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Choking on ITIL? - A Menu for Success
Choking on ITIL? A Menu for Success ... Food for thought "Frankly, I'm desperate - I'm choking" is a phrase I've become familiar with over the years. Faced with a daily diet of conflicting business priorities, resistant staff and increasing...
Creativity Myths
Sustained myths about Creativity and Innovation lead to confusion, bad practice and bad decision-making. Some of them include: 1. Creativity requires Creative Types While some theorists assert that there are creativity traits such as tolerance for...
How To Sustain With An Online Home Business!
Doing home business online is very popular. There are many, many homebusiness websites that compete for customers. Get quick rich schemes are praised and offered daily in the internet. The other side of the coin is: Many websites disappear as well...
Internet Payment Solutions - Need One?
So your business has expanded to reach the point where you need
to find an effective Internet payment solution? The first option
to consider is applying for a merchant account. If your business
enjoys a solid credit history, pays its bills on...
The Power of Marketing Podcasts
If you've used the Internet at all this year, you've probably
heard of podcasting. It's the one word that's almost guaranteed
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Rx FOR FALLING CORPORATE PROFITS
"Corporate Profits Fell 43% in 1st Quarter" proclaimed the 15 May
2001, Wall Street Journal headline. The article went on to say
that: "The nation's (1700) largest corporations posted one of the
worst profit performances in at least 10 years in the first quarter,
suggesting companies may further cut spending to stem the tide ...
technology has made companies more reliant than ever on volume to
keep unit costs down. As volume has slowed, unit costs have risen
and eroded profitability."
Once again the squeeze is on and many companies are looking at
massive cost cutting as the means to scramble back to profitability
in an uncertain economy. The problem with this classic approach is
that it sends the clear message to your brightest and best talent
that no matter how well they perform, today there is no job
security. Not only does such a move have a serious impact on morale,
but with most of the country still in a very tight labor market, what
happens if the economy improves later this year or early in 2002. It
will be next to impossible to replace laid-off workers and worse yet,
your current work force, especially those brightest and best, may
well decide that it is time to move on to greener and possibly more
secure pastures before the next downturn hits. Is there a better
approach than cutting off your nose today and spite your face
tomorrow? Absolutely!
The way for any organization to beat this cycle, especially in an
economy that may well in this decade experience several see-saw
periods of growth and contraction, is to adopt synergistic innovation
as its model for continuous expansion despite short term economic
declines. Most corporate leaders know that productivity increases
provide the best way to increase profits quickly without increasing
prices. What is less well understood is that continuous innovation
is the most effective means to improving productivity over the long
term. Internally generated innovation in products, services,
processes and methods provides an endless series of new opportunities
to make rapid productivity increases for both the organization and
its customers an on-going reality.
Innovation channels the creativity of the organization's greatest
asset, its people and puts it to work in practical ways that
are "real world market" driven and directed. Far too often we
immediately look outside of our organization for "new solutions",
when instead we should rather be looking within, especially in times
of economic downturn. New ventures and other outside opportunities,
while potentially
profitable for the long term future, typically take
a significant period of time and frequently much additional capital
to bring them to the point of being substantial profit contributors.
Meanwhile opportunities often abound internally to enhance our market
offerings, streamline our operations and save money through creative
approaches and best of all, these capabilities exist today within the
minds and hearts of our present employees. If we will endeavor to
unlock these potent assets rather than choose the typical knee-jerk
reactions of cost cutting and down-sizing as our first response, we
will find our people willing and capable to respond in frequently
unimagined ways to grow our productivity and profitability. Later,
when the economy rebounds, we will not need to replace down-sized
workers and will find we have built a deeper allegiance and sense of
ownership within our people.
Once we have initiated a culture of innovation, then it is the
primary responsibility of the leadership to ensure synergistic
outcomes. The power of synergy, although simple in concept, is the
most overlooked responsibility of today's senior executive corporate
leaders. Large organizations are like campfires that periodically
burn down until mainly embers remain. The initial fuel is mostly
spent and therefore the first reaction is that we need new fuel, new
resources, new investment, acquisitions, etc. to build the fire back
up. Yet when out camping and the fire burns down, the first thing we
do is stoke the existing fire and mound up the glowing embers.
Almost immediately the flame erupts again without adding new fuel.
All we needed to do to go from dying embers to a raging campfire was
to integrate the existing embers so that rather than each burning
alone, they burned synergistically, combining their individual heat.
