There are many myths surrounding innovations and ideas for operations improvement in organisations.
The second myth in our series of Myths vs Reality is: “Big ideas are where the action is”
Reality is, if you wait for big ideas only, you will wait for a long time, as they come along rarely, and unpredictably. Also, such ideas are easy targets for competitors, who quickly discover them, and counteract them. The real action lies with small ideas about quality, cost effectiveness, delivery, service and safety improvements, in and between functions in the organisation. Not only are there abundant opportunities for such ideas, they are proprietary, and they become a powerful competitive advantage.
You need to look for the “big ideas”, but cannot just rely on them. A number of years ago, I was involved with a prominent South African organisation which, at the time, was doing very well financially, also because of favourable product prices, and exchange rates. I clearly remember a discussion one day about involving all employees with ideas for improvement, during which the General Manager indicated that they do not see much value in it, and that they favour technology and capital improvements. A few years later, there was a large price collapse in their market, and the business, almost overnight, needed to urgently look at cost effectiveness in order to survive.
As “thinking people” is a capability which you cannot “switch on” overnight, it was too late to effectively involve all employees, and the organisation had to resort to drastic cost cutting measures, with very negative effects on productivity and people morale.
Pictured here – Key 3 of the 20 Keys System, gets everyone involved, to come up with innovative ideas.
To read more about ODI’s Continuous Operations Improvement System, click here.
Author: Johan Benadie: Director at ODI, and a 20 Keys practitioner for 22 years
