Why Innovation Isn’t Working at 82% of Surveyed Companies

An Accenture study explains why increased innovation investments haven’t resulted in competitive advantages for companies – and why their executives are disappointed with the companies’ innovation performance.

 

May 14, 2013

When you make a major investment in innovation, you want a good return on your investment, right? Well, hundreds of senior executives admit to disappointment over their innovation efforts despite making increased investments, according to global consulting firm Accenture.

Only 18 percent are satisfied and the consulting firm says the reasons are obvious.

The moral: If you want strong results from your investment in product and service development, don’t use a risk-averse approach. That’s the conclusion from a major Accenture study of 519 companies in France, Britain and the U.S. – of which 51 percent have increased their investments in innovation.

Ironically, 93 percent of responding executives because their sustainability hinges on innovation, and 70 percent say innovation is one of their five salient goals.

The report entitled, “Why ‘Low Risk’ Innovation Is Costly,” shows 46 percent of respondents admit to being risk averse in new initiatives.

“Additionally, only 46 percent of the companies had an effective, holistic approach to the development and introduction of new products or services, and 64 percent of them tend to pursue product line extensions rather than the development of totally new products or services,” according to an Accenture news release.

Jeopardizing results

“Many companies take a low-risk approach to innovation that can jeopardize results because they lack a prudent, disciplined approach for innovation risk management,” says Wouter Koetzier, who is managing director for Innovation and Product Development at Accenture. “It’s a situation compounded for many by an inability to rapidly scale inventions.”

“However, the research suggests that those companies that have a formal, end-to end management system to nurture, scale and launch innovations tend to be more satisfied with their results as they achieve stronger outcomes,” he maintains.

Indeed, such companies are more satisfied with their capabilities than those that haven’t installed formal programs by 43 percent to 24 percent, respectively.

Companies that have formal systems are generally in these sectors: Consumer goods and services, electronics and high tech, and health providers.

ROI

Such companies tend to experience competitive advantages, introduce new processes and products, and are ahead of the curve in being first to market in new products and services.

“The bottom line is that innovation can work better when a formal system exists to streamline processes, manage risks and mine the data needed to generate new products, services and business models to foster growth,” says Adi Alon, a managing director in the Accenture Innovation and Product Development practice.

“Approached correctly, innovation can be executed at scale, with speed and balance between renovation and game changing initiatives; driving higher strategic and commercial value,” the consultant explains.

Accenture’s recommendations for creating a formal innovation system:

1. Develop end-to-end processes that contribute to speed and flexibility
2. Create unique, personalized customer experiences that can foster loyalty and enhance revenues
3. The application of risk management to help drive innovation with analytics, processes and tools
4. Integration of the customer voice through the use of big data and social media
5. Frugal innovation that can reduce complexity to shorten time to market, reduce the cost of innovation, disrupt business models and serve the emerging middle class in developing countries

Read the report.

Accenture’s study is reminiscent of a report on strategic planning – profit lessons from companies that focus long term.

From the Coach’s Corner, suggested reading:

Increase Your Business Value with 5 Basic BPO Strategies

How to Avoid Failure in Risk Management and Strategic Planning

“The best way to predict the future is to create it.”

-Peter Drucker

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Author Terry Corbell has written innumerable online business-enhancement articles, and is a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services. For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule him as a speaker, consultant or author, please contact Terry.

 

Communication – You Can Train Yourself to Stop Stressing

 

It’s OK to be nervous before giving a speech or when you’re entering an important round of negotiations. Feeling pressure is one thing but allowing it to morph into stress and tension is another.

When you allow this to happen, in a sense, you’re giving away your personal power, which inhibits your performance.

“Some of the most prominent patterns in the landscape of modern life are tension, stress and self-absorption,” says Eric Stone, a leading expert in how to improve communication with others, public speaking and performance.

“All aspects of public speaking, communication and performance are affected by negative tension and its two compadres,” he acknowledges. “Conversely, positive aspects of tension, stress and self-absorption do exist. Studying for an exam, performing in front of a large crowd, high-stake activities, giving birth, etc.”

