Facilitating Business Innovation and Change
Table of Contents
Q4. Discuss the Innovative Idea/solution. 6
Q5. Discussion of how Business Knowledge is applied to innovation in the following areas: 7
- Principles and practices of Accounting. 7
- Principles and practices of Sales and Marketing. 7
- Principles and practices of Human Resources. 8
- Principles and practices of Risk Management 8
Q6. Discuss and Justify which Type of Change Involved in the Innovation. 9
Facilitating Business Innovation and Change
Q2. Introduction
The process of transforming an invention or an idea into a solution, either a good or service that creates value from a customer’s perspective and staying relevant, is innovation. The innovation process is gradual changes in a fully working system. It does not involve the hardware only, but also the market structure, production knowledge and equipment, and the contexts of the social relationship of the innovation organization (Kline & Rosenberg, 2009). Innovation in business leads to change, and change occurs when an organization undergoes improvement, a transformation of crucial parts of operations, causing disruptions in systems, processes, and people. The main benefit of a change in business is allowing employees to gain knowledge and new skills, identifying new opportunities, and practicing creativity that benefits the organization. A culture of innovation achievement is by having a structured change management process in an organization. Innovation, collaboration, and sustainability are capable of governing different dimensions of organizational practices and policies (Sarkis et al. 2010).
a. History.. Don't use plagiarised sources.Get your custom essay just from $11/page
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Fletcher Building Limited started in the year 1915 by James Fletcher and his brothers. The growth and success of the company is attributed to work hard and focus on fulfilling customer need in improved methods. For instance, in the late 1920s, the company introduced US-styled brick and tile houses and the creation of a ready mixed concrete business, which was the first in New Zealand in the late 1930s. The company had a rapid expansion in the early 1980s due to the creation of the Fletcher challenge, which saw the acquisition of a diverse interest in forestry, meat processing, gas distribution, fisheries businesses, pulp, and pulp, both internationally through Europe, UK, and Asia. In the 1990s, the company’s attention went back to the main business of building products, home environments, and buildings. The Fletcher challenge was divided into several focused businesses with Fletcher Building Limited, which is the parent company, listing on the NZ stock exchange.
b. Size.
The company has approximately 20,000 employees globally and more than 34 business units under the company’s banner. It has 50 branches around New Zealand, and it has grown to its turnover of $164 million. Fletcher building limited is among the largest listed company in the New Zealand Stock Exchange. The company’s market capitalization is over NZ$4 billion. In Australia, the company is the leading supplier of building materials. In the financial year 2016, the total revenue of the company was NZ$9,004 million.
Fletcher Building Limited provides only the services to its customers, which are to manufacture high-quality building materials for a broad range of industries across New Zealand. The company makes and distributes building materials and commercial and residential construction. Its divisions include Construction, Land and Development, Residential, Distribution, international, and building products. The Construction division has Fletcher construction, which is a general contractor in the South Pacific and New Zealand. The Residential and Land Development segment does the development of land holdings in residential and commercial purposes. The distribution segments offer the following services in New Zealand and Australia; plumbing, pipeline, and steel distribution.
New Zealand, Australia, America, Pacific Islands, Asia, Europe, and Africa are among the countries in which the company operates. The company has several competitors; they include Hawkins, Fulton Hogan, and Naylor Love. Fletcher Building Limited is one of the companies that experience both change and innovation in their day to day operations. Fulton Hogan is Fletcher Building Limited’s top competitor. The company was founded Christchurch, Southland Region, in 1933.
In comparison with Fletcher Building Limited, it has 14,500 fewer employees. Nayor Love is also the biggest competitor to Fletcher Building Limited. The company was founded in 1910 in Auckland, Auckland Region. Nayor Love has 20,440 fewer employees compared to Fletcher Building Limited. Fletcher Building Limited engages in market driving strategies and views the market as malleable (Storbacka & Nenonen 2014).
Q3. Discuss the Business Problem and its significance for organization future
One of the main problem or challenge facing the organization is health and safety. According to the 2019 financial year report, there were five fatalities within the business. The steel division reported two, and the other three were in Higgins’s business in a single roading incident. There was a significant and everlasting impact on the people and communities as a result of these tragedies. Fletcher Building Limited has prioritized to investigate and have a better understanding of these events, so the company can put measures preventing them from ever happening in the future. The primary health exposure in Fletcher Building Limited business has related to silica, noise, and asbestos. Those who are exposed risks having long term health problems. The ultimate future goal is creating a sustainable framework and aspiration in the future, where the employees will be free from harm.
