Innovation hits a jack pot when it accomplishes two things simultaneously.
- Generates more revenue for the company
- Creates a better customer experience
As famous author Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door”.
Right now both the airline industry and aircraft manufacturers are trying to figure out ways to pack more people into an airplane, yet still provide a better experience for the passenger.
Go Vertical, Instead of Horizontal
A current trend in innovation thinking on this subject is to go vertical, instead of horizontal with passenger “seating”.
One concept being examined uses a dual-level seat cabin, with each row alternating between on-floor seating, and seats elevated a few meters above ground.
This design removes overhead luggage compartments (luggage is stored in compartments under the seat) and the freed-up overhead space is used for the upper-level seats.
This arrangement provides passengers with more space between them and other passengers, increased leg room, and greater overall space. It also offers increased seat reclining, an adjustable back rest, and a deployable neck rest.
Use of “Cloud Capsules”
Another concept uses the area above the seat as an additional space for passengers to retreat to once the airplane reaches cruising altitude.
The idea is that passengers could buy a regular economy seat ticket, and then, as an add-on, purchase access to a “Cloud Capsule”, which provides an enclosed private, passenger climate-controlled space above their seat.
These and other airline cabin innovations are being evaluated for the Crystal Cabin Awards. A full list of this year’s nominees can be accessed on the Crystal Cabin Awards website.
Developing a Strategic Competitive Advantage
In the above examples airline industry and aircraft manufacturers are trying to use innovation to develop a Strategic Competitive Advantage.
Likewise, how can your company use innovation to differentiate itself from its competition?
In conjunction with the release of my 4th book, Work Less, Make More and Have Fun in Your Business in September 2022, the past four newsletters have looked at our foundational, game changing business growth and scaling methodology, the Structure of Success™ and how it is the underpinning of effective innovation.
The most obvious area of a business where innovation can be employed is the production of a company’s product or service. In our Structure of Success™ methodology we call this function your Production area.
The below diagram shows where your Production area fits in your overall company structure.
A key thing that a business should do is try to differentiate itself from its competition by developing a Strategic Competitive Advantage. This is precisely what both the airline industry and aircraft manufacturers are trying to do with innovation.
Using the Structure of Success™ methodology, I would like to explore ways innovation can be used in your company to accomplish this.
The definition of Production is the area of your business in which you create the product that you are providing to your customers to generate revenue. When most people hear the word “Production” they think “manufacturing”; however, you will need to expand your concept of Production because every business has a production area.
For instance, if you were a bank, your Production area would be providing banking services and if you were restaurant, you would be producing food and beverages in your Production area.
Your Production Area
In the diagram below you can see the five elements that comprise an organization’s Production area:
Let’s examine how innovation can be applied to your Production area. Each of these elements is discussed in detail in my upcoming book Work Less, Make More and Have Fun in Your Business.
For your business to appraise its competitive advantage, lay out its overall game plan, and assess its Production capabilities, it must determine its relative strengths and weaknesses in producing and delivering its product to your marketplace. The above formula leads you through this assessment. Due to space, I will only provide a brief introduction to each of the elements.
Your Product Cost Advantage
On a continual basis, your business can produce its product at a lower cost than your competition can.
The Quality of Your Product
The quality of your product is consistently higher in obvious ways than your competitors’ product.
Your Delivery Time or Convenience
You deliver or provide your product sooner or quicker than your competition, or you are more convenient to your customers than your competition.
Your Customer Service
Your customer service is dependably better than your competitions’ customer service.
The Uniqueness of Your Product
Your product possesses some desirable unique trait that your competition cannot duplicate nor obtain because of some impediment (e.g., a patent, copyright, trade secret, extreme cost to develop).
Delivery of Your Solution
The delivery of your solution and advantages you can bring to bear in the marketplace are a sum of the five proceeding elements.
The objective is to employ Innovation in each of these five areas in such a way as to provide your company with a Strategic Competitive Advantage over its competition.
Where to Start
Begin by analyzing each of these five areas in your company to assess the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of each of them to your organization.
Next, use the formula as an assessment tool to evaluate how your business is doing in providing desirable and differentiated products to your current marketplace. Using the formula in this way allows you to score your business on how well it is executing and provides you with insights to understand how each one of your products is operating. This execution tool serves as an indicator to evaluate the question, “Are we doing what we need to do to be successful today and in the future?”
Lastly, consider how innovation can be used to make as many of the five elements of your Production area a strength and thereby turning them into a Strategic Competitive Advantage for your company.
If you could use assistance with applying innovation to your company’s Production area, please contact us using the information below so we can be a resource to you in this all-important area.
Fountainhead Consulting Group, Inc. is an Innovation and Business Planning firm. During the past 17, years we have shown over 1,200 companies how to achieve their goals by using our unique, comprehensive, and systematic FastTrak Innovation Program™, Innovation Academy™, and Structure of Success™ methodologies. Using the components in these methodologies, each month we examine an aspect of how to transform your business or organization into a true 21st Century enterprise.
Office: (770) 642-4220
www.FountainheadConsultingGroup.com
George.Horrigan@FountainheadConsultingGroup.com
Tags: entrepreneur, front end of innovation, innovation, invention, small business consulting, small business planning, start a business