Mr. Stone, a former New York City stage and television actor, operates Speakers and Artists International, Inc. (www.publicspeakingconnection.com) in Beverly Hills, Calif.

Dangers of self-absorption 

“Self-absorption is the constant influx of thoughts of the same quality or theme but that are left unchecked and unobserved; it can be a quasi-permanent or chronic focus on specific situations or scenarios where the main character usually is, well, ourselves,” he says.

“According to numerous case studies, self-absorption or self-preoccupation is one of the leading causes of what can be called negative stress,” Mr. Stone points out. “In various frequencies, risk factors include anxiety, fear, nervousness, hyperactivity, irritability, helplessness, difficulty sleeping, hopelessness, fear or anger, blame, as well as cynicism or distrust of others.”

Tension from failure to listen

“We become negatively tense when we stop listening to how we really feel in our bodies. We lose our ‘witness consciousness,’” he asserts.

“Problem solving is deeply affected by tension,” adds Mr. Stone. “In my experience, tension is in essence a refusal or a resistance to trusting how we feel within the moment at-hand and distrusting the natural physical-emotional flow of our experience (sensations, feelings, thoughts, insights, etc.).”

Consequences of tension

“Negative tension breeds self-consciousness, righteousness, worry, insecurity, hyperactivity, uptightness, melancholy, anxiety, attention deficit, depression, sadness, paranoia, etc.,” he observes. “Part of being cultured and ‘fitting in’ is to display an impressive array of quite clever personal, professional and social disguises or role-played attitudes to hide our negative tension.”

Eliminating tension

“Negative tension resides and expresses itself as physical pressure in the body, emotional pressure in the heart, and/or mental pressure in the mind,” Mr. Stone adds. “Part of the battle to relieving stress and tension is to become aware of it ‘in the body.’”

Tension release

He says relaxation and tension release must start in the body.

“It clears the way for new dimensions and offers considerable creative advantages in matters of communication, public speaking and performing,” he says.

“Relaxation that begins in the mind is a watching exercise,” concludes the expert. “We watch the mind but the anchoring occurs in the body starting in the breath.”

So it starts with breathing. Hmm, the LaMaze technique comes to mind.

You don’t have to become a student of the method developed French obstetrician Dr. Fernand Lamaze in the 1940s. But if you focus on your body’s breathing and movement, you’ll start training yourself to stop stressing in communication.

From the Coach’s Corner, more key points for speechmaking:

• Public Speaking Tips – for Speeches in Accepting Awards, Honors
• How to Get More Opportunities as a Guest Speaker
• How to Obtain the Most Profit from Speaking Opportunities
• 9 Tips to Connect with People after You Make Your Speech

“If you ask what is the single most important key to longevity, I would have to say it is avoiding worry, stress and tension. And if you didn’t ask me, I’d still have to say it.”

-George Burns

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Author Terry Corbell has written innumerable online business-enhancement articles, and is also a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services. For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule him as a speaker, consultant or author, please contact Terry.

 

What Successful Marketers Know About Lead Generation

 

Professional marketers are more successful when they use integrated marketing automation to evaluate their performance and to become more competitive in the marketplace. This means they’re more sophisticated than their competitors in determining their returns on investments, according to a 2012 a study.

“Overall, the research found that companies taking a holistic approach to leveraging integrated marketing automation to drive effectiveness have increased key business and financial outcomes,” according to the report.

The “Lead Generation Marketing Effectiveness Study” was conducted by the Lenskold Group in tandem with The Pedowitz Group in Manasquan, NJ.

It reveals how integrated marketing automation, strengths in core competencies, and using ROI metrics affect lead generation and stimulate marketing success.

“This report provides key insights into the specific drivers that enable marketing automation to impact effectiveness and efficiency,” says Debbie Qaqish, principal and chief revenue marketing officer of Pedowitz Group.

“Best practice companies are reaching a strategic level of support, reinforcing the need for CMOs to begin or continue their revenue marketing transformation,” she explains.

My sense is that she’s right, as CMOs often have difficulty gaining support from CEOs who often see marketing as an expense vis-à-vis an investment. When profits decrease, CEOs usually cut budgets for marketing. That’s a mistake in my view.  (A secret to success in a weak economy is to expand marketing.)

