Seven methods of effective innovation in enterprises

0 1 What is an entrepreneur? What is entrepreneurship?

A couple opened a deli or restaurant, and they did take some risks. But are they entrepreneurs? All they did was repeat the old routine countless times.

They bet that there are more and more people eating out in this area, but they have not created new demand or consumer demand. From this perspective, even if they open a new store, they can't be called entrepreneurs.

However, McDonald's shows entrepreneurial spirit.

Indeed, McDonald's has not invented anything new, and any good American restaurant can cook its meals.

However, by applying management concepts and skills, that is, studying the value concerned by customers, realizing product standardization, designing cooking processes and tools, formulating standards based on job analysis, and training employees according to standards, McDonald's not only greatly improved the output efficiency of resources, but also developed new markets and new customers.

This is entrepreneurship.

02? Entrepreneurship ≠ high risk

It is generally believed that entrepreneurship is full of risks.

Indeed, in high-tech fields such as microcomputers or biogenetics, the failure rate of entrepreneurship is high, and the probability of success or even survival is quite low.

The essence of entrepreneurial innovation is to transfer resources from areas with low productivity and low output efficiency to areas with high productivity and high output efficiency.

There is definitely a risk of failure.

However, as long as there is a little achievement, the return is enough to make up for the risks in this process.

Entrepreneurship is risky mainly because only a few of the so-called entrepreneurs know what they are doing, lack methodology and violate the well-known basic principles.

03? Seven sources of innovation

Innovation is the concrete embodiment of entrepreneurship, and every individual and enterprise should master innovative methods. Consciously use innovative thinking to guide daily work.

Drucker put forward seven sources of innovation in Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Four of them come from within the industry or field, and three come from changes in the social environment.

The four sources in the industry are:

Unexpected events-unexpected success, unexpected failure, unexpected external events;

Inconsistent event-an event in which the actual situation is inconsistent with the envisaged or speculated situation;

Innovation based on planned demand;

Changes in industrial structure or market structure that no one has noticed.

The three sources outside the industry are:

Population change

Cognitive change

new knowledge

1, unexpected event

No source can provide more opportunities for successful innovation than unexpected success, and it provides the least risk of innovation opportunities and the least difficulty in the whole process.

However, unexpected success is almost completely ignored, and worse, managers often take the initiative to shut it out.

For example, the chairman of Macy's, once the largest department store in new york, tried to stop the sales growth of household appliances because of the traditional mindset: 70% of equipment sales is normal.

2. Inconsistent events

The data or reports received and studied by managers usually do not show inconsistency, because they are qualitative, not quantitative.

Like accidents, changes hidden under disharmony are also changes within an industry, market or project.

Therefore, for people who are close to or in the industry and market, the disharmony is obvious, right under their noses.

But it is often ignored by people in the industry-they will say "it has always been like this", although "it has always been" may only be a recent thing.

For example, in the early 1950s, people thought that ocean freight was about to become history. As a result, in addition to the rapid increase in shipping costs, the time for cargo transportation has also become longer and longer. In addition, because ships cannot enter the port, more and more goods can only be piled up in the port waiting for shipment, and theft is becoming increasingly rampant.

After the container was invented and used, all problems were solved instantly.

3. Innovation based on project requirements

The need for procedures is different from other sources of innovation. It starts with a task to be completed and takes the task as the center.

Innovation based on program requirements makes the existing procedures of enterprises more perfect and replaces the weak links.

Once there is innovation, it will be accepted as a matter of course and will soon become a "standard".

4, did not notice the change of industrial structure or market structure.

The industrial and market structure seems to be stable and will last forever. In fact, a small impact will make them disintegrate, and the speed is often very fast.

At this time, following the previous way of doing things will bring disaster to the company and may even lead to the demise of a company. Rethink "What is our business?" It is a problem that management and every employee need to think about.

1960 BMW is on the verge of loss. In the industrial transformation, BMW repositioned its sales target as a young customer. Especially those who have made considerable achievements in their work or career, but still want to be treated as young people. This strategy brought BMW back to life.

5. Changes in demographic characteristics

Many people will ignore the demographic characteristics and think it changes slowly. In fact, it is predictable to use demographic changes to innovate.

Newborns need five years to enter kindergarten, and they need classrooms, playgrounds and teachers. Need to become an important consumer 15 years; It takes 19 ~ 20 years to grow up and work.

For entrepreneurs, demographic characteristics are an excellent opportunity. By predicting population changes, adding new product categories and opening up new businesses is the focus of innovation.

6. Changes in cognition, mood and meaning

Although the root cause of cognitive change is difficult to predict, the concern for health, anxiety about appearance and the improvement of women's sense of accomplishment have given birth to a lot of innovation opportunities.

