Example Companies
There are many examples of successful companies. To what extent is MM Justifiably highlighted as the ‘innovating machine’? M’s use’s an effective company culture that nurtures innovation and use’s an innovative range of management techniques and strategies that together have delivered long-term success.
Some of the techniques MM is noted for employing are: hiring good people and trusting them; this will bring about innovation and excellent performance. M ensured that developing new products is much higher on the agenda in management meetings than at other companies. Moreover, the success of the approach is due to the continual reinforcement of its objectives. Indeed, the performance of individual business managers is partly Judged on whether they are able to achieve the objective. 2. In the MM case study, what is meant by the statement: the message is more important than the figures’? It’s imperative for the clientele to be educated about the feature and good quality offered to them.
To survive in a competitive business world you must create a positive perception in the minds of the clientele While buying consumers won’t focus n the quantity of the product sold in the market neither the revenue earned by the company they rather focus on the features and the benefits they are going to get from the product. Thus to create a positive perception and to educate consumers regarding the service or product offered the use of advertisement is very essential. Rush the need of advertisement is imperative to persuade and communicate the precise and accurate message to the consumers.
Proper message assist consumers to make right choice among the available products or services in the market. For this season it is important to put forward the message rather than the figures to achieve competitive advantage in this immense business world. 3.
Discuss the merits and problems with the so-called ’15 per cent rule’ Consider cost implications and a busy environment with deadlines to meet. To what extent is this realistic or mere rhetoric? MM encourages creativity and innovation in their products; employees still have a Job to do.
This “rule” would only apply to employees that are actually working on a new idea making the’1 5 per cent rule’ more rhetoric than realistic. These employees do to have to dedicate exactly 15 percent of their time either. It could be more or less depending on the time they need to work on their idea.
In reality, it would be counter-productive to require all employees to take 1 5 percent of their work load and dedicate it to new ideas, especially if an employee did not have any new ideas. In essence, they would be wasting valuable work time doing absolutely nothing. Everyone knows there are deadlines to meet.
It would cost the company greatly if they were paying employees for 15 percent of time wasted when they could be Morning on current projects. 4. Encouraging product and brand managers to achieve 25 per cent of sales from recently introduced products would be welcomed by shareholders, but what happens if a successful business delivers profits without 25 per cent of sales from recently introduced products? If this happens, the company will be viewed as less innovative.
This is what happened when MM hired James McKinney as their CEO. The company dropped from Number 1 to Number 7 on Business Weeks most innovative companies. M had certain standards and goals they lived by. Bringing in 30 percent of profits from new products was one of them. They may have still been profiting, but not as much from new products. This started to mar their reputation as the most innovative company out there.
In this day and age, customers are looking for the newest products out there, so M’s goal of 30 percent makes sense to me. They have lived by this for quite some time, so when this was changed, the whole structure of the company and their ideals changed. When they went back to their “old ways” everyone seemed happier. 5.
Some people may argue that M’s success is largely due to the significance given to science and technology and this is the main lesson for other firms.
Discuss the merits of such a view and the extent to which this is the case. This view is a good argument in many ways. In this day and age, it is important to focus on science and technology. I think it is always a good idea to put time, money, and effort into research and development in order to keep up with innovation. “To support these activities the company invests 6. 5 per cent of its annual sales turnover n research and development.
This is about twice that of the top 50 industrial companies in the United States. The money is used to employ over 7,500 scientists ND technologists in developing new and interesting technology. It is this technological intensity that provides the company with the competitive advantage to compete with its rivals. ” While science and technology is a large focus for the MM Company, it implements other strategies that have allowed them to be viewed as innovative. I think corporate culture and the structure of the company should also be included in the reasoning for M’s success. 5.
Explain how the innovation dilemma affected MM. M’s efficiency was stressed more than creativity, which caused issues with how the many was accustomed to conducting their business. The Six Sigma program the current CEO introduced appeared to be effective for everybody but the research and development department. Since there was pressure put on the speed that new products were created, there were more branches tot existing products than brand new products. This ultimately led to a slow down on new products and lowered their percentage of profits in this category. This dilemma also resulted in their ranking of the most innovative company dropping from number 1 to number 7.