By successfully documenting a marketing ROI, a CMO’s relationship with the CEO will improve. Then, it will be easier for a CMO to use the four keys to market ideas to the CEO.

“The survey results show that marketing executives focusing their organization on the key business outcomes and creating the environment to deliver will get much more value from their marketing automation,” says Jim Lenskold, President of Lenskold Group.

“There is great potential to improve marketing impact on sales, revenue and ROI when marketing automation generates greater alignment with sales, better measurement insights into lead outcomes and the ability to continuously improve both effectiveness and efficiency,” he adds.

Key findings:

• Marketing automation users that also use ROI metrics to assess effectiveness are much more likely to realize an increase in “total marketing revenue contribution” from their automation (69 percent compared to just 19 percent of marketers using only traditional, non-financial metrics).
• The best practice group of “highly effective and efficient” marketers is more likely to attain a strategic level of marketing support from their automation, with CMO support and sales team integration (46 percent vs. 19 percent of all others).
• Highly effective and efficient organizations are much more likely to report strengths in proactively managing the marketing funnel, measuring incremental sales and revenue, providing a pipeline forecast and being accountable for revenue goals. The differences were quite significant, averaging 70 percent for highly effective and efficient marketers vs. 30 percent of all other marketers.
• Lead generation marketing effectiveness increases with marketing automation. Marketers report an increase in six key outcomes as a result of implementing marketing automation, with 6 in 10 reporting increased quantity and quality of leads and close to half reporting increases in the “percent of leads accepted by sales and the total marketing revenue contribution.”

Respondents were drawn from a worldwide sample of 373 lead generation marketers. The full report is available for download at www.lenskold.com/LeadGenROI_2012.

From the Coach’s Corner, here are related strategies:

• Marketing Checklist to Measure Your Brand’s Personality
• Profits: How and Why to Align Marketing with Sales
• Tips, Plus Why it’s Never Too Early to Plan for Q4 E-commerce

“Marketing takes a day to learn. Unfortunately it takes a lifetime to master.”
– Phil Kolter

 

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Author Terry Corbell has written innumerable online business-enhancement articles, and is a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services. For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule him as a speaker, consultant or author, please contact Terry.

 

Small Business – Easy Ways to Boost Your Employees’ Morale

 

Employee morale affects performance. Study after study shows a significant percentage of worker morale is mediocre, at best. That’s often the case even for companies that are able to pay competitive wages and benefits. As you might guess, it’s a bigger quandary for business owners that don’t have enough cash flow for raises.

There are strategies you can implement if a valued employee wants a raise, and money’s tight. It’s also possible to sleep well and not worry about keeping your top employees.

What about the rest of the team? What can be done to improve the morale of  employees to perform at their highest possible levels?

Employees, who otherwise have good attitudes, appreciate positive communication. They like knowing they’re contributing to the welfare of their employer, and that they’re appreciated as an asset to the organization.

To boost your employees’ morale, here are some easy-to-follow strategies:

Start a listening campaign. If it’s not your style it will take some gumption to ask your employees what they want. For example, when planning a staff party ask your workers for their preferences. But you’re a courageous entrepreneur, right?

At the minimum on a indefinite basis, you should smilingly walk the floor twice a day to engage your workers. It’ll only take a minute with each employee. Ask them open-ended questions about their hobbies or how they’re doing. Wait for the answers – be attentive –  eespecially if they indicate they have a problem.

When’s the time to give feedback? You should always give feedback right away – whether a person performed a task well or poorly. Be specific. Make a note about the performance and slip it in the employee’s personnel file as a reminder at appraisal time.

A talented employee with a positive attitude will appreciate it.

Help your employees’ career growth. You can accomplish this without a big expense.For example, help them develop skills by giving them added duties. This will enhance their self confidence.

Besides, a good boss knows how to delegate.

Accommodate their schedule with flexibility. Flexibility is usually appreciated and is a great motivator. Sometimes employees need to leave work early to do an important errand. Perhaps they have a child playing in a championship Little League game.

Share information. Let the employees know how the business is doing – and how their work is contributing to any successes. They’d appreciate knowing if they’re making a difference — or how they can.