Fletcher Building Limited is committed to providing a safe and healthy environment for its employees. The company is partnering with one of the leading organizations in the coming financial year; the primary goal is improving workplace safety.
Q4. Discuss the Innovative Idea/solution
4.1 Innovative solution that Fletcher Building Limited embraced is building its online software solution; the aim of this solution is to monitoring and recording their health and safety performance. The modern innovation process can have several improvements by using agile software development methods (Hannola et al. 2013). For the past two years, the company has allocated more time, resources, and energy towards the development of the software. The injury frequency rate has reduced in this period. In the financial year 2017, the rate was 6.9, and in the financial year 2019, it was 5.0. Also, the serious injuries reduced from 33-20, in the financial year 2017 and 2019, respectively. During an internal employee survey in the financial year 2019, 88% responded that the managers often improve the safety behaviors, and 83% said the managers are all about their wellbeing.
In the financial year 2019, the company created a Group Health Manager Office, the purpose of this office is to develop a holistic and strategic approach to wellbeing. The other role of the appointed manager is to manage health exposure and make sure there is proper injury management in the business. In the financial year 2020, the company was bettering the support and control in the industry. The company targets to have a consistent manner in injury and illness management. It ensures the comfort and cares for the people—employees who were affected in the line of duty by the products. The company has developed monitoring programs. The programs will be used to improve the mitigation methods and monitoring health. Also, physical health and mental health plays a vital role in safety in the company’s sites. Therefore, in the financial year 2020, the company is planning on focusing on the fitness and health of employees whose roles are safety-critical.
Q5. Discussion of how Business Knowledge is applied to innovation in the following areas:
a. Principles and practices of Accounting
Accounting is used in innovation as a method of evaluating a company’s growth. The metrics used usually include; market share, customers, revenue, and ROI. It gives a company’s probability for future success. Fletcher Building Limited is one of the successful companies over the previous years. In the year 2001, the company had a 19% compounded annual growth rate. Fletcher Building Limited is among the largest by capitalization in the New Zealand Stock Exchange (NZX). In the recent years, there has been innovation in financial reporting, for instance, there is the development of soft wares and spreadsheets that can calculate with arithmetic accuracy the cost-based depreciation amount, and this development is more efficient and effective.
The innovative idea of the development of a ‘software solution’ and appointing a general health manager will ensure the company’s growth by increasing its productivity. When the employees’ health and safety are guaranteed, there will be more work output. Hence the annual growth rate will rise.
b. Principles and practices of Sales and Marketing
The innovation idea will improve the marketing of the company; this will be achievable if all staff will be in a good state of mind and health. Marketing aims to increase sales. The main focus is on market structure and the customers’ satisfaction. The products and services are in line with the customers’ needs. The process of product development there is a need to have feedback from the market and users; this can be done by prototype and beta tests. This stage aids in the development of the product in the future. The core role of innovation marketing is having a platform for the new product or services; the marketing process is both internal and external. Internally, the staff must approve the innovations before bringing it to the market. External marketing involves pricing, advertisement, sales methods, and product positioning. The vital role of innovation marketing is avoiding the failure of an innovation.
c. Principles and practices of Human Resources
Health and safety are essential in the Human Resource Department. The innovation of the software solution and creation of a general health manager will ensure the Safety and good health of the company’s’ Human Resource. The department is responsible for implementing innovative activities in an organization. Implementing new ideas, technologies, and new methods to meet the dynamic needs in an organization is the HR innovation. The crucial role of the human resource department is recruiting new employees; therefore, excellent and innovative recruitment is vital in the growth and development of an organization. When the recruitment process is over, there is a need for the recruits’ learning and development. An L&D program can be developed and customized to each employee’s preferences; thus, the employees can easily have access to learning and development content. The content can be available in any kind of device of their choice. The other way the Human Resource can be applied to implement the innovative activity is by Talent management and performance management.
d. Principles and practices of Risk Management
Risk management is essential in daily activities in an organization. The top senior management should work with the risk manager to codify an explicit statement of innovation risk appetite. There are new risks in any organization; therefore, there is a need for having new controls from new ideas; this can be done by testing plans for the product to determine the possible results. The innovation idea will be able to identify any type of risk in the organization and give the necessary measure to manage it.
