Final Task
Principles of Innovation
Systemic Thinking
Systems thinking is the process of understanding how those things which may be regarded as systems influence one another within a complete entity, or larger system. In nature, systems thinking examples include ecosystems in which various elements such as air, water, movement, plants, and animals work together to survive or perish. In organisations, systems consist of people, structures, and processes that work together to make an organisation "healthy" or “unhealthy".
Design Thinking
Unlike analytical thinking, design thinking includes "building up" ideas, with few, or no, limits on breadth during a "brainstorming" phase. This helps reduce fear of failure in the participants and encourages input and participation from a wide variety of sources in the ideation phases. The phrase "thinking outside the box" has been coined to describe one goal of the brainstorming phase and is encouraged, since this can aid in the discovery of hidden elements and ambiguities in the situation and discovering potentially faulty assumptions.
At Chicken Licken they work with Systemic Thinking.
In the organisation they make sure that all authorities are conducted correctly allowing them to have a free flowing stress free environment. The Brand Chicken Licken is regarded as a large entirety. If a problem does happen to rise, the problem will be dealt with in an ethical way by the instructed staff member or manager.
The Chicken Licken Innovation process
Step 1 is Strategic Thinking.
The process begins with the aim of creating a strategic advantage in the marketplace, so here is where we think about how innovation will add value to your strategic intentions, and we target the areas where innovation can help us get more opportunities when thinking strategically, as a child George Sombonos had a dream of one day owning a fast food restaurant and he worked strategically by becoming an apprentice to his father managing his roadhouse restaurant and learning the skills it takes to run a successful restaurant.
Step 2 is Portfolio Management & Metrics.
The most important fact of innovation management is failure. We are confident that we will succeed in the end, but along the way we will encounter many challenges, mistakes, and many attempts that will never come to fruition. So we manage portfolios aggressively to balance the unknown risks with the targeted rewards of success, and balancing the realities of learning, risking, failing in order to eventually succeed. George Sombonos believes in this greatly due to his own experience
“I went on the trip to America with mad enthusiasm,” says Sombonos. “I would buy trade journals to learn about the restaurant business, taste 12 hamburgers and 20 pieces of chicken every day until one day, in Texas, I tasted the best chicken ever. I invited the owner of the chicken outlet out for dinner that evening and asked him for the recipe. It took a lot of convincing, but the next morning he agreed to sell it to me for US$5 000. I didn’t have that kind of money and eventually I paid him my last $1 000 in traveler’s cheques for something I hadn’t even tested. It was a huge leap of faith. He could have sold me a salt and pepper mix.” (O’Brien, 2016)
Step 3 is Research
Research is very important because Through research we will master a wide range of unknowns, including new and emerging technologies, change in society, and customer values and by doing this we will expose new innovation opportunities. George had shown this greatly when he had went to America and researched different chicken and burgers and that research is what led chicken licken to their signature taste
Step 4 is Insight
Many people may see insight as the first step of innovation but we see it at the result of the above processes and activities and not at random .so the innovation process we have adopted doesn’t work on random ideas but the dedicated process of examination and development. And it doesn’t happen in the shower or anything along those lines because people and teams of people have been looking persistently.
Step 5 is product Development
This is where the brand tests out new products that could be a good seller and this deals with making prototypes and trying out new combos like with chicken licken sliders ,wings and soul fire sauce.
Step 6 is Selling
This is when the products are actually sold and profits are made. When the customer buys a product he is performing the last step of the process.
Importance of Innovation and Creativity for Success of an Organisation!
Innovation is the process of creating and implementing a new idea. It is the process of taking useful ideas and converting them into useful products, services or processes or methods of operation. These useful ideas are the result of creativity, which is the prerequisite for innovation. Creativity in the ability to combine ideas in a unique way or to make useful association among ideas. Creativity provides new ideas for quality improvement in organisations and innovation puts these ideas into action.
Change and innovation are closely related, even though they are not the same. Change often involves new and better ideas. The new idea may be the creation of a new product or process or it can be an idea about how to change completely the way business is carried out. Successful organisations understand that both innovation and change are required to satisfy their most important stake holders.
Strategic Importance of Innovation: For both established organisations as well as new organisations, innovation and change become important in a dynamic, changing environment. When a company fails to innovate and change as needed, its customers, employees and the community at large can all suffer. The ability to manage innovation and change is an essential part of a manager’s competencies.
Here are 10 Steps which any company can use to access their innovation
Start by building a bigger box rather than trying to think outside it!
Select your team for who they know as well as what they know
Pick one leader and provide him or her the autonomy they need to be successful
Build a team that can both identify gaps in the market and markets in the gap!
Find team members who tell great stories!
Understand the difference between good and bad conflict
Supplement the innovation core team with an external provocateur
Remember to set goals and measure progress
Think like a startup entrepreneur
Ensure team members have “both feet in”
There's no solitary technique to making a culture of innovation. Building up one, and making it stick, relies on upon comprehension the atmosphere. In what manner will the firm respond amid times of experimentation? Which structures, practices, objectives, and individuals must be set up to boost innovation? Also, which, if situated incorrectly, would cause issues within the business and its success.
Innovation has earned more features as of late as one of the centre forms that each organisation must adhere to so that they can stay relevant in the specific market. Innovation in an association goes past basically reacting to change it makes change in the environment that different associations must react to, and hence can turn into a sustainable competitive advantage.
Numerous businesses use a top down way to deal with innovation. The main ideas are detailed at the top alongside the significant activities for accomplishing it. Some of these activities will be imaginative in nature, identified with the improvement of an imaginative procedure, product or service. Top down methodologies may request contribution from lower in the business, however the detailing of the inventive thoughts stays at the top. hybrid approaches make a structure amidst the association that energises innovations from the bottom up and attempts to shape them into feasible business thoughts.
The culture that Chicken Licken has implemented concentrates on empowering a distributed network to shape inside the association that tackles the part of a significant part of the innovation work. Individuals associated with the network produce their own particular thoughts, conduct tests, log the outcomes, gain support, what's more, move a portion of the thoughts to direct usage. The network utilises highlights from a few diverse morphologies and uses a few standards from regular choice to recombine furthermore, enhance thoughts all through the procedure.
“In January 1981, Sombonos formed a company called Golden Fried Chicken, which was to be the new name until a waiter came up with a better one - Chicken Licken – which cost only R300 to register. It is a logo that is worth millions today.”
This was the start of the culture that Chicken Licken uses today because the owner of the organisation was open to new ideas by anyone who was involved with the brand and that led to the brand developing a network culture which basically means that innovation can come from anywhere within in the brand and still be implemented as a final product and that is the way in which the organisations leadership cultivated that culture of innovation but the brand also networks internationally with the owner having consultants in America.
The menu changes in May each year with the help of menu consultants in the States. “So our menu is the same standard as any of our international counterparts,” says Sombonos.
The drivers of innovation for Chicken Licken are:
Nurturing talent
“People who work for Chicken Licken don’t leave the way they came in. They become skilled. Sombonos says they have built a culture of profit share. This means on-target bonus for all staff right down to the chip fryers.”
Chicken Licken have implemented many training programs for their staff which teaches them very important skills in the industry
Managing Creativity
by giving a waiter an opportunity to make a major change in the brand Sombonos created an environment in which his staff are not afraid to give creative input and that helps boost innovation.
Competitors
This definitely doesn’t sound like a driver of innovation but to Chicken Licken it is a major one because of the CEO George Sombonos who feels very strongly about beating his completion.
“When we grew to five shops in 1982, KFC took us to court because our name was too close to its slogan – ‘Finger Lickin’ Good’. The trademark lawyers told me if I wanted to fight to keep the name, it would cost R10 000. I borrowed the money from my mother, finished my shift and drove to Pretoria with the R10 000 in a Chicken Licken packet.”
Today, Chicken Licken has grown to quarter of the size of global fried chicken giant KFC. Sombonos says that every time he opens up a new store near his opposition they are like sitting ducks, or in this case chickens, because approximately 30% of their market shift their allegiance to Chicken Licken. “You can see loyalty when the two brands are positioned near each other,” he says.
Today, Chicken Licken has developed to quarter of the extent of worldwide fried chicken goliath KFC. Sombonos says that each time he opens up another store close to his opposition they are sitting ducks, or for this situation chickens, in light of the fact that roughly 30% of their business sector move their allegiance to Chicken Licken.
Product Innovation Strategy
Chicken Licken places a lot of importance on the relevance of their brand and that shows with their creative adverts and their new products and that shows that the brand in constantly trying to introduce new products to the menu that will catch on to the public and the menu for the brand changes every single year meaning there are new products being developed for years to come.
The barriers of innovation for chicken licken
Inadequate funding
in the start of opening the company George Sombonos took a chance and spent his last 1000 dollars to a man in Texas for his spice blend without knowing if it were the actual product or not and that proved to be a barrier of innovation to him at that specific period.
Racism
However, despite the brand’s success and positive image, there are still some traditionally white shopping centres, like Sandton City, where the management still carry deep-rooted prejudices. I am just waiting for Liberty Life to become black empowered, and then a black man at the helm won’t say we are too black,” says Sombonos. But since this comment was made the claim was denied and it was claimed that a space had to be made vacant before they could open a store there.
Weather conditions
Rain has a major impact on the business and cause extra costs if there are any droughts
Rain is an important element in George’s life. He is always praying for down-pours in the maize growing season as the maize price ultimately determines the chicken price. He is also paranoid about running out of chicken.
Enablers of innovation
Technology
with the advancements in technology every day the brand discovers new ways to get the brand to the public like the funky television ads that the brand has and the way they communicate with consumers on social media platforms, these are all ways in which technology has enabled the brand to innovate further.
The commitment of senior management
George Sombonos shows great commitment with this being his creation and he shows it by motivating his staff to innovate as well as giving everything he has into the brand so by doing that he shows the people who are involved in the brand that it is a joint effort and everyone who is involved can benefit from the success of the brand.
A customer focus
The most respected innovators perceive that innovation does not happen in a vacuum. They continually interact with their customers. This guarantees demand for their products at the time when they enter a market, develops their association with their customers, and keeps them from over specifying or over engineering products past what customers need or can afford
Bibliography
Whitecap Consulting. (2014). Innovation Series, Part 1: What enables innovation? - Whitecap Consulting. [online] Available at: http://www.whitecapconsulting.co.uk/strategy/innovation-series-part-1-enables-innovation/ [Accessed 23 May 2016].
Sandtoncity.com. (2016). Sandton City and proposed Chicken Licken franchise - Press Room - Sandton City. [online] Available at: http://www.sandtoncity.com/libproperties/content/en/sandton-city/sandton-city-press-room?oid=17579&sn=Detail&pid=669 [Accessed 23 May 2016].
Exemplas.com. (2016). Technology is an enabler for business growth, innovation and operational effectiveness. [online] Available at: http://www.exemplas.com/research-and-insights/technology-is-an-enabler-for-business-growth/ [Accessed 23 May 2016].
Leader.co.za. (2016). The Chicken Licken story | Leader.co.za. [online] Available at: http://www.leader.co.za/infocentrearticle.aspx?s=5&c=66&a=2282&p=2 [Accessed 23 May 2016].
