Innovation-Productivity-Change: A measured approach

With the ever changing global business landscape, carved by technological advances and the ongoing challenging times of recession companies are struggling to keep their heads above the water to breathe and survive. There has been a shift in the philosophy of productivity, a shift which has the potential to render the big ones helpless and the small ones with all the power. The shift is that of Innovation.

Innovation has become a buzz word with every new kid on the block, challenging the big and established ones on the grounds of innovation. Responding to the change and threat associated with innovation, firms today have become more experimental than ever with huge involvements in terms of resource and capital commitment.

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Endless possibilities in services

Madhur Dhawan

Services Marketing and Management

My recent trip Pulau Ubin Island provoked a thought. We took a ferry boat from Singapore coast and it a ten minute boat ride and you reach Pulau Ubin. As I de-boarded the boat and entered the island, there were many shops which were renting out bicycles for one day. As Pulau ubin is a small island, one can easily roam around the island on the bicycles.

Looking at the business these shops were able to generate, I thought the possibilities which are there in services. It was the Right Place, the right product which helped these shops to do the business, no tourist wants to buy a bicycle just to roam around the island and yet every one wants a bicycle to roam around. What a business opportunity!

Now if you see how many such places are there in India, I mean places like Pulau Ubin, places which are unexplored and have tremendous potential to be the nest tourist destination. Not only in tourism but in every aspect of business, I think there is a huge potential for services as they offer what customer wants and that to without buying it as it is required for a short time. There are companies which are offering IT hardware on rental basis for short terms as many organizations want IT hardware on project to project basis and are unwilling to incur the cost of purchase.

I can now relate everything I buy to services. Say for example why do I buy bottle of water when I m thirsty. Its not the bottle which I need but its jus that I want o quench my thirst. Just think how big this business of bottled water is. Why cant there be a company which offers water instead of bottles. What If a customer doesn’t have to buy a bottle of water whenever he r she feels thirsty, instead there can be dispensers which can be placed across a geographic location and anyone can just pay a small flat rate for the amount of water he or she drinks, I know this idea is a bit too radical but may be something can be worked out!

I believe that there is a lot of scope of services and innovation in this field, any government can look into this as a means to promote tourism and more over it can act as  a source of employment for the local people. Even if there is no help intervention form the government, innovative ideas by local people can attract a lot of tourist. Similarly innovative ideas in services can bring in a drastic change in any field. I see endless possibilities in the field of services!