Once every two weeks we provide organizations around the world with our unique business-innovation boosters, for internal circulation. Join us! 

CORPOCHECK | Innovation Training & Practice
  • Currently Shared
  • Currently Shared
CORPOCHECK | Innovation Training & Practice
  • Currently Shared
  • Currently Shared

Midlevel managers’ innovation: Your next growth engine

Profitability & Growth

Over the year we gain weight and lose competitive fitness. Doing new things, and new ways of doing things can help to keep pace and even grow. The company’s midlevel managers can be your next profit and growth engine.

Midlevel managers possess valuable, raw knowledge that can push your P&L further. But like diamonds, such knowledge will not surface unless you proactively mine it. And like seeds, it needs certain conditions to sprout. Are you proactively mining it? Providing the right conditions for such knowledge to float? There is a structured method for doing that.

The following examples demonstrate the kind of innovation we are targeting (using some realistic figures based on my experience):

  1. Ways of reducing customers-churn by 4%.
  2. Ways of reducing flight-fares by 7%.
  3. Ways of reducing help-desk costs by 8%.
  4. Ways of increasing up-sales by 11%.
  5. Ways of shortening development periods/time to market by 13%.
  6. Ways of shortening support-tickets’ time by 15%.
  7. Ways of increasing customer satisfaction by 16%.
  8. Ways of increasing cross-sales by 24%.
  9. Ways of reducing Work in Process (WIP) by 32%.
  10. Ways of reducing inventory by 41% w/o compromising availability.

Here are some guidelines for implementing a productive “mining” process:

  1. Management support is a key-ingredient in facilitating employees’ innovation.
  2. “Innovation sessions” must be defined by specific time-slots, to prevent interference with routine assignments.
  3. Incremental improvement initiatives must be finance-oriented. It has to be clear how a given initiative can affect the company P&L. Just increasing productivity or satisfaction (even clients’ satisfaction) – is not enough.
  4. The potential of any initiative must be verified based on current data before submitted for top-management consideration.
  5. Proposals should be considered as an employee’s own He or she would be the ones signed on the proposal, presenting the proposal, and leading its execution, if approved. Any coach supporting that employee along that process, from brain-storming to results – should stay behind the scenes and leave the entire stage to that employee when it’s show-time. The coach may attend the show though, as an audience.
  6. Proposals should be prepared in a structured, business-case-like form, which fits executive attention.
  7. Proposals should clarify the resources required, if any, an include an action plan, ownership and target dates for implementation. These should also reflect employee commitment to lead the execution of that plan.
  8. Management approval must be obtained before any change is put into gear.
  9. Management should be provided with refined progress-reports, presenting the steps taken and up-to-date performance indicators.
  10. Employees should be compensated for successful results.

The Corpocheck Coach program encourages midlevel managers to come up with validated, valuable ideas, and provides them with methodologies for preparing proposals the deserve discussion. Encourage your managers to become Corpocheck Coaches! 

 

The opinions expressed on this website are not suitable for all business circumstances.

Dr. Sharon Gotteiner, CPA, Editor of Corpocheck.org
Dr. Sharon Gotteiner, CPA
Editor in Chief
Corpocheck.org

Any questions?

Sharon Gotteiner is a lecturer, researcher, and hands-on coach in the field of business innovation and transformation. He is also the developer of Corpocheck’s business-innovation trigger cards and guidance. Ph.D in corporate turnaround. Author of The OPTIMAL MBO which gains traction as a new formula for Management-by-Objectives implementation. Additional publications: * Fighting organizational decline: a risk-based approach to organizational anti-aging * Turnaround Types, Stages, Strategies, and Tactics: Putting Things in Order * My Secret Cost Reduction Cookbook (Amazon.com).

Read more about…

Profitability & Growth

Customer Churn: Make the best out of your customer-retention budget

Profitability & Growth

Strategic Focus: 4 risks to consider

Profitability & Growth

Is your profitability rate “stuck”? Dive into it.

Dr. Sharon Gotteiner, CPA, Editor of Corpocheck.org

Midlevel managers’ innovation: Your next growth engine

Profitability & Growth

The faulty chain-reaction: How to avoid the chronology of organizational decline

Dr. Sharon Gotteiner, CPA, Editor of Corpocheck.org

About   |   Log In   |   Terms of Use   |   Privacy Policy   |   Contact Us 

© Corpocheck Global Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
Scroll to top
Skip to content
Open toolbar

Accessibility Tools

  • Increase Text
  • Decrease Text
  • Grayscale
  • High Contrast
  • Negative Contrast
  • Light Background
  • Links Underline
  • Readable Font
  • Reset
We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.Ok