Porter's Value Chain - Strategy Skills Training from MindTools
Understanding How Value is Created Within Organizations Porter's Value Chain. How does your organization create value? How do you change business inputs into business outputs in such a way that they have a greater value than the original cost of creating those outputs? This isn't just a dry question: it's a matter of fundamental importance to companies, because it addresses the economic logic of why the organization exists in the first place. Manufacturing companies create value by acquiring raw materials and using them to produce something useful. The value that's created and captured by a company is the profit margin: Value Created and Captured – Cost of Creating that Value = Margin The more value an organization creates, the more profitable it is likely to be. Understanding how your company creates value, and looking for ways to add more value, are critical elements in developing a competitive strategy. Elements in Porter's Value Chain Primary Activities Support Activities Tip 1: Tip 2: Tip 3:
Why Marketing Strategies Fail? - Pakka Blog
Marketing strategies do not provide satisfactory results in most of the cases for small as well as large businesses. Although there are a large number of reasons for missed expectations, we will discuss some of the most basic mistakes. These mistakes can be easily avoided by paying a little attention. Following are some of the common reasons why marketing strategies fail. Failure to please the right people: In many cases, the marketing strategy is designed to please the CEOs, managers, and other supervisors rather than the customers. A common reason why marketing strategies fail is that the company tries to be “everything to everyone”. Out of sight, out of mind: Your marketing plan is likely to fail if you file it away. Making action sheets and making them visible to your marketing team and colleaguesUsing a bulletin board for posting aims, goals, timelines and to-do-listsSharing information with other related departments Ill-defined and vague strategies: Short-term approach to marketing:
Hoshin Kanri
Hoshin kanri (direction management (Japanese: 方針管理, Hepburn: hōshin kanri?)) is a method devised to capture and cement strategic goals as well as flashes of insight about the future and develop the means to bring these into reality.[1] Key features[edit] Also called policy deployment, hoshin planning, or simply hoshin (as in "FY12 Hoshin"), it is a strategic planning/strategic management methodology based on a concept popularized in Japan in the late 1950s by Professor Yogi Akao. "Each person is the expert in his or her own job, and Japanese TQC [Total Quality Control] is designed to use the collective thinking power of all employees to make their organization the best in its field." This is the fundamental principle of hoshin kanri. The discipline of hoshin kanri is intended to help an organization: Focus on a shared goal.Communicate that goal to all leaders.Involve all leaders in planning to achieve the goal.Hold participants accountable for achieving their part of the plan.
Innovation: Customer-Led Innovation | Innovation content from IndustryWeek
When Motorola Solutions Inc. wanted to test the viability of an electronic name badge designed for workers in manufacturing and retail operations, the company developed a prototype and let two large retailers put the device through its paces. Based on that feedback, Motorola Solutions (IW 500/123) decided to move forward with development, and earlier this year launched the SB1 smart badge -- a wearable electronic device that serves as an employee name badge as well as a bar-code scanner and two-way radio. See Also: Manufacturing Innovation & Product Development Strategy "We don't have any predecessor product to this device, so it was a huge risk," says Graham Marshall, director of global design research for Schaumburg, Ill.-based Motorola Solutions. "We were putting pre-production stuff in the hands of customers and letting them test it out live." Graham Marshall:"We're connected tightly with the customers. "We don't do Web surveys. "We're connected tightly with the customers.
Hoshin Planning: Making the Strategic Plan Work
Bob Page February 26, 2010 Hoshin planning, which focuses on achieving a vital annual stretch goal, has been used successfully by Toyota and other companies in Japan since the 1960s and some top-tier companies in the United States and elsewhere. However, interest in using Hoshin planning now appears to be growing. Bank of America, for example, has made a very visible display of its use recently. And as more large U.S. businesses use Hoshin, it is almost certain that they will pressure suppliers in their supply chain to also adopt it. Hoshin’s adoption by U.S. businesses has been relatively slow because many organizations did not have the management and process infrastructure in place to support Hoshin planning. Since an increasing number of organizations appear to be modeling their business practices on the Toyota system. In current use, Hoshin Kanri, used interchangeably with Hoshin planning, refers to the process through which: What Is Unique About Hoshin Planning? 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
Stakeholder Analysis - Project Management Tools from MindTools
Winning Support for Your Projects Try this out in our Interactive Screen App! In this video, learn how to conduct a Stakeholder Analysis. Stakeholder management is critical to the success of every project in every organization I have ever worked with. By engaging the right people in the right way in your project, you can make a big difference to its success... and to your career. – Rachel Thompson, Mind Tools. As you become more successful in your career, the actions you take and the projects you run will affect more and more people. Stakeholder Management is an important discipline that successful people use to win support from others. Stakeholder Analysis is the technique used to identify the key people who have to be won over. The benefits of using a stakeholder-based approach are that: You can use the opinions of the most powerful stakeholders to shape your projects at an early stage. How to Use the Tool The first step in Stakeholder Analysis is to identify who your stakeholders are.
5 Steps to Project Management Planning
Project management planning is a process that you need to undertake every project, as part of the project management life-cycle. This short video offers five steps to planning your project today. Transcription Hello, I’m Jennifer Whitt, Director of ProjectManager.com. Welcome to our White Board Session today on “Planning a Project in Five Steps.” We get so many questions on planning projects, and how to get beyond analysis paralysis, and how to alleviate skipping, and go directly to executing the project. I’d like to bold things down and make things simple. If we work in planning, we come up with a course of action to get from point A to point B. A lot of times we get ahead of ourselves in our projects, and we can begin working on that. Here are five steps that can help you move forward. Again, you’ve heard us talk about, on several of our White Board Sessions, mobilizing. Number two. We also create a timeline. I always like to look for resources. Number three.
