Manage Innovation and Continuous Improvement: A Comprehensive Guide

This comprehensive guide explores the principles and practices of managing innovation and continuous improvement within organizations. It delves into key quality management theories, change models, and sustainability frameworks, providing practical insights and actionable strategies for driving organizational excellence. The guide also examines the role of risk management, social media, and customer feedback in fostering a culture of continuous improvement.

MANAGE INNOVATION AND CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT
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Table of Contents
Task 1:............................................................................................................................................3
1: Identify and discuss in detail five quality management theories...................................3
2 Kotter’s 8-Step change model.............................................................................................3
3: What is the diffusion of innovation theory.........................................................................3
4: What is the purpose of the ISO 9000 Standards.............................................................3
5: What is cost-benefit analysis..............................................................................................4
6: Discuss the concept of a learning organisation in one paragraph................................4
7: Why is the concept of shared vision..................................................................................4
8: Discuss the concept of team learning...............................................................................5
9: Identify and outline three different sustainability.............................................................5
10: Provide a definition of risk as identified in AS/NZS ISO 31000:2009........................5
11: Discuss the concept of risk management.......................................................................5
12: describe the seven steps in the risk management process.........................................6
Task 2:............................................................................................................................................7
Report on Woodhouse Recruitment to explain the improvement in the area of
sustainability and social media use........................................................................................7
Task 3:..........................................................................................................................................10
Action plans for implementing the continuous improvement and innovation initiatives
...................................................................................................................................................10
Task 4:..........................................................................................................................................14
Analysis report of Wood house.............................................................................................14
References:..................................................................................................................................16
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Task 1:
1: Identify and discuss in detail five quality management theories.
The first theory of TQM says that an entity should focus on regular improvement of business
process and internal control to make the deficit Zero. The second theory says that entity should
focus on its customers to fulfil their needs to maximise the customer satisfaction and Customers
may be internal or external. Another theory of TQM utters that management should ensure
involvement of top to the lower level employee to improve the quality of business process
(Kelchner, 2018). Top authorities of the company should try to maintain healthy and teamwork
environment. The last theory of TQM is focused on data management which speaks that
business should use proper data processing and reporting techniques like a flowchart, bar
graphs to give the better understanding of planned policies.
2 Kotter’s 8-Step change model
Kotler with respect to other models noticed some similarities in a business like good
communication conduction, clear vision, new vision, employee’s empowerment and more for a
successful business. Kotler for the transformation changes defined eight processes that are
vision communication, increase in urgency, consolidating gains, powerful guidelines formation,
vision development, employee’s empowerment, short-term win development and change
strengthening by anchoring culture change.
3: What is the diffusion of innovation theory
Diffusion of innovation can be defined as a framework which tries to understand that how a new
innovation affects the social life and spread between communities. The theory was given by
Everett Rogers which describes that innovation diffusion is a continuous process to find out that
how a new technology update accepted by the people. This theory is very important for
managers who are seeking market to introduce a new product (Huebsch, 2018). By applying
this theory, a manager can understand that how new innovations are accepted by the targeted
peoples and he can take steps to make his product popular fast among peoples.
4: What is the purpose of the ISO 9000 Standards
ISO 9000 is a standard for the quality management to ensure the best quality in the products
and services. It is introduced as a legal framework which works for the wellness of customers
and stakeholders and ensures avoids losses which may arise due to lower quality of the product
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(Markgraf, 2018). ISO 9000 includes seven principles of quality management which are as
follows:
 Effective leadership
 Focused on customers.
 Involvement of all organisation members.
 Manage activities as per process (process approach)
 Organisation should include continuous improvement as basic object.
 All decisions should be based on evidence.
 The organisation should work to enhance the relationship with external parties like loan
provider, suppliers etc.
5: What is a cost-benefit analysis
Cost-benefit analysis can be explained as a framework which is used by a business
organisation to calculate the profitability and appropriateness of a concerned process or project.
It is a popular method which shows the net profitability of a project by considering all costs and
possible benefits. In this method, benefits of a process or project are summed and all possible
costs are subtracted from it.
To complete a cost-benefit analysis, an organisation should make a list of all possible costs
which are expected to be incurred during the project or process (Godavarthy, 2014). All cost
covers all type of possible expenses like direct, indirect or risk costs. After it, the organisation
should make a list of all possible benefits which are expected from the process. Benefits from
non-monetary items like goodwill are also included in this list. By subtracting the costs from
benefits, an organisation can find net process benefit.
6: Discuss the concept of a learning organisation in one paragraph.
A learning organisation can be defined as a business institution which is dedicated to providing
regular training and facility to its employees to learn new things so that they can perform
excellently and can improve their performance. Learning organisation is a concept of Total
Quality management which involves regular learning process to polish the skills of members
and staff.
