatives, which include the following: • Capturing up market customers while also obtaining its core low-budget customer to spend more by adding more groceries to the usual mix of every day basics, • Stocking shelves with more up-to-date products, such as organic baby food and fine wine, in a bid to draw other target markets, • Address its image with ethical sourcing in which suppliers are required to meet specific environmental, social and quality standards, • Opening stores in urban areas, hiring women to its board, and demanding that suppliers put more women and minorities on the teams that handle Wal-Mart business. Wal-Mart is determined to continue to dominate the retail world by keeping fiscal spending in check and continuing their creative and innovative initiatives. Dow Chemical Company Dow is a leading science and technology company that provides innovative chemical, plastic and agricultural products and services to many essential consumer markets. “With annual sales of $28 billion, Dow serves customers in more than 170 countries and a wide range of markets that are vital to human progress, including food, transportation, health and medicine, personal and home care, and building and construction. Dow is committed to the principles of Sustainable Development, and its approximately 50,000 employees seek to balance economic, environmental and social responsibilities. ” (PR Newswire, 2003). Dow Chemical Company is the first chemical company to receive the Outstanding Corporate Innovator Award for being an organizations who is the “most successful in developing new products and have an enterprise-wide commitment to innovation” (PR Newswire, 2003.). Their total solution approach is rooted in top management’s strategic commitment to value creation based on developing new products around customer needs, using technology, and maintaining a workplace that foster creativity and innovation. Dell Dell is one of the world’s top home personal computer (HPC) vendors — third in general and second in the large segment for departmental HPC systems. “Dell advanced in this market due to the company's ability to produce price-competitive, standards-based, reliable computers that match the needs of many HPC cluster buyers today. Dell is expanding its HPC strategy to enable more direct partnering with customers in pursuit of their HPC goals” (Conway, Joseph, Wu, 2010). One of the strategies Dell used to accelerate its HPC growth-- Dell continues maintaining the right balance between price competitiveness and value-added features and capabilities. Additionally, Dell focused on recruiting subject-matter experts in fast-growing areas such as genomics and others (Conway, Joseph, Wu, 2010). Best Snack Incorporated can benefit from strategies used by Dell. Best Snacks currently have a staff of subject matter experts to lead the vision toward innovation and increase revenue. A characteristic of implementing an innovation system is recruiting and retaining highly skilled and trained personnel, give them access to knowledge, and then encourage and enable employees to think and act innovatively (Serrat, 2009). “Creativity plays a critical role in the innovation process, and innovation that markets value is a creator and sustainer of performance and change” (Serrat, 2009). Best Snacks had reached a where innovation was limited. Change to a product was limited to the packaging size. Successful companies encourage an environment in which creativity and innovation flourishes throughout the organization. Mattel Mattel Incorporated, the top toy maker in the world, leads the future of play with the introduction of the hottest toys and games each holiday season. With advanced innovation and excitement wrapped into the designs of children's favorite toy brands, products from the biggest entertainment properties of the year as well as new introductions sure to delight everyone in the family (Ingraham, 2010). Mattel’s strategy to remaining at the top of the industry includes innovation, marketing and both new and iconic toys. “We succeed in keeping toys and games relevant each year and most importantly at the top of children's holiday wish lists, by continually reinventing brands and infusing magic into every toy." says Neil Friedman, president, Mattel Brands” (Ingraham, 2010). Like Mattel, leaders at Best Snack are in agreement that changes need to be made for the company to regain its position leading the industry. For innovation to happen successfully there must be a clear process in place to manage all the steps of innovation—from design, to measurement, to reward. These changes will require support and commitment from the employees at Best Snack. The CEO’s chief concern is that everyone has seem to forgotten the importance of developing and creating ideas. She emphasized that it is not only a product issue that is stagnating the company. She believes that it is important to foster an environment that lends itself to creativity. One of the first tasks includes conducting a survey to gather feedback from the employees to assess their opinion is of the creative culture of the organization. Best Snack is moving in the right direction to affect change in the organization.