When using cognitive changes to innovate, timing is still very important and needs to take the lead.

Considering that some cognitive changes are temporary fanaticism and some are permanent changes, cognitive-based innovation should be small and specific.

7. New knowledge

Knowledge-based innovation is a "superstar" in entrepreneurship and usually attracts much attention.

However, it will take a long time for new technologies to be transformed into products, processes or services on the market.

For example, there is a 25-year gap between chemotherapy proposed by biochemist paul ehrlich and the real development of sulfonamides.

Ford Motor Company put forward the word "automation" in 195 1. It was not until the end of 1980s that auto companies had an automated assembly workshop.

Sometimes, knowledge-based innovation is not only based on one kind of knowledge, but also the fusion of several different kinds of knowledge, which are not all scientific knowledge or technical knowledge.

04? Enterprises of different sizes have different innovations.

Different types of enterprises are facing different challenges and problems.

Drucker believes that existing enterprises already know how to manage, and what they need to learn is how to become entrepreneurs and innovators. Start-ups need to learn how to manage first, and then learn how to become an entrepreneur and innovator.

1, innovative ideas of entrepreneurial enterprises

Many people mistakenly believe that "large scale" is an obstacle to entrepreneurship and innovation. Drucker thinks this view is incorrect.

Johnson & Johnson, 3M, Citibank and other large enterprises are excellent entrepreneurs and innovators.

Innovative projects take longer to launch new products. In fact, if the existing products or services can't continuously generate a large amount of cash flow, then enterprises will not be able to bear the large amount of investment required for innovation activities.

Entrepreneurial enterprises need to formulate strategies for the following four areas and put them into practice when innovating:

First, organizations must be willing to accept innovation and regard change as an opportunity rather than a threat. We must pay the hardships that entrepreneurs should bear. They should also formulate strategies and put them into practice to create an entrepreneurial atmosphere.

Second, we must systematically measure and evaluate the performance of enterprises as entrepreneurs and innovators, and at the same time establish internal learning mechanisms to improve performance.

Third, entrepreneurial management requires specific measures for organizational structure, personnel appointment and management, salary, incentive and reward.

Fourth, there are some taboos in entrepreneurial management.

One of the most important warnings is that,

Don't confuse the business department with the entrepreneurial department;

It is difficult to succeed in innovation beyond the existing business areas;

Through "acquisition", that is, the acquisition of small entrepreneurial enterprises, it is usually impossible for enterprises to start businesses.

2. Innovative ideas of new enterprises

Startups have their bright spots: creativity, sales, and even mass sales.

Of course, it has costs, revenues and even profits. What it doesn't have is the realizable and manageable business and the perfect existing organizational structure, so that people can know the direction of the organization, what they should do and the expected results.

Unless a new enterprise develops into a real enterprise and can be managed, no matter how brilliant its ideas are, how much investment it attracts, how high-quality its products are, and even how big the market demand is, it cannot survive.

Therefore, the entrepreneurial management of new enterprises has the following four requirements:

First, we should pay attention to the market.

Second, we must have financial foresight, especially planning cash flow and capital demand in advance.

Third, set up a top management team as soon as possible, before the new venture really needs and can undertake the top management team.

Fourth, the founder of a new venture should be clear about his role, scope of work and relationship with others.

3. Innovative ideas of public service organizations.

Public service organizations, such as government agencies, schools at all levels, hospitals, community and charitable organizations, professional associations and trade associations, should also be innovative and entrepreneurial.

Compared with ordinary enterprises, existing public service institutions face more obstacles in innovation.

There are three main reasons for this.

First of all, the salary of public service organizations is based on "budget" rather than "result".

Secondly, public service organizations are influenced by many factors.

Finally, the purpose of the existence of public service organizations is not an economic behavior that is completely analyzed by cost and benefit.

But even so, public service organizations still hope to expand their scale, rather than being eliminated by history. Therefore, they also need to pay attention to the following points:

Clear mission;

Set realistic goals;

If the goal cannot be achieved, it means that the goal is wrong, at least its definition is wrong;

It is necessary to constantly seek innovative opportunities in strategy and practice.

In the era of rapid changes in society, technology, economy and population, if public service institutions stick to the present, they will not be able to complete their mission, or even become "parasites", gradually losing their legitimacy or being replaced by other outsiders.

05? label

Many individuals and enterprises understand innovation as a kind of creativity, or confuse innovation with invention, or think that innovation is science and technology and technological progress.

Drucker pointed out that the essence of "innovation" is to create new value for customers.

Learn innovative methods and develop a correct attitude, and you can start to innovate, let yourself innovate constantly, and let the enterprise "continue to operate".