So too, the careful integration of all of our products, services,
processes and methodologies, in short, everything the organization is
and does to achieve the greatest bang for the buck is no more than
the organizational form of stoking the fire. Unlike adding new wood
to the fire, the synergistic result of stoking is virtually immediate
and without the need to invest capital in additional resources.
Synergy is the ultimate multiplier, as it opens the door to
exponential results again and again!
About the Author
John Di Frances is the Managing Partner of DI FRANCES & ASSOCIATES,
LLC founded in 1983. Phone:1-262-968-9850
Fax:1-262-968-9854
208 E Oak Crest Drive
Wales, WI 53183
www.difrances.com
synergy@difrances.com
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| DTI - Welcome to the DTI's Innovation Home Page |
| The DTI is working to stimulate a significant increase in innovation throughout ... It covers Living Innovation, web streaming of a series of high profile ... |
| www.dti.gov.uk |
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| Innovation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
| An innovation in this light occurs whether or not the act of innovating ... A convenient definition of innovation from an organizational perspective is ... |
| en.wikipedia.org |
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| National Innovation Website |
| The Department of Industry, Tourism and Resources has developed this website to raise awareness of the importance and benefits of innovation and ... |
| www.innovation.gov.au |
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| Innovation, creativity and brainstorming resources from ... |
| A comprehensive site designed to provide busy entrepreneurs with a focused collection of the best resources on innovation, creativity, and brainstorming. |
| www.innovationtools.com |
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| Innovation Weblog - Trends, resources, viewpoints from Chuck Frey ... |
| The Innovation Weblog - Valuable trends, resources and viewpoints in innovation, creativity and brainstorming from Chuck Frey at InnovationTools. |
| www.innovationtools.com |
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| CORDIS: Innovation Portal: Home |
| This Innovation Portal is supported by DG ENTR of the European Commission, ... European Commission adopts new Communication on Innovation: on 13 September ... |
| cordis.europa.eu |
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| CORDIS: Promotion of Innovation: Home |
| This programme stands at the cross-roads of the Community's policies on Research, Innovation and SMEs. |
| cordis.europa.eu |
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| Innovation Network... leveraging innovation, creativity and ... |
| The Innovation Network is an association of companies and employees committed to innovation. The site features some interesting articles as well as some fun ... |
| www.thinksmart.com |
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| Business Innovation : Car Reviews, Online Gaming, and Product Branding |
| If your in need of great Online Gaming material, we carry up to the minute news and reviews for all of your favorite games and gaming systems. |
| www.businessweek.com |
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| Innovation - Life, Inspired | PBS |
| Learn about fascinating innovations, explore interactive features, submit questions to our experts, investigate resources and lesson plans, and more. |
| www.pbs.org |
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| Innovation.org - Welcome |
| Impact of Innovation Saving & Improving Lives Controlling Healthcare Costs Strengthening ... Future of Innovation New Medicines in Development Next Wave of ... |
| www.innovation.org |
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| Innovation: See what people are saying right now on Technorati |
| See all blog posts tagged with innovation on Technorati. |
| www.technorati.com |
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| Innovation Relay Centres - The World Largest Network for ... |
| Innovation Relay Centres giving advice on Innovation, Technology Transfer and Exploitation. Major European source for innovative technologies or new ... |
| irc.cordis.lu |
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| The Tech Museum of Innovation | Welcome |
| The Tech Museum of Innovation - Welcome! The Tech Museum inspires and educates the innovators of the future. |
| www.thetech.org |
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| Pages tagged with "innovation" on del.icio.us |
| CoDev 2007 - Co-Development for Business Growth: Open Innovation and Alternatives ... PDMA & IIR's 5th Annual Front End of Innovation ... |
| del.icio.us |
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| innovation |
| Publication highlighting the research activities of NUS. The site provides snippets of selected articles online, and provides a subscription form online. |
| www.innovationmagazine.com |
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| Canadian Innovation Centre |
| Services includes invention evaluation, technology due diligence, market research, and education programs. |
| www.innovationcentre.ca |
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| London INNOVATION :: Home |
| Maximise your business potential through innovation. Learn the secrets of successful business innovation in London. |
| www.london-innovation.org.uk |
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| Eric Von Hippel's Homepage |
| Downloadable Books. Democratizing Innovation (2005) ... The Sources of Innovation (1988). Free download of the complete book. Permission granted by Oxford ... |
| web.mit.edu |
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| Intel Innovation in Education |
| www.intel.com/education/ - 3k - Cached - Similar pages |
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