Moreover, share your vision for the direction of the company, what’s expected and how the performance of the workers will affect the outcome.

From the Coach’s Corner, here are recommendations for other workplace problems:

• How You Can Eliminate Destructive Conflict for Better Teamwork
• Workplace Bullies May Hurt Retention of All Employees, Not Just Victims
• Four Tips to Motivate Employees When You’re Facing Adversity

Money will buy a fine dog, but only kindness will make him wag his tail.

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Author Terry Corbell has written innumerable online business-enhancement articles, and is a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services. For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule him as a speaker, consultant or author, please contact Terry.

 

How You Can Eliminate Destructive Conflict for Better Teamwork

 

For better employee-team decision-making and higher performance, it’s true that constructive conflict works. Usually, the best ideas evolve when ideas are discussed and debated.

But when employees fail to exercise self control and their egos get in the way, emotions flare and cliques are formed in the workplace. That’s destructive conflict. So the key is for team members to understand their patterns of thought that lead to destructive results.

It’s also important to understand when colleagues engage in destructive conflict they’re lacking one important element – trust.

The goal should be for team members to reach a common vision with mutual accountability – by developing trust – achieved by sharing feelings and information for a consensus.

It’s a myth to think it’s best to avoid disagreements. There are risks in avoiding disagreements.

How people communicate can be damaging, too. Parties can diplomatically choose to disagree.

It helps to have a hierarchy – a leader – to facilitate discussions in order to stay focused on the group’s objective. (See: Strategies for Productive Meetings to Improve Your Company’s Performance)

Otherwise, you can expect these harmful results: Poor decisions and chaos en route to completing projects. Such projects never conclude on time.

How to argue effectively?

Use the right skills:

• Control your thought process. Don’t react – respond. Think about what to say before you say it. If you disagree, make certain you’re not in a capricious mood. Ask yourself: “Why would my talented co-workers feel the way they do.”
• Look for your co-workers’ good points. Give your co-workers a meaningful compliment or two. Make sure the persons know they have your respect.
• Focus on the facts. Keep the focus on principles – not personalities. Don’t insult the person by raising your voice and pointing your finger coupled with accusatory, judgmental and insulting words.
• Be honest with a caveat. Explain your position directly but not bluntly. But avoid condemning, inflammatory language. Don’t speak with finality – as though you’re the only person in the room with a valid opinion.
• Encourage a dialogue. Even if the persons have commented before you, request a response to your sharing.

In disagreements, remember that you have a common welfare to promote with your team members – avoid destructive conflict for more harmony and high productivity.

From the Coach’s Corner, additional workplace reading:

• 9 Dos and Don’ts for Best Decision-making
• Workplace Bullies May Hurt Retention of All Employees, Not Just Victims 
• 6 Tips for Baby Boomers to Cope with a Younger Boss
• Four Tips to Motivate Employees When You’re Facing Adversity

“The achievements of an organization are the results of the combined effort of each individual.”
-Vince Lombardi

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Author Terry Corbell has written innumerable online business-enhancement articles, and is a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services. For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule him as a speaker, consultant or author, please contact Terry.

Tips To Get Top Results From Your Marketing Plan

 

Why do seemingly great marketing plans fail to yield the desired results?

Well, one reason: Such plans don’t turn the ideas into reality because they’re not action-oriented. What counts is the scheduled specific footwork, and then tracking the results.

There’s a second reason, quality of execution, but more on that later.

Four action-oriented keys to success

Action key No. 1: Develop specific action items for each key piece of your plan with specific target dates to take action. In other words, if 12 big customers will largely solve your revenue issues, set a goal for each monthly interval. For example, write: “We will get one major client each month.”

Action key No. 2: List specific footwork to achieve your monthly goal of one new client. For example, write: “To get a major new client each month, we’ll have to look for new opportunities to network with our existing Centers of Influence and to create new Centers of Influence.”

If you belong to your local chamber of commerce or Rotary Club, ask your friendly chamber peers or Rotarians for two referrals: “What are the names of two people with your qualities who might need our product?” Then, while dropping the name of your friend, make the contact.

