Innovation | Teik Oh

Are you stapled to one spot?

Nov 10 2015

Status quo is the enemy of business growth. In order to grow your business, you need to innovate and improve continuously.

However sometimes, you can get stapled into one spot or stuck in a rut.

Whether you are stuck because of some outside influence like the economy, or let’s face it, sometimes because of an internal influence like you get tired, you do need to recognise when you are in that predicament and shake it off.

If you want to grow your business you need to continuously improve your processes, you need to find new niches that you can service, you need to update your products and services to meet the current day’s needs. Innovation isn’t all about inventing Back To The Future’s hoverboard. Innovation is about improving the current product, service or process just by a fraction so that you are always moving forward; until all these small improvements end up as the hoverboard.

When you are stuck in a rut, I have a great Three Step Process to Innovate. Read More

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Create systems for better customer service

Jul 21 2015

Have you ever received truly exceptional customer service? What was it like and why did you think it was exceptional customer service?

Each experience is different but I bet you can tick off a couple of common characteristics in what happened:-

You felt individual attention
You felt that every detail of the service or product was meant for your satisfaction
You felt that whatever you received was timely
You felt that you not only got the product or service, you got that extra something that accompanied it.

Am I right?

Firstly do you see it is about what you felt? Exceptional customer service is not only about the quality of the box you bought, it is about how you felt during the transaction.

Secondly it is about “extras” – and these need not be something tangible like a bonus product. In customer service “extra” is about listening to you as an individual and perhaps providing nothing more extra than a courteous word.

Yet people also get it wrong don’t they? For every instance of exceptional service I would bet you have 10 examples of poor service.

If only every business realised that excellent customer service is not about spending more money or even putting in more effort – it’s about being consistent and predictable in what you offer. That’s it! Consistency and predictability!

Watch this video to see why you should implement simple systems that create excellent customer service.

Now let’s get back to how you should make your customers feel and how that can be done with some simple systems.

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How to implement lasting change in your business

Jun 09 2015

We know that death and taxes are constant. Well, when you are in business, change is also constant.

There’s an old saying – “if you do nothing, something terrible happens….nothing”.

In business change can be demanded by the market, by your customers changing, by new trends and technologies, by changing team members and by your own changing life goals. If you don’t change, one of these things will jump out an bite you and if you don’t respond, your business will inevitably suffer.

But if you’ve ever tried to change something in your business, have you found that it may have worked for a while, then after some time, people slip back into their old ways. Or, it has been impossible to put through a change because people just don’t want anything to do with it!

Why is that?

Because change has to be implemented by people, and people just hate change.

You know how it is. You get comfortable doing the same things over and over again. In fact you get really good at it that you can do it in your sleep, with your eyes closed! You get so good at it that you start to justify why you don’t need to change – it would cost too much, you would need retraining, it would take a long time to be as efficient as the way you have been doing it because you can do it in your sleep, with your eyes closed.

You even say this when the need for change is staring you in the face.

Your product is getting old. New entrants into the market are using mobile apps to deliver your product. Yet you say “they’re not as good, they don’t go into the detail like your hands on approach can provide”. While that may be true enough your customers are voting with your feet. Remember Kodak had the best film processing chain in the world. They stuck to what they knew because it was so good. Meanwhile customers started buying better and better digital cameras.

So, how do you implement change in your business that will “stick”?

Here’s those 8 steps again:-

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7 Pillars of entrepreneural success

Jun 08 2015

I intend to give the readers of my blog value – thousands of dollars of value – for free with each post.

In my consulting practice I can charge up to $5,000 a day for my advice and in consulting engagements on start-ups, business diagnoses, strategic planning and marketing. Honestly, the time it takes me to prepare the information in these posts, and the value of the 30 plus years of experience I bring to these tips and tools, make each post of around $2,000 in value.

And you get it for free!

But the value I can give you doesn’t just rest in my own head. Sometimes I come across great articles about business and entrepreneurs that I can’t resist sharing with you.

And hey, it means I get 3 or 4 hours off not having to write or film another post of my own!

This week I came across a great article by Macquarie Bank about the 7 Pillars of being a successful entrepreneurial business:-

Be patient
Grow expertise by building your business organically
Be disciplined with cost management
Hire industry experts where needed
Empower your people
Keep the essence of your business alive
Stay on top of new technologies and innovations.

Here’s the link to the article:-

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Are YOU making your business too complex?

May 04 2015

Who said running a business was easy?

It’s a bit like learning to drive a car. You have to remember to look in the mirror; you have to press on the clutch and then change gears; don’t look down, you have to steer; and don’t forget which is the accelerator and which is the brake pedal – what, I have to do this all at once?

So, anything to reduce complexity would be a boon for business owners, right? A bit like driving an automatic, at least that’s ONE pedal and the gearshift out of the way!

A business has four areas that can attract layers of complexity:-

The structure
The products
The processes
Management behaviour.

The business structure can be complex. There is the legal entity, and each different one has different regulatory and reporting aspects, some more complex than others. You can review the legal entity and perhaps choose one that is more simple to operate (but be careful of tax ramifications in any change).

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Category - Innovation

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Are you stapled to one spot?

Create systems for better customer service

How to implement lasting change in your business

7 Pillars of entrepreneural success

Are YOU making your business too complex?