Marketing and HR Innovation in Business

Abstract

Companies in the past were successful when they focused merely on improvement, Today, however, the information explosion and the global economy have conspired to change the rules of the game. Therefore, the order of the day for the companies today is not to do something better, but to do something different, that is, to be innovative. An innovation is like a ray of hope that clears the dark clouds and spreads like a viral fever. For instance the Global Brands Ltd which was founded by Steve Garcia Perez in UK in 1997, spotted a gap in the market for a more affordable ready-to-drink, who now today is exporting wine, spirits, soft drinks, ready-to-drink and beer to over 30 countries worldwide and employs hundreds of people who pride themselves on understanding how their brands fit within the market place and relate to consumers, ensuring that both the company and product range grow organically. Their portfolio now includes core brands such as VK , Corky’s, Amigos Beer and Kick Energy and premium spirits Goldschlager, Sobiesky Vodka, Myers’s Rum, Four Roses Bourbon, St Germain Elderflower liqueur, Teichenné schnapps and No.3 London Dry Gin, and premium wines such as the South African Adoro range and Marilyn Merlot from Bordeaux. Through constant innovation Global Brands has changed the rules of the game the alcohol market was running. And, in the Tobacco segment is the British American Tobacco Company, which has four global drive brands namely Dunhill, Kent, Lucky Strike, and Pall Mall all of which accounted for 208 billion cigarettes in 2010.  There are other brands like Rothmans, Benson and Hedges, Kool, 555 to name a few, where the smokers take pride in fuming. Very recently has been Tata’s initiative in India to let every person own a car in the One lakh zone- the launch of Tata Nano. In the electronic segment has been the launch of a washing machine which plays the music of your choice, so now you don’t mind standing near the machine while the machine does its job. Four door refrigerators, auto start scooters and bikes, the Invertors (a substitute to electricity), are subjects of innovations. There had been many companies doing businesses in these segments who have worked to serve better but have failed to give the market something new. Disney gives unimaginable characters, Nike gives brilliant ads year after year, Johnie Walker created the punch line ‘it is not the destination but the journey that matters’. McDonald created an innovative thought of delivering food on order at your doorstep, which is now being blindly practiced by many and all. Parker changed the way of thinking in the pen segment. There have been many and will be many competitors in every industry, and the only way to remain competitive and innovative is by performing intelligence on your competitors (Competitive Intelligence) which would enable a company to create and offer something new, because it is through competitive intelligence only that the companies can know what the competitors are doing, what they feel and think, what products they are coming out with and based on the assimilated information, strategies can be made to defeat and beat them in the race.  The above examples have created their place in the chapters of history because of the competitive intelligence which enabled the owners of the companies to think differently and think outside the box. Few more examples on Innovations are the Artificial Intelligence both in the Domestic (Robotics) and Armed forces (Guns, Tanks, Supersonic aircrafts, Lasers etc), Telecommunications (mobile), innovation is truly visible.