Consider other ways to enlarge your prospect list, and write something like this: “We will also get a list of business leads via…”

Action key No. 3: Benchmark your action items that can lead to the desired results. For example, write: “From our list of prospects, we will meet with three new prospects each week.”

It’s a numbers game, but rest assured referrals are usually the strongest leads – especially, if you use the right networking strategies.

So don’t worry about the results. Focus on taking steps. The results will take care of themselves.

Action key No. 4: Define your list of specific actions to meet your targets. For example, write: “I will telephone or visit 15 prospects a day asking for an appointment.”

Focus on making the contacts, but again, don’t worry about which doors will open. It might be a lost art, but here’s how and why to use cold-calling for higher sales. Here are eight tips for cold calling by e-mail and telephone.

Quality of execution

Despite all the hype about the benefits of social media, face time works best. If you have good branding, elevator pitch, and use the right sales steps, you will be successful.

Here’s more:

Branding: Here’s a checklist to build your brand on a budget.

Elevator pitch: Here are the top 11 tips for a great elevator pitch.

Sales Steps: Here are the seven steps to higher sales.

You might also want to review the eight best practices in small business marketing.

From the Coach’s Corner, here are two advertising resource links:

• What are the Secrets for Success from Advertising?
• Checklist for Branding, Selling Your Biz as Green

“A clear vision, backed by definite plans, gives you a tremendous feeling of confidence and personal power.”

-Brian Tracy

  

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Author Terry Corbell has written innumerable online business-enhancement articles, and is also a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services. For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule him as a speaker, consultant or author, please contact Terry.

Strategies: If a Valued Employee Wants a Raise, and Money’s Tight

 

In this economy, whether you operate a large or small company, trepidation of higher payroll expenses can turn your hands cold with perspiration. That’s especially true when talented employees suddenly ask for a raise. Talented workers are an asset – your human capital.

Many companies don’t have a compensation policy. And your company might be like the majority of small businesses or nonprofits in this uncertain economy – having difficulty funding even merit raises.

So what’s the right thing to do with a valued employee who asks for a raise, whether or not you’re the final decision-maker?

The first point to remember: Don’t pass the buck. You’ll either appear to be evasive or you’ll give away your power. You don’t want the reputation of being an irrelevant manager. (Further, there are 20 Tell-Tale Signs – If You’re Under-Performing as a Manager.)

Hopefully, you can establish a compensation policy, but don’t rush into it.

Meantime, in requesting a raise, employees usually mention one of a myriad of reasons:

• Their personal expenses have increased.
• They’re proud of their accomplishments, and they deserve more money.
• They think they’re underpaid compared to their peers either in your company or at other employers.
• Their newly added responsibilities warrant an increase.

Strategies to implement

You’re probably aware that an employee who asks for a raise has already launched a job search or is at least doing a cursory look for other opportunities. Don’t panic, but be aware that compensation issues are taken very personally by workers.

Thank the employee for approaching you, and offer the person a time for when you’ll have another chat. Then, roll up your sleeves and make this a priority.

Mention the issue to your boss and/or other managers in your company. Get some feedback, and monetarily analyze the circumstances.

Philosophically, know this: Each position in your company has a certain value, as determined by the marketplace. An employee’s personal finances aren’t germane in this situation. Nor is the employee’s performance, if the ceiling-value of the person’s job responsibilities has been maxed out.

If the budget is too constrained, be candid. But offer hope and Power Your Brand with Employee Empowerment.

Either way, if you determine the person is underpaid and/or you don’t want to risk losing the employee, indicate a raise is possible with some provisos.

Remember, if other employees perceive from water cooler gossip that you automatically grant raises whenever asked, you’d be in danger of setting a dangerous example. Any morale issues will be exacerbated. Other employees – valued or not – will soon be in your office lobbying for raises.

Set an appointment for another chat and plan so that it results in the employee taking more ownership. But don’t give a false promise. It the budget won’t allow for an increase and continue to discuss how to make it happen.

Clarify how raises are determined – the worth of a job’s role to the organization’s bottom-line, and the employee’s performance. Ask the employee to evaluate how the position can be increased in value to the firm, and how her/his responsibilities can be expanded to generate more value.