- Principles and practices for Operation
The innovation of the ‘software solution’ means there will be an operational improvement in upgrading the current modes of operation in an organization to have quality and high performance. It ensures a smooth work routine by minimizing errors, delays, and costs but without interfering with the conventional processes.
Q6. Discuss and Justify which Type of Change Involved in the Innovation
6.1 Linear Incremental Change is involved in the context of the innovative idea mentioned above. There was a need to implement new ideas in the company to resolve the problem of health and safety in the company. The Innovation change is not fast and big, and there is a small adjustment being made towards a final innovation change anticipated; this justifies this type of change.
6.2 Analyze the Impact of this type change on facilitating change management strategy at the strategic level
Linear Incremental change would significantly impact most aspects and functions of a business in a way that would change management strategy at the strategic level, thus ensuring maximum health and safety performance. It mostly seeks to pull together different viewpoints and approaches in a way that involves employees in changing from the current situation and developing a new strategic system that will ensure eradication of previous problems facing Fletcher Building Limited with health and safety.
The change provides full risk management in the company in a way that would mitigate the various risks and perils that may be exposed to in terms of data protection. And also the wellbeing of the employees by shifting from the previous practices and coming up with new strategic laws that will ensure maximum adherence to the safety measures. The transitional change would also promote team building, as it will involve the coming together of the employees from different departments in sharing the various safety problems. This will help in coming up with more concrete solutions that will ensure more productivity and less exposure to perils. The change will significantly enhance the normal operations of the company because it will ensure the smooth running of the company by increasing efficiency in the manner in which things are conducted by mitigating wastage and maximizing productivity.
Planning is one of the significant aspects of the company in regards to management strategy. It also impacted by the transitional change in the manner that it aids in forecasting and molding the future direction by setting standards and direction and coming up with new tactics and goals that will guarantee an improvement in service delivery and overall operations of the company. Through the use of software systems in accounting, the company will be able to transition and improve in terms of increment of revenue by ensuring transparency and accuracy of financial records, thus avoiding losses. It will also help in compliance with laws and regulations, which in term will lead to the reduction and elimination of fraud.
Most importantly, the linear increment change will ensure continuous improvement and the existence of the business in the unforeseeable future. The use of proper software systems will guarantee this. Which will aid in the specification of the powers and duties of all the employees in the company? The change will help in avoiding conflict and misunderstanding of the company, which, in return, ensures the smooth running of all aspects of the business. Human resource activities such as better and safe working conditions are also guaranteed through the change, as grievance and needs of the employees are taken seriously and into consideration. Employee involvement significantly improves the morale of the workers and also avoidance of loss of company resources through transparent monitoring of all assets of the company by the use of software systems.
Conclusion
Digital transformation is the core of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which will change the understanding of conducting business (vey et al. 2017). Through the use of software systems, the company will be able to achieve an increase in productivity. It will be able to transition from its former mode of Operation into a new, more comfortable, and safe way of running all aspects of the company in a manner that is per laws and regulations, thus maximizing revenue and mitigating losses. Creation of Group Health Manager Office will significantly impact change in Fletcher Building Limited as the affairs and wellbeing of employees will be taken into consideration. And thus increase productivity as there will be a more fundamental understanding of the company putting by following the relevant health and safety regulations. The innovations and change will be more beneficial to the company as it will ensure easy monitoring of all the business functions hence guaranteeing compliance with the relevant laws and regulations, thus improving productivity.
References
Hannola, L., Friman, J., & Niemimuukko, J. (2013). Application of agile methods in the innovation process. International Journal of Business Innovation and Research, 7(1), 84-98.
Kline, K. J., & Rosenberg, N. (2009). An Overview of Innovation. Studies on Science and the Innovation Process, (pp. 173-203). World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.
Sarkis, J., Cordeiro, J. J., & Brust, D. A. V. (2010). Facilitating sustainable innovation through collaboration. In Facilitating sustainable innovation through collaboration (pp. 1-16). Springer, Dordrecht.
Storbacka, K., & Nenonen, S. (2015). Learning with the market: Facilitating market innovation. Industrial Marketing Management, 44, 73-82.
Vey, K., Fandel-Meyer, T., Zipp, J. S., & Schneider, C. (2017). Learning & development in times of digital transformation: Facilitating a culture of change and innovation. International Journal of Advanced Corporate Learning (iJAC), 10(1), 22-32.