Innovative Management Processes, Influencing Change and Overcoming Barriers
Introduction
Nestle S.A. is a Switzerland-based company focusing on the production of drinks and food on an international scale. It is one of world’s largest food producing companies specializing in products such as medical and baby food, dairy products, pet foods, snacks, ice cream, tea, coffee, and frozen foods. The company has over 440 factories and employees approximately 340,000 people. Formed as a result of the merger between Anglo-Swiss Milk Company and Farine Lactee Heri Nestle in 1905, the company has grown out of its limits as its initial production wasconfined to infant formula and condensed milk products. It is part of Swiss Market Index and listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange. It remains one of the most profitable companies in the world.
Over the years, Nestle has transformed itself into a wellness, nutrition, and health company. Through Nestle Institute of Health Sciences, the Company looks forward to developing a correlated industry between pharmaceuticals and food products by producing foods that have preventive health components aimed to do away with pharmaceutical drugs. The Company’s health department has produced products aimed to preventdiabetes, obesity, malnutrition, and digestive health complications. Nestle is world’s largest food company and has expanded with increasing its investment in skin care products with expansions in cities such as Hong Kong, New York, and different countries in Europe and Asia. It is an initiative that looks into bringing on board multinational companies such as Intel.
Global Venture
On the global business scene, Nestle has established a joint venture with companies such as General Mills on a global cereal partnership, the Coca-Cola Company on a beverage partnership initiative worldwide, Colgate-Palmolive, and Fonterra on a dairy partnership deal. The ventures have enabled the company to stamp its footprint in many nations and markets with increased revenue and profit realization. Its product number is over 7000, which makes Nestle highly likely to become the number one business company specializing in food and nutrition.
Goals of the Project
This report looks at comprehending the crucial aspects of innovative and creative management in Nestle and how the company is to carry out creativity and innovation by increasing its revenue and profit realization by the introduction of a new chocolate product called “Fat-Free, Sugar-Free Sweet Chocolate”. The main goal of this report is to analyze how Nestle is to undertake its innovative and creative ideas. The research further looks into assessing barriers encountered in executing an implementation process within a company and necessary plans aimed to go through these barriers.
1.1 Creative and Management Process in an Organization
Intense international competition, knowledge economy and technological advancement have exposed innovation as the key component of remaining relevant in business competition (Gupta 2003, p. 29). Innovation entails the means and system by which an organization produces new goods, systems, and processes needs with the goal ofadapting to the ever-changing technologies, markets, and competition levels. A practical model of the process involves the introduction of a new service or product, combination and of the knowledge needed in an original, valued process via a business process or function required to turn such an initiative into commercial merchandise. The model pinpointstwo stages involved on the way to innovation, which are exploitation and invention, generation of idea, ppportunity recognition, and idea evaluation contained within the concepts linked to a given invention (creativity). On the other hand, commercialization and development is not always flexible enough as to the implementation of the ideas. The stages leading to innovation are illustrated in the figure below (Gupta 2003, p. 19).
Figure 1
| Opportunity Recognition |
| Commercialization |
| Invention/Creativity |
| Exploitation |
| Idea Evaluation |
| Development |
| Idea Generation |
The idea of merging his business idea with others led Henri Nestle to expand his opportunities outside the United States and Europe. His corporation with Daniel Peter saw the removal of water from milk that prevented his product from producing mildew. Despite his retirement from the company, his merger led to its further expansion with purchases of various business units all over Europe. During the expansion,the company started to utilize many new opportunities such as the use of modernized food production equipment, human resource management, safety, data management, and collection, acquisition of new business prospects and venture, an increase of revenue collection. These advances saw Nestle grow and expand its factories in many countries within Europe, the United States, and Asia. Henri Nestle, together with Daniel Peter, saw opportunities and changes that would best bring about development and growth of the company.
1.2 How to lead others to embrace positive innovation and change
Successful leaders promote business growth and development through the willingness and navigation in which change is the guiding principle. Although the process of change can be frightening, it is never painful. Currently, the ability of a company or business to adapt to changes sets apart the difference between its successes and failures. Failing to develop the business and adjusting to new ways of thinking is the direct path to stagnation and business end. The only prerequisite to success in a business is changing, and the ability to lead change is the number one condition of growth. Therefore, in order to lead others to embrace change and development, the following strategies are essential in helping employees, workers, and a team embrace change and innovation.
- A plan
A business that does not change cannot survive on the current competitive business market. According to Gupta (2003, p. 18), in order to initiate effective change within an organization, it is important for its leaders to design a change plan that would guide the business together with all the employees toinnovation and change. This involves identifying the people who will be involved in the change, and the areas that will be changed. A plan for its execution is then outlined for effective execution together with the team members or staff.
- Create an understanding of the ultimate goal
It is vital to communicate to the employees and staff involved the ultimate objectives such as where the company is heading for with the change. Communicating to the employees the need for change, with clear paths and disclosure, enables them to embrace the new creation and change with enthusiasm. Setting the path together with the others opens up opportunities for new ideas, new ways of thinking, and creativity of the team members. This sets the tone for a clear path to the execution of the change and innovation.
- Clear communication
Communication is the central key to initiating change within an organization. It is vital that from day 1, all members of the organization stand behind the leader and keep everyone fully abreast with everything aimed at the change and innovation. Additionally, keeping all lines of communication open is essential to bring on board all employees, give them opportunities for suggestions, comments, and sharing ideas all through the period of initiating the change.
- Identification of the key players such as change advocates and possible saboteurs. These team members are vital in the process culminating in the realization of the goals outlined in the change process. Additionally, the management is to delegate tasks to the team members in order to help them take ownership of the change.
- Setting realistic goals
In order to achievethegoals being set, the management needs to acknowledge that only reasonable and realistic objectives can be achieved. It is thus essential to urge team members to put extra efforts in addition to managing expectations from both the leaders and the employees. After the devastating effect of the Second World War, Nestle initiated a strategic reduction of debt by streamlining its operations. Many employees saw the net effect of the strategic measures that were aimed to maintain the production of Nescafe. Through and by initiating strategic measures of operations, increase production, and acquisition of new plants, the company saw a rise in its revenue collection all through the period after the Second World War. The 1920s saw the company’s expansion to a new line of products including chocolate manufacture. Leaders, managers, and employees were actively involved in the streamlining process, an activity that saw the company rise above the wartime period. In the period after the war with its innovation and change strategies, the companymerged with Maggi and Cross & Blackwell in the early 1950s.
2.1 Influence of Vision and Mission
Vision and mission within a creative and innovative management process serve the purpose of showing the direction and creating a clear roadmap to the goals of the organization. Through sustained leadership, an innovation or change is only possible with a goal-oriented organization. A goal serves the purpose of showing the ultimate success path that an organization is taking. It serves to keep the team focused on achievement and on maintaining the goals of the new product or change. The ‘Fat-Free, Sugar-Free Sweet Chocolate’ product aims to replace the ‘Sweet Chocolate’, that has faced numerous legal suits due to its high sugar levels. The new product is aimed to reaching out to diabetes patients, who may not be in a position to use the ‘Sweet Chocolate‘. In line with the Company’s nutritional objective of providing as a dietetic supplement to its customers, the new product aims to offer nutritional value and supplements to patients for diabetes treatment. Additionally, the ‘Fat-Free, Sugar-Free Sweet Chocolate’ product is to undo the damage caused by the ‘Sweet Chocolate’ due to its high sugar content.
2.2 Tools to identify potential creative and innovative management ideas
Nestle has the potential to apply numerous ideas with the aim of enhancing its current ‘Sweet Chocolate’ and give customers value for their money. The most effective are to incorporate the ideas behind ‘Sweet Chocolate‘ with the new concepts of producing the ‘Fat-Free, Sugar-Free Sweet Chocolate’. This will help the company retain its previous share of customers. However, with the new formula enhanced in the ‘Fat-Free, Sugar-Free Sweet Chocolate’, the new product is sure to make a difference for customers in the wider region of Europe and South Asia, which is most affected by complaints of high sugar levels in the ‘Sweet Chocolate‘. The Company will use a SWOT analysis to make out the prospective innovative and creative management procedure. The SWOT analysis will examine various aspects of the venture to determine its potentiality. Opposition to the new idea and product is likely to occur, however, the use and application of the change process will require firm leadership and resolution to guide the company through the creation and introduction of the new product. Additional tools that Nestle will and can use to analyze its innovation and the creative process are the workplace environment, open style, innovation, and practices that motivate efficient collaboration.
2.3 Risks and benefits of creative and innovative management ideas
Nestle readies to encounter threats and benefits associated with innovative management ideas. Failure to achieve the desired objective of the new product is the number one risk, which the company may face. On the same scale, the company may be faced with resistance and lack of collaboration of the team members or employees to see the product at its final stages of production. Additionally, the company risks losing customers because of unwelcome product in the market. On the other hand, the company risks losing its originality on the production of nutrition based foods as it seeks to undo the damage done by a currently existing product in the market.
However, if Nestle undertakes its innovation and production of the new product as well, it remains to gain many new consumers in addition to increasing its customer base globally as it enhances its vision of producing nutritious foods in the market.
2.4 Change models to support the implementation of creative and innovative management ideas
As Nestle struggles to undo damage done by the ‘Sweet Chocolate‘ in European and Asian markets, a magnificent change is needed in order to swing the company back to its original position. Thus, the change will entail the introduction of the ‘Fat-Free, Sugar-Free Sweet Chocolate’. ADKAR stands out as an ideal model that will describe how creative and innovative ideas can be put into action from the beginning to the end.
Awareness
Through and by the model, it is worth bringing to the notice of the stakeholder’s reasons as to why ‘Fat-Free, Sugar-Free Sweet Chocolate’ will be created and produced. Nestle employees would be made aware of the stiff competition within the food industry and the strategies the company is deploying to counter the competition. The awareness should be initiated before any change is rolled out as it would provide them with the knowledge of some of the risks, threats, and opportunities that the company may go through with the idea of innovation.
Desire
By creating sufficientawareness among the employees and stakeholders as to the advantages of introducing the sugarless chocolate, there will be a great desire and need to give the innovation and creation the support, which it needs. According to the ADKAR, there should be a desire amongst the employees and stakeholders to introduce a new change in the company and in the production, which receives support from them (Drucker 2007, p. 15). The company has shown a considerable desire to make a change in its production of the sugarless chocolate to rectify the mistakes in the production of the ‘Sweet chocolate‘.
Knowledge
Within the ADKAR model, knowledge refers to the information needed on how to bring about the change, implementation of both the innovative and creative ideas (Drucker 2007, p. 13). This will call upon specific knowledge on the ‘Fat-Free, Sugar-Free Sweet Chocolate’ and the processes involved. It can be done through and by research and development by taking on the best researchers on nutrition and sugar specialists as soto produce the best for the company. In order to achieve this, the company requires the best specialists in the field of nutrition. A deeper understanding of the processes, procedure and policies are important for the successful development of the new product. Since the target group of the product are the consumers well-versed on their nutrition requirement, the company will strive to provide the best knowledge possible for effective decision making by the consumers and specifically with the management and employees.
Ability
The ability to implement innovative and creative ideas is necessary for any venture that requires success. Nestle has all the potential and economic might to produce the best nutritional product for the market. With its subsidiary products of chocolate, the company has all that it needs to implement its desired changes and overcome the barriers that it may encounter such as research skills, patents, and production procedure. With its several affiliate companies, Nestle can effectively implement its strategic plans to realize the vision and objectives of the new product.
Reinforcement
After implementing and augmenting the decisions made for the innovative and creative processes, encouragement and rewards can be used to strengthen the entire process. Once the ‘Fat-Free, Sugar-Free Sweet Chocolate’ is monetized, there has to be a system to facilitate both the producers and consumers of the product. It will call upon the company to undertake an intensive marketing and sales plans to maintain the process. Reinforcements would involve empowering the people through review of the process with the people involved in the process, initiate a setup methodology to keep the innovation model as required. For Nestle, it will call upon the management to provide an environment of invention and creativity for achieving its goals.
3.1 Rationale to persuade stakeholders of an organization of the benefits of a creative and innovative management idea
The justification convincing stakeholders of the profits of an inventive and new organization idea is through information, active involvement, education on the benefits of the products, and review of the performance of the ‘Sweet Chocolate‘.
3.2 Communicate a creative and innovative management idea to stakeholders of an organization
The leaders and team mandated with the process of carrying out the creative and innovative process will directly involve the stakeholders at every step of the development. This will additionally involve designing a convincing marketing strategy for the product after completion.
3.3 Establish key goals and priorities for implementation of a creative and innovative management idea using feedback from stakeholders
In order to institute key objectives of the entire execution of the idea, the leaders involved in the process will utilize feedback from the stakeholders to fine-tune and enhance the vision and objectives of the new product. This will be carried out by the use of frequent interaction and involvement of the stakeholders in the entire process of the production.
4.1 Barriers to the implementation of a creative and innovative management idea in an organization
Although all innovators and implementers do not expect any barrier to the implementation of the product, several unexpected challenges may occur, such as different levels of understanding,poor involvement of the stakeholders, low morale amongst the workers, and poor participation of the participants carrying out the production. Other potential barriers to the implementation of the process include negative thinking, market analysis, poor leadership, the fear of attempting something new, and negative business culture amongst some stakeholders.
4.2 Strategy for overcoming the barriers
The best strategy to overcome the barriers is to carry out an intensive education amongst the stakeholders, leaders, and participants undertaking the process. Additionally, Nestle management will carry out an intensive research and study on the best nutrition to add to the sugarless chocolate to remove the customer perception of the previous product.
4.3 The strategic plan will convince the stakeholders and workers to put their best and give their all in ensuring that all laid down procedures and processes are achieved through motivation, education, encouragement, positive attitude, and active participation.
4.4 Strategy plan for overcoming barriers to relevant stakeholders in an organization
The most effective approach as outlined in the plan is to have an extensive and rigorous education and awareness amongst all the stakeholders and participants to reduce any form of challenge that may arise from their non-participation or poor involvement.
References
Drucker, P.F., 2007. Innovation and entrepreneurship: practice and principles, New York: Harper & Row.
Gupta, A.K. & Westney, D.E., 2003. Smart globalization: designing global strategies, creating global networks, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.