Once these matters reach a successful conclusion, award the pay raise.

Poor performance – if a raise is out of the question

Here’s a three-step process:

1. Empathize – acknowledge the person’s feelings.

2. Ask the employee to restate the concern in her/his own words. Why? The employee feels empathy from you and feels you’re listening; and you fully understand the concerns of the person before proceeding in the discussion.

3. Overcome the employee’s concerns with facts and relevant information. Then, ask for the employee to commit to working for improvement in the value of the job’s role to the organization, and for improved personal performance. If the employee is obstinate, you’re suddenly been warned about more problems.

Good luck.

From the Coach’s Corner, here other HR resource links:

• Many Big Companies Ripe for EEOC Complaints
• 21 Quick Tips to Avoid the Dark Side of Management
• Human Resources – Slow Motion Gets You There Faster
• Human Resources: 12 Errors to Avoid in Evaluations

If I agreed with you we’d both be wrong.

 

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Author Terry Corbell has written innumerable online business-enhancement articles, and is a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services. For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule him as a speaker, consultant or author, please contact Terry.

 

15 HR Strategies to Improve Your Business Performance

 

Studies show many employees are dissatisfied in their workplaces. Employee dissatisfaction, of course, will adversely affect a company’s performance.

In fact, a 2010 Hewitt Associates study indicated employee engagement is at an historical low – well, at least since the firm began researching the issue in the mid-1990s.

A lack of employee engagement means:

• Higher costly turnover
• Less focus on customer service
• Less productivity
• Weak profits.

In the UK, employees of family-operated companies have better employee relationships than other businesses. A University of Birmingham study concludes family business workers – 21 percent of the workforce – are more loyal. They are more engaged with their employers, show more commitment and have higher morale.

Another consulting firm, Mercer, concluded in its 2011 global study that 33 percent of U.S. workers are thinking about quitting their employers. Forty percent of millennials are also considering a job change.

There are countless other human resources studies with similar findings.

Higher pay and benefits are important to workers. But they’re not the greatest motivators, and employees often have more salient concerns.

So, the key is to take steps that lead to higher employee morale and performance. The bottom-line question for you: Do your employees mirror what you expect?

Assuming you’ve hired the best talent in terms of attitude, to improve your business performance, here are 15 HR strategies:

1. Be authentic, not a patronizing employer.
2. Walk the floor twice a day to engage your staff. Show empathy. Ask questions, such as “How are you?”
3. Demonstrate your listening skills with open-ended questions. (“What is the dumbest thing you are on which you’re working?” or “Where is the company wasting resources – in time or money?”)
4. Communicate what the company is doing and how it’s performing.
5. Help employees to understand how they contribute to your bottom line. Show them your company-wide objectives and how their work contributes to your company’s performance.
6. Give workers a purpose with challenges.
7. Without being verbose, teach them how you think and why.
8. Create collegial teams of workers without micromanaging them.
9. Make employees a CEO of their work. Empower them to contribute ideas and allow them as much autonomy as feasible to make decisions.
10. Encourage each employee to be customer-focused.
11. Immediately, show appreciation for good work and counsel employees following sub-par work.
12. Budget for development and training.
13. Show flexibility to enhance employee balance for career and personal life.
14. Establish an employee assistance program. Do what you can to help eliminate the employees’ stress factors so they can have maximum focus on their responsibilities. That includes financial tips. As my dad once told me: “It’s not how much you make, it’s how much you bring home.”
15. Employees know who their toxic co-workers are. Don’t let the toxic workers hurt your workplace environment.

From the Coach’s Corner, here are more management suggestions:

• 20 Tell-Tale Signs – If You’re Under-Performing as a Manager
• 21 Quick Tips to Avoid the Dark Side of Management
• Human Resources – Profit By Not Letting Your Stars Become Free Agents
• Boss Checklist: 16 Strategies for a Competitive Edge
• Human Resources: 12 Errors to Avoid in Evaluations 

“So much of what we call management consists in making it difficult for people to work.”

-Peter Drucker 

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Author Terry Corbell has written innumerable online business-enhancement articles, and is a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services. For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule him as a speaker, consultant or author, please contact Terry.