As mentioned in the last article, the surest and fastest way to ruin, for Malaysian SMIs, is by engaging in R&D focussed on creating revolutionary products that break new scientific or technological grounds. As pointed out, SMIs do not have the resources and staying power required in the invention game. Innovation however, is a different…
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We are now at a juncture in this Mental Protein series where we should pause to take stock of what we have learned so far on this journey. We started by understanding the silent shifts that are changing our landscape and making competition more keen than it has ever been in the past. The second…
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When competitors force their backs against the wall, companies innovate to survive. They innovate to meet the needs and demands of their customers. Every management book clearly states that success is dependent on understanding the trends and directions of landscape – the market, the customers and the competitors. You will fail if you don’ know…
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I frequently come across entrepreneurs who have developed equivalent versions of globally-popular software (usually a Microsoft product) and want to compete on price. The prevailing sentiment is that if the entrepreneur sells his software at a lower price, customers are likely to swing the sale towards his cheaper option. These entrepreneurs get stumped when asked…
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Innovation is about profitability. Having a great idea and rushing ahead, allocating scarce resources to it, is one of the biggest blunders an SMI or SME can make. Unless the path to profitability is clear, the company should either drop the idea or proceed with it in a non-conventional manner that does not tie up…
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Have you wondered how the track-size or gauge of modern trains came about? If you question it far back enough, you will find that British engineers settled on a particular size because the tools to make carriages for that size were easily available. The tools were common as they had been designed to make carriage…
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ABSTRACT The mobile workforce is a relatively new concept for Malaysian workers in the service industry in Penang. The label “telecommuter” can fit anyone who works in a home or mobile office for an employer somewhere else – whether it’s daily or weekly, at a few kilometres’ distance or halfway around the world. Further, with the extensive…
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Source: New Straits Times, 23 May, 2006 KUALA LUMPUR, May 23 – The draft on guidelines for working from home will be presented to the Cabinet next month. This was stated by Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil. She said that her ministry was working with the Housing and Local…
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Source: New Straits Times, 23 May, 2006 KUALA LUMPUR, May 23 – The draft on guidelines for working from home will be presented to the Cabinet next month. This was stated by Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil. She said that her ministry was working with the Housing and Local…
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by Robert Gerrish If you’re forever hearing great things said about your work, yet not seeing these translate into sales and revenue, it could just be because you’ve fallen into the innovator trap. Can innovation be a marketing tool? The innovator trap is where we can end up if we confuse educating with marketing.…
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