Innovation | Teik Oh

Cultivate surprise in your business!

Mar 13 2015

In business it is critical that you formulate and write down your plans. The old adage “businesses do not plan to fail, they fail to plan” is so true! Throughout the world the statistics is quite consistent – between 70% and 80% of startup businesses fail within the first three years, and when asked, most of these business owners say that they operated without a plan.

And yet, in my three decades of helping clients start and grow businesses, I can tell you, hand on heart, that your business plan is out of date as soon as it is written!

What? So why the heck am I spending this much time (and probably money) planning and documenting my plan?

Because you need to have an idea of what you are up against, what opportunities you can take advantage of, and how you will go about it. With a plan, as some of your assumptions change or circumstances change them, you will know the strategic direction you are heading, the steps you intended to take and how you can adjust them to suit the changed circumstances. Without a plan all you can do is react, follow events, rather than create them.

So how do you deal with changing circumstances? In this video I talk about expecting surprises to pop up. Cultivate the ability to look for surprises and the flexibility to take them on board as opportunities! Read More

Comment 13

How To Build Innovation Into Your Business

Feb 23 2015

I have facilitated many strategic and business plans, and read many more, where either embedded in vision and mission statements or spelt out in goals and objectives, is the desire to “be an innovative company”.

Why? What does this mean? Why is innovation important to your business?

To many businesses, when they say they are “innovative” it just means they are flexible and helpful in their service. You want a cashflow projection when you get your tax done? Sure we can do that. So you want a flexible payment plan after we provide you with our legal services? No problem we can tailor one for you. You want a house built off plan but you need a wall repositioned? No problem.

Well, that’s not innovation, that’s just giving good service!

However to some businesses, innovation is critical to the business’ development and growth – innovation that keeps it one step ahead of the competition; innovation that creates a point of difference; innovation that ensures the business and its staff keep developing and growing. In such businesses you need to build innovation into your business model.

To start with it is important to be clear why innovation is necessary in your business and what you mean by innovation. Your staff need to be clear whether they are required to come up with the cure for cancer or whether it is about small but significant change, say to customer service systems. It is also important to realise that innovation means change, particularly if innovation is to be a constant. Are your staff and systems ready to cope with that? Stress is not conducive to innovation so a madly busy office will not be a hot bed for innovation.

Comment 13

WE are always right? Or keep questioning our old ways of thinking?

Dec 22 2014

For a brief moment women wearing burqas and niqabs were banned from sitting in the Australian Parliament’s public galleries. This was later changed as long as they revealed their faces for identification at security checkpoints.

In a show of protest three men wearing a Ku Klux Klan uniform, a motorcycle crash helmet and a niqab tried to enter the Parliament building. They were met by security outside who told them that the helmet and the KKK hat were not allowed inside whereas the person wearing the niqab would have to reveal their face but could then put the veil back on.

There followed a (mild) furore on social media about inequality and the overblown political correctness. People rallied around the cry that “we” shouldn’t bow to the powerful minority as “we” had our own standards.

However the social media commentators seem to have missed various points:-

1. They themselves had probably lived or visited overseas where local law meant that drug possession was punishable by death, that you couldn’t chew gum on the streets, that many other things we did not agree with was law, and we protested that “they” the majority should listen to “us”;

2. They recognised “our” team’s views and believed they were right but they did not recognise the “other” team’s views could possibly be right;

3. The burqa, hijab and niqab, along with saffron robes, and nuns’ habits are part of a particular religion’s accepted dress;

4. The KKK uniform is a recognisable uniform of hate and racism; and

5. A motorcycle crash helmet is a – hello – HELMET!

But what does this have to do with business?
Read More

Comment 13

Increase your sales through a highly focused marketing plan!

SMART Marketing: In this book, the owners of a small business are led through the SMART Marketing 7 Step Process to produce a marketing plan targeted at their most desirable customers. Any business can use these principles and in 4 to 6 weeks implement a plan to get them through the door! Find out how...

The SMART Marketing Workbook: Companion to “SMART Marketing”, this workbook sets out the SMART Marketing process in 7 workshops for you and your staff to complete questionnaires and templates that at the end, form the marketing plan you need to sell your REAL product to your REAL customer! View now...

Category - Innovation

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Cultivate surprise in your business!

How To Build Innovation Into Your Business

WE are always right? Or keep questioning our old ways of thinking?