Business innovation
Business Innovation: What You Can Learn from Asia
It’s no secret: the market is changing quickly and consumers are quickly moving towards different value models in regards to the products they purchase. While many new and established businesses are having trouble keeping pace, many Asian CEOs have stumbled across the keys to thriving in a market full of fickle consumers. What might those principles of successful business innovation be
Mass Customization, Not Mass Production
Everyone knows what mass production is: create a product that everyone can use and will enjoy. At most, you’ll be able to choose the color and number of attachments, but that’s generally the full extent of a consumer’s customization ability. Asia’s most successful CEOs are quickly moving away from this model and towards service differentiation.
These days customer’s don’t care as much about what everyone else has. Instead, they want a product that is truly useful to them in their daily activities. For example, having a coffee machine that can make a Frappuccino is an excellent idea, but what about the individual who only wants to drink espresso. As customer’s demands continue to diversify, CEOs are noticing that mass production is no longer the rule of the day. Now, mass customization is what consumers are looking for.
Focus on Customer Experience Over Price
Price is an extremely important part of any consumer’s decision to purchase a product, but that doesn’t mean it is the ultimate deciding factor. In fact, the market suggests consumers are starting to value their experience over their budget. What does that mean for manufacturers and how has Asia talked this emerging trend
For manufacturers, it means you’ll need to take a different approach in your product development and marketing strategies. Asian business professionals have therefore adapted their business innovation strategies and show consumers how their products improve their daily experience. Customer’s want to know your product is better for them, not just that it happens to be cheaper.
A Flexible Business Model
Savvy business professionals around the world have noticed one very important effect of the rise of Internet and mobile technology: consumers are more fickle than ever. If your consumer is so fickle, how do you prepare for that Asia’s solution was a more flexible business model and it seems to be working remarkably well so far.
You know with a franchise restaurant chain, a local manager runs the store independently, but in accordance with corporate standards Well, Asian CEOs have taken a similar approach. Some business owners replaced the traditional organizational pyramid with a loose network of cross-functional and locally managed units. Each entity is treated and evaluated an independent profit center.
Empowering From the Bottom
Within this flexible business model, each unit is autonomous and responsible for managing the local demand for the product. The CEOs rely on these independent units’ frontline workers to make important and smart decisions for the area. In fact, they’ve done away with some of the traditional managerial roles.
In these companies, managers are responsible for ensuring the unit has enough resources to maintain daily operations. However, only workers who have direct contact with consumers will play a part in the company’s product related decisions. Essentially, Asian business innovation professionals are striving to make even their largest companies small.
Cultivating Responsive Enterprises
Ultimately, the goal of the above tactics is to craft an incredibly responsive business model. What are the common complaints you here from consumers Most likely, you’ve heard plenty of your customers remark on long waits for customer service or repairs. You don’t want to have a business model that requires the customer to contact a supervisor in a different state to get the help they need.
When you localize your business innovation and empower from the bottom, you create a business model that can truly address customer concerns. Each unit has the resources and ability to provide repairs or other services in a prompt fashion because there is significantly less red tape. When you can rely on your enterprise to be responsive to customer demands is such a customized way, you increase your company’s authority as an industry leader and further develop a strong and positive brand.
If you can learn anything from Asian enterprise, it is that business innovation is crucial to survival when consumers are changing their attitudes towards product value. It isn’t just important to be in touch with the trends of the moment. You also need to build a company that can respond to those changes without skipping a beat or harming your bottom line. Use these strategies to get you started.