Fresh insights into the challenges that face your business
3D or not 3D?
To use an old political cliché, there is nothing as powerful as an idea whose time has come. And judging from the Economist’s latest cover story (http://www.economist.com/node/18114327), that time is now and that idea is 3D printing, hailed by the authoritative business magazine as “a manufacturing technology that will change the world”. The magazine even hails inkjet for performing “a multitude of printing roles” and possibly changing “the economics of making customised components”.
At Loughborough University, Dr Neil Hopkinson and his team have invented a high-speed sintering system which, the Economist says, uses “inkjet print heads to deposit infra-red absorbing ink on layers of polymer powder, which are fused into solid shapes with infra-red heating”. One of Hopkinson’s projects is to supply plastic buckles for a winter-sports equipment company.
The Economist is hardly a lone voice in predicting such a shift. Pira predicts healthy double-digit growth in the inkjet market between 2011 and 2015 and points out that “researchers are examining inkjet as a method of seeding artificial tissue engineering… inkjet is also being used to label and decorate pharmaceutical tablets and decorate confectionery and bakery products”.
Many of the opportunities created by these technological shifts will fall outside the remit of traditional wide-format printing. But the industry can ill afford to ignore a technology which could replace mass manufacturing and reduce the time to take a digital design from concept to production by 50-80%.
The ramifications are stupendous, varied and revolutionary. And now is a good time to start considering its affect on your business.
Where creativity fails innovation
Why does so much innovation get bogged down? Jeffrey Baumgartner, who runs Report 103, an innovation blog, says at the root of many failures to innovate is a misunderstanding of creativity: “We tend to see creativity being exerted mostly, if mot entirely, at the beginning of the process.” So the exciting new idea that emerged from the mother of all brainstorms may falter as it goes into production or is scrutinised by marketing. What needs to happen, Baumgartner argues (http://www.jpb.com/report103/archive.php?issue_no=20110202) is for companies to focus at the start of the process on the specific challenges a new idea may pose for different departments or stakeholders further down the line.
Success on a plate?
As frozen foods giant Findus is no longer synonymous with the slogan “Success on a plate”, TUK Systems looks to fill that niche, with the iCtPlate, a computer-to-plate solution for smaller print shops which starts at just £99 and uses polyester-based plate material and large-format Epson printers to create quality plates for short run printing. This approach isn’t revolutionary but TUK, an offshoot of the international distribution giant TechNova Imaging Systems, believes that iCtPlate can deliver a higher quality by exploiting Epson’s piezo crystal imaging.
Is your company the right shape?
Almost certainly not. Especially if your organisation is the same shape it has always been. In a Harvard Business Review Blog (http://blogs.hbr.org/corkindale/2011/02/the_importance_of_organization.html ) Gill Corkindale, an executive coach who was managing editor of the Financial Times, says even leaders at large companies shy away from wholesale organisational redesign, preferring to rethink their strategies and the way their companies operate “on the hoof” switching their focus from markets to products or competitors rather than looking at the big picture. All this piecemeal change can easily confuse, contradict