Managing Innovation and Continuous Improvement

Running head: MANAGING INNOVATION 1
Managing Innovation and Continuous Improvement
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Institution
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MANAGING INNOVATION 2
Managing Innovation and Continuous Improvement
Assessment Task 1
Question 1
Management by Objectives refers to a management approach where managers set objectives to
improve performance in the future (Thomson, 1998). As an approach, it encourages managers
and employees to continuously ask what needs to be done to improve the current situation and
thus supporting innovation and continuous improvement.
Question 2
The supply chain and service delivery systems include the following:
Radio Frequency Identification: This is an emerging technology where one can track all the
materials throughout the supply chain. The advantage of this system is that organisations can
easily track materials movement and hence minimise the possibility of losing items
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP): This is a system that integrates the business information
and allows easy access to information across different functional groups. Its advantage is that a
company can effectively manage its inventory and distribution of materials.
The P-Card System: This system allows companies to procure goods and services without using
the traditional means. The advantage is that it is more efficient than the traditional ways since it
is faster and it is suitable for low-value transactions.
Question 3
Inventory Turnover Ratio is a measure of how fast a company sells its inventory in a given
period. The rate at which a company sells its inventory is a vital business performance measure.
A high inventory turnover ratio is desirable as it shows that the company is efficient at selling or

MANAGING INNOVATION 3
reselling its products. This ratio informs managers whether they are performing or not as a way
of ensuring there is continuous improvement.
Question 4
A Gantt chart is a graphical representation of a project schedule where activities or tasks are
shown against time. It is critical for project managers to understand the interlinkage between
tasks or activities to ensure a project is completed within the set period. The Gantt chart helps
project managers to monitor the progress of the project, and the information is used to establish
the best approaches for improving the entire project and hence, supporting innovation and
continuous improvement.
Question 5
Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) is a project planning approach mostly used
for large projects. The primary feature of this approach is the network diagram which depicts the
activities and sequence in which they should be accomplished (Kerzner & Kerzner, 2017). The
network diagram comprises arrows which represent activities, and nodes which represent the
start and end of the activity. Each activity has an estimated time, and the sequence of activities
from the start to end point of the diagram is referred to as a path (Kerzner & Kerzner, 2017). The
time required to complete the work in any given path is given by the sum of time for all the
activities along the path. The path with the longest time is called a critical path.
Question 6
Businesses should review programs, systems and processes because it enables one to understand
the weaknesses and provide an opportunity for continuous improvement. Dynamics keep on
changing and so should businesses as well. Review of systems helps businesses to remain
relevant to the market. The results of such reviews can either be positive or negative. Negative

MANAGING INNOVATION 4
results should be considered as opportunities for improvement while positive ones should
encourage business owners to improve their systems even further.
Question 7
The various ways to identify and analyse changing trends and opportunities relevant to the
organisation include the following:
 Conducting market research
 Reading industry research and trend reports
 Reading relevant publications
 Benchmarking with the industry leaders
 By using different analytic systems and tools such as Google Adwords, Moz and Google
Trends.
 Performing SWOT analysis
Question 8
The information gathering methods include:
 Surveys and Questionnaires: This technique is where a researcher selects a group and
gives them questions to fill.
 Observation: In this technique, the researcher measures the respondents or users
behaviour regarding the technology under study through observation
 Trials and Experimentation: This technique involves scientific tests to prove established
hypotheses.
Question 9
As an employee in the retail sector, one of the ideas that can help the organisation is to come up
with an online store. This will help the company to reach a broader market. Another idea is to