Got Innovation?
In the 1994 McGraw Hill book Innovate, the
authors made the bold statement that "Innovation is
the basis for all competitive advantage..." Most
companies believe this statement is largely true, as do
we. That being said, it's clear that most companies
really haven't improved their ability to consistently
innovate in the last decade.
The vast majority of new products and new initiatives
still fail. While a majority success rate may not be the
goal, the fact remains that the success rate has not
materially improved. Since innovation is a process, that
process should be improveable.
This month's white paper The Foundation For
Innovation was written by Bayard Bookman
(bayard@customermfg.com) of our Santa Clara, CA
office. In this paper Bayard looks at the foundation
elements that are critical to any company's ability to
innovate.
To be clear, innovation is taking a creative idea and
doing something with it. Just having an idea (even a
good one) isn't useful until that idea is implemented. If
your company is like most, lack of good ideas is not the
problem. It's doing something with those ideas.
Bayard demonstrates that what separates
companies that are consistently successful innovators
from those who are successful occassionally, or were
once and aren't anymore, is having the right foundation
for innovation.
As always, if you'd like to read this white paper, click
on the link below.
Download this month's white paper...
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Dear Mitchell,
Welcome to the October 2003 Customer
Manufacturing Update. This month's white paper
focus is on innovation. Most companies claim they want
to be innovative, but most aren't happy with their
results. Perhaps that's due to a shaky Foundation
for Innovation. Be sure to read this month's white
paper to learn more.
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| 10 Marketing Tactics to Increase Sales | | |  Would you like to learn ten marketing tactics that can
increase your sales in bad times ... or good? Mitch
Goozé recently presented a program on this topic to an
association meeting in Florida.We've edited the program (so you only hear the "good
stuff") and can provide it to you on audio tape or audio
CD. If you'd like to know more about the content and
cost, click the link below. Get more information... | | |
| Effective Advertising? | | |  Honda made a big splash a few months back with an ad
they ran only on UK television (BSkyB, for those who
care). This ad is a two minute film masterpiece that is
unlike any television ad most of us have ever seen. If
you like "Rube Goldberg" machines, you'll love this ad.
For the rest of you, the ad may change your thinking
about advertising.The ad is memorable because it is different. It doesn't
really spend much time talking about Honda. (In the
two minutes the ad runs, Honda really only appears at
the end.) However, this ad has generated so
much "buzz" that it has done Honda an unbelieveable
amount of good.
It has been written up in every major UK paper, the
ad has been downloaded from the Honda UK website
over 1 million times, and over 10,000 people
who saw the original ad on BSkyB asked for more
information about the Honda Accord.
While the ad was not inexpensive to make (600
takes), it only cost about US$32,000 to run. We think
you'll agree it was effective advertising. If you'd like to
see the ad for yourself, click on the link below.
Please note this is a 3.3M file so it will take some
time to download depending on your connection speed.
It is an mpg file and can be viewed in Windows Media
Player (and probably Quicktime as well). I want to see the Honda ad... | | |
| Closing Thoughts | | | We appreciate any feedback you can provide to help us
make sure these Updates give you value each
month. Feel free to respond to this e-mail with any
comments or suggestions for future topics or ways we
can make these Customer Manufacturing
Updates more valuable to you. Thank you for your interest, and if we can provide any
additional assistance to help you increase sales,
let us know. Our mission is to help you improve the
performance of your System to Manufacture Customers. | | |
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