7: Why is the concept of shared vision
A shared vision is an important component of learning organisation concept. It motivates the
employees to give more efforts towards learning and creates a common identity so that they can
work according to the need of vision (Hussein, et. Al., 2014). The concept of shared vision
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creates a relationship between employees and they work being together to achieve the
company targets. Shared visions are short-term internal targets and company should make an
overall long-term vision.
8: Discuss the concept of team learning
The concept of Team Learning is based on combined learning which enables various types of
benefits for a learning organisation. In a team learning process, employees grow quickly it
means that ability of their understanding and problems solving increases significantly. For
discussion and dialogue individual is required by team learning. Team learning also offers
openness and boundary crossing (Ratna, et. Al., 2014). Shared meaning and Open
communication are developed among the individuals due to team learning.
9: Identify and outline three different sustainability
Environment sustainability: the practice of environmental sustainability is common in Australian
companies. The Australian government also issued same legal guidelines to govern this matter.
Waste management: management of waste according to the standards is main sustainable
practice in Australian companies. It is focused for the management of waste and enhances the
recycling of products in production.
Safety: safety practices are one of the mainly applied practices which are dedicated to ensuring
the compliance of enough safety rules to provide the workers with a risk-free working
environment.
10: Provide a definition of risk as identified in AS/NZS ISO 31000:2009
Under this standard risk can be defined in two categories:
 Risk of uncertainty effect: as every business activity runs into an uncertain environment,
it is possible that things do not happen according to the expectation and business will
face an adverse situation.
 Risk of objectives: every business makes proper planning to achieve its objects.
Standard describes a risk of the object that May business not achieves its pre-decided
targets due to some uncontrollable reasons.
11: Discuss the concept of risk management.
Risk management can be defined as a set of some rules and frameworks which is utilised to
guide the managers so that they can manage the business activities in right manner and can
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minimise the risk which may affect the performance of business (Liuksiala, 2013). To manage
and control the risk, it includes some principles, frameworks and process.
Successful Unsuccessful
 Continuous support from management
 Effective communication
 Proper use of information technology
 Proper employee training
 Inappropriate planning
 Lack of communication
 Impractical targets
 Deprived monitoring
 Lack of coordination
12: describe the seven steps in the risk management process
The seven steps of the risk management process are as follows:
 Work to improve the skilfulness and quality decision-making ability of management.
 Establish a system to identify the market threats and gainful chances.
 Work to enhance quality financial reporting
 Try to increase the trust of customers and investors.
 Increase compliance of financial governance
 Work to improve the safety of workers and environment
 Establish a system to continuously analysis the risks of the business process.
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Task 2:
Report on Woodhouse Recruitment to explain the improvement in the area of
sustainability and social media use.
Introduction: the current report is based on the Woodhouse recruitment which is working to
provide recruitment services. The report is made to explain the areas of improvement which are
Social media and sustainability program. A complete overview of these areas is given in this
report which will be very useful for the company management during the improvement program.
Following areas requires improvement:
 Social Media
 Sustainability
To find out the performance of above Areas, following strategies can be implemented:
Social media: currently company does not have any policy to use to the social media but it
knows that this area will be very useful in future so development is required on this topic. To
monitor the current performance in social media company may use below strategies:
 Find the number of day to day visitors.
 Impressions metric which shows how peoples are receiving regular updates from the
company site. (it is an inbuilt feature of website management software)
 visitor engagement strategy
 Regular traffic identification.
Sustainability: sustainability is one of the most important factors of business and regular
evaluation of sustainability is necessary for business continuity. Following strategies can be
implemented to monitor the sustainability performance:
Accounts based analysis in which sustainability of wood Ltd can be measured on the basis of
monetary items and accounting data.
Narrative strategies include the examination of organisational sustainability on the basis of
different opinion reports which are provided by different monitoring authorities. Like internal
auditor report.
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The process of recruitment:
To provide the services to its 30 customers, company purchase data from external firms and
also posts vacancy advertisements on different websites and recruits efficient employees. The
company have five recruitment managers from different backgrounds which selects the correct
candidate according to the client needs. The company works with higher professional standards
and benefits for the offered role is clearly delivered to the selected candidate. After the selection
of a right candidate, the company transfers him to the client.
The company is doing well in the area of process management because it hired five specialists
and one administrative officer. The company is thinking to transfer its office to another area
which will reduce the operational cost. The company should try to improve the use of social
media because it is a most vital way to find suitable employees. The company should establish
key indicators to measure the internal efficiency.
Woodhouse Recruitment can appoint the following specialist to support the recruitment
process:
 ZOHO Recruit (ZOHO.com): it is one of the most useful software which provides support
in recruitment. It is a cloud-based complete software which is appropriate for in-house
and agency recruiters. It covers many features like advanced research, creates an
opening for a job, integrated with other software, and tracks status of the applicant
(ZOHO, 2018).
 Kelly Media house: Company can contact Kelly Media which is a freelancer recruitment
company. It provides assistance to other recruitment agencies to apply social media
practices in the recruitment process. It works like supportive IT team which posts
vacancy ads on different social media platforms and helps to get a candidate for
recruitment.
Opportunities for Woodhouse in improving the social media and sustainability:
Social media: if the company applies suitable social media practices to improve this area it will
generate several benefits. Some of the benefits are as below:
 It is a low-cost medium to recruit a highly skilled candidate.
 It provides a competitive advantage.
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 No need to spend extra money.
Sustainability: improvement of suitability practice will generate the following benefit for the
company:
 Improvement of sustainability enhances the trust of the market so the finance cost of the
company will be condensed expressively.
 Sound sustainability practice will improve the goodwill which will improve the trust of
other customers and company will get more hiring partners.
 Trust of employees will be increased with sound sustainability practices and they will
want to work with the company for a long time. If the company do not have good
sustainability, company staff will try to find alternative options to ensure job security.
Comparison of Woodhouse’s performance against industry benchmarks:
Particular’s Target Achievement
Sales Revenue 12% 10%
Profit 9% 10%
Revenue from client (Repeat) 70% 60%
Above table shows that company is not doing very well because targets are met according to
plan. It should be noted that Woodhouse is showing continuous growth that means
management and other operational activities are good but they required improvement.
Woodhouse has higher stationary costs and it should be reduced by using other products.
Ineffective use of social media is also a big reason for this. Company purchases candidate data
from external sources and it generates an extra cost for the company. due to these reasons, the
company does not achieve its targets.
Advice for Woodhouse:
College recruitment: Woodhouse can start college or institution recruitment to find out the
talented candidates. Research states that campus recruitment is a very useful way to get skilled
workforce at low cost. It will save employee cost for the clients of Woodhouse and improve their
trust for Woodhouse.
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Advertisement on different sites: Woodhouse can start a new marketing strategy to make brand
value and increase the reach to more candidates. The company can hire a media partner who
will post the vacancy ads on different websites and when people see them they will contact the
company. It will generate another benefit for the company as; traffic on the website of
Woodhouse will be significantly increased in future.
Referrals: Woodhouse can use this system to get more reliable candidates. In this system, the
company offers a monetary reward to existing employees if they refer a candidate and that
candidate works with the company for three months (Indicative) after selection. In this system,
there is not initial outflow because the reward is payable after the completion of the term period.
Conclusion: above report concludes that recruitment business requires attention to all related
areas. In above report, Performance of Woodhouse Recruitment is measured and it concludes
that company should work on the area of sustainability and to increase effective use of social
media platform to get extra benefits in business.
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Task 3:
Action plans for implementing the continuous improvement and innovation initiatives
The action plan for the continuous improvement and innovation initiatives are necessary to be
maintained by the company as it accelerates the uncertain events which are coming in the
future. To improve the position in the market and to be stable in the competitive market it is
important to innovate the new things and prepare for the change.
The plans should be developed using a relevant project management
Gantt charts are used as they convey the information visually and involved all the task of the
project in order and show against a timescale. Whenever the company or organization
implement the plan they use Gantt charts as it is responsible for each task, how long time a
single task will take and also show the problems which the team may encounter. This helps in
analysing the potential problems of the task and whether the right people are assigned for that
task or not. Gantt charts are designed as they determine the need for resources and plan the
order of resources according to them. Gantt charts also help in mentoring the projects and you
can see what you have achieved by a certain date and if any project is remaining then take the
necessary action to bring it back on course. Gantt charts help to view the overall timeline of the
project and it also illustrates how the project will run. Gantt charts make the information more
complex as their visual presentation helps it comprehend the information easily.
Include a risk assessment for each initiative, identifying the possible risks and how they
can be managed
There are many risk factors which the company faces when they are operating the functions of
the business. The major problem which the company faces is the problem of the financial risk.
The problem is that whether the funds are sufficient or it will deliver or serve in the future. It can
be managed by monitoring and verification of the project which is of similar nature and then
analyse the cost and benefits of the project. There is an operational and technical risk in the
company that whether the project has the potential to achieve the corporate goals or not. It can
be managed by taking the actions such as by changing the policies and strategies and
consulting with the expertise and managers.
Document a cost-benefit analysis for each initiative.
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Cost-benefit analysis helps in taking the decision for implementing the action for the
improvement and initiatives. It helps in predicting the action in addressing the problem or a
challenge and also helps in pursuing any initiatives. Cost analysis includes the risk analysis
which focuses on the optimal solution. Cost-benefit analysis is used as it helps in to identify the
highest return on investment which is based on the resources, risk and cost.
Document the impact of the change and the consequences
Changing the action plan of upgraded technology, new initiative ideas and implementing the
things affect the staff as they are majorly effective with these strategies. If the change is in the
favour of staff or employees then it will bring more opportunities for their personal growth so
they will support the change. If the change is not in their favour then they will resist it. Most staff
are threatened by the change as they fear to face the unknown things this could build the
negative behaviour in the company as the panic, depression and anger increases. To overcome
this problem of the staff the manager needs to communicate with them, clearly their false
misrepresentation and discuss which help to ensure the commitment of the staff for each
initiative.
Document a brief contingency plan for non-conformance for each initiative
A contingency plan is that which is designed to so that the company can meet the significant
future event or the situations which may happen or may not happen in the future. It is a course
of action which is used as an alternative if the current actions fail to materialize. There are some
steps to plan for non-conformance is:
1 Develop the plan policy which provides a guide to take an effective plan.
2 Conduct the business impact and identify the preventive controls to reduce the cycle costs.
3 Create contingency strategies which recover the disruption fast and effectively.
4 Develop a plan and ensure the testing, training and exercise.
Importance of continuous improvement and sustainability as an essential element of
business and competition
The continuous improvement in the action plan leads to the sustainable success. If there is a
continuous improvement then there will no longer compete in the market. It also creates the
global marketplace for the foreign competition. Updating new things, machines and technology
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help in dealing with the new situations which generally arise in the market. To sustain in the
market we have to follow the new techniques and adopt the upgraded technology so that people
will not shift to the other change in the market. Continuous improvement also helps in improving
the skills and knowledge and it also motivates the employees. Continuous improvement in the
action plan leads to increase the profit of the company and also improves the growth and
performance of the company.
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Task 4:
Analysis report of Woodhouse
1. Why the survey sent out by Woodhouse Recruitment might not have been
effective.
The survey is not effective that much because they were not systemizing the feedback
processes properly, they were limiting the feedback collection to just a few candidates.
Woodhouse requirement doesn’t listen to any negative feedback and the weakness of
the employees. Their recruitment doesn’t give overall satisfaction to the employees. The
people they are recruiting don’t have the proper data to approach the employees and
their efficiency is also lower. The advertisement of the recruitment is not done properly
and the information is not given to all the candidates who are willing to do the job.
2. What could Woodhouse Recruitment take from this experience into future efforts
to improve performance?
To improve the performance of the Woodhouse recruitment they should involve all the
stakeholders who are hiring the clients and successful and unsuccessful hires. They
should focus on the respondent experience and collect the referrals which help in hiring
the people who do a great job. The company should focus on the effective survey invite
so that the maximum people can know about the hiring process and also collect the
testimonials so that it helps in the market organization by collecting the positive
comments from the different candidates. The company should provide an initiative so
that response rate of the survey should be higher as more will be the representative
more will be the reliable report. To invite the people for recruitment it is essential that the
invitation should be done properly. The company should not make mistakes in inviting
the people.
3. Review and analyse the results of the 12 surveys received, outlining the results of
the customer survey, as well as potential reasons for the low return.
12 Surveys which has been received by the company in which the 7 are totally satisfied
with the Woodhouse recruitment. There is no one who is dissatisfied but 2 are the one
who is somewhat satisfied. 1 is totally dissatisfied with the Woodhouse recruitment. 5
people are like they would recommend the woodhouse recruitment 4 is mostly like to, 2
would not recommend and 1 will definitely not going to be recommended. The reason for
the low return may be due to lack of widespread communication. They are not
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maintaining the proper communication with the employees. The way of the survey may
not be approachable to employees that are why they are showing the low return.
Basically, employees don’t require the other employees; employees will refer to only
those employees which they will feel that will fit for a good brand.
4. Make recommendations for future customer surveys, including the frequency
 The future survey should be properly held and there should be proper
communication between the employees and a huge amount of satisfaction is the
must thing for surveyors for maintaining fluency and satisfaction with customers.
 There should be a proper focus on the survey and a major motive behind doing a
survey, there should be keen knowledge about the company and company
benefits.
 The person should be capable of doing work given to him, for example, a person
who is highly qualified in doing the assistance but he or she is not capable of
doing the work of manager so this is the way by which we can make the survey
go right.
 The worker should be highly skilled to do the task which is given to him or her it
signifies a correct person should be chosen for the particular task and there
should be accuracy in doing work.
 The major thing for the best output in the survey is taking the comments from the
customer that is the output of the work we are doing in present. Make sure the
output is always positive and our target is to remove the negative thing in the
survey.
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References:
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http://smallbusiness.chron.com/theories-total-quality-management-55715.html
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http://smallbusiness.chron.com/diffusion-innovation-theory-12128.html
3. Markgraf, B. (2018). Theories of Total Quality Management. Retrieved from
http://smallbusiness.chron.com/impact-iso-9000-73321.html
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Learning Organization on Organizational Performance in Consulting Industry.
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