BSBMGT608: Managing Innovation and Continuous Improvement Essay

This essay analyzes the implementation of innovation and continuous improvement strategies within Corus, a steel manufacturing company, following its acquisition by the Tata Group. The essay delves into the company's adoption of continuous improvement methodologies, including the PDCA cycle, and its focus on new product development, cost reduction, and the Just-in-Time process. It highlights the strategic decisions made by the Tata Group, such as concentrating on the iron segment, and their impact on Corus's technological advancements and market competitiveness. Furthermore, the essay examines Corus's ethical and sustainability practices, emphasizing its commitment to business ethics, environmental responsibility, and the triple bottom line approach (people, planet, profit). It explores the company's efforts to reduce its environmental footprint through initiatives like life cycle analysis and resource efficiency, illustrating how Corus integrates sustainability into its business operations and strives for long-term value creation. The essay references the company's focus on creating a competitive and innovative culture for its employees.

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Manage innovation and continuous improvement
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Corus (Continuous improvement)
Continuous improvement is actually a constant effort to advance products, facilities or
procedures. Continuous improvement involves four step of quality PDCA model which is also
known as Deming cycle (Granerud and Rocha, 2011). Tata occupied 68% share of the Corus
Company which is a steel manufacturing company with the purpose of expanding their business.
For this, they have introduced a Continuous improvement in their business operation which
means small improvement which can be helpful to the organization. Tata group has not only
involved their management team but they have also involved a team of Corus, potential
customers and all the important investors who were struggling when Corus was not part of the
Tata group (Rediff.com, 2007). In earlier time Corus was trying to find out a merger partner to
bring out from the financial crisis but no company was ready to invest their capital due to
worldwide financial crisis. One of the examples was after the merger; Corus utilized continuous
improvement to focus on new product development by involving creative and innovative
technology in order to reduce the overall cost of the manufacturing (Chacko, 2011). At the same
time, they have introduced a Just-in-time process in the business operation in order to reduce the
inventory cost of the overall production.
Corus was operating in many businesses like Aluminum, chemical which was acting like a big
burden on the Tata group. As a part of the improvement, the Tata group decided to sell its all rest
business and fully focus on the Iron segment. This decision proved to be one of the fruitful
decisions taken by Tata group management team for improving the image of the Corus Company
(Okereke and Russel, 2010). This Vision of focusing only on the Iron segment had not only
brought improvement in the thinking process of Corus but also in their cost-effective technology
which helped to gain technology benefit. Corus was not focusing more on the research and
development part in order to provide a high-quality product at low cost to their potential
customers. They have actually set up a lean working culture which helped the Corus to full fill
all the demands of the potential customers and the offering of material when in demand made
them unique in the steel market segment.
Corus has adopted a KPI which is fully focused on competitiveness, innovative, full of
opportunity for the employee and technically advanced. In competition, Corus had developed a
product to give strong competition to the existing firms. In Technology, Corus invested a huge

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amount in the research and development and in for employee’s satisfaction they have provided
enough opportunity to share their issues, ideas which will provide them upper post chance. Corus
has basically created a new market for their innovative products which has resulted in increasing
the overall satisfaction of the customers (Zafar, Rajpoot and Khalid, 2014). Continuous
improvement helped in altering the complete operation from a nervous and low confidence
workforce in to full confident and innovative workforce. CI has increased the dedication level of
the employees due to their job satisfaction because they got a reason to believe in what they are
producing.
Corus (Ethics and sustainability)
Business Ethics practices are the moral values which a company is carrying from years and in
from years, it is ensuring the profitability, growth and reputation creator of the company.
Business ethics is actually is known as the backbone of all business operations (Wright and
Bennett, 2011). With the merger of Corus Company with the Tata group which is known as one
of the ethical companies in a worldwide analysis, the Corus which is known as subsidiary part
for Tata group adopted this mission under which they focus on the main aspects that in any case
their product must not harmful for human beings, all the rules and regulation which is being
enrolled by the particular government must be followed properly.
Sustainability is actually an approach which preserves the value of stakeholders with the help of
economic, social and environmental aspects. In Corus, sustainability analysis mainly focuses on
honesty, understanding, accountability, superiority, and harmony because they believe in giving
the same luxury life to the future young generation as they are living currently. In present time
business environment is operating on dynamic mode and if a company want to achieve
sustainable growth in the market, it must fully focus on new product development and innovation
(Tata and Prasad, 2015). If a company wants to create a unique image in this business market
they must either a new product for the existing market or they must create a new market itself
which will act as a strong competition for the existing rival because they will not be able to judge
what is going and if they try to copy this thinking they have to change their complete business
process which will be very difficult for the rival company.

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Tata group has actually taken Life cycle analysis approach as one of their sustainability aspects
because many time the builder neglect the lifespan of the steel while using in construction which
can be dangerous from the sustainability point of view (Tata steel Europe, 2012). Dowling the
sustainable head of Tata group carried out a zero tolerance project which showed a huge impact
on the carbon footprint of the building in the floor slab and foundations. It will help in forming a
new segment of the superstructure.
Tata group has formed a triple bottom line which is people, planet and profit. They believe that
in present time profit is connected with creating a better balance among social, environmental
and economic aspects for long and short-term objectives. In order to decrease the impact of the
organization on the environment, resource and energy efficiency plays a very important role in
improving healthy life. Excessive use of available resources must be stopped in order to attain a
balance among present resources with the future resources and make sure that the organization is
able to conserve its finest assets.

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References
Chacko, P. (2011) A new name dawns [online]. Available from: http://tata.com/article/inside/c!$
$$$!peF!$$$$!2Bi!$$$$!8=/TLYVr3YPkMU= [Accessed 15/11/18].
Granerud, R.L. and Rocha, R.S. (2011) Organisational learning and continuous improvement of
health and safety in certified manufacturers. Safety Science, 49(7), pp.1030-1039
Okereke, C. and Russel, D. (2010) Regulatory pressure and competitive dynamics: Carbon
management strategies of UK energy-intensive companies. California Management
Review, 52(4), pp.100-124.
Rediff.com. (2007) A Corus line: Did Tata do the right thing? [online]. Available from:
https://www.rediff.com/money/2007/feb/13corus.htm [Accessed 15/11/18].
Tata steel Europe. (2012) Tata Steel calls for LCA approach to building sustainability at Eco
build [online]. Available from:
https://www.tatasteeleurope.com/en/news/news/2012/2012_LCA_approach_to
%E2%80%93Ecobuild [Accessed 15/11/18].
Tata, J. and Prasad, S. (2015) National cultural values, sustainability beliefs, and organizational
initiatives. Cross Cultural Management, 22(2), pp.278-296.
Wright, N.S. and Bennett, H. (2011) Business ethics, CSR, sustainability and the MBA. Journal
of Management & Organization, 17(5), pp.641-655.
Zafar, F., Rajpoot, A.A. and Khalid, A. (2014) Strategic management and its commitment to
acquire business excellence through continuous improvement. International Journal of
Advancements in Research & Technology, 3(1), pp.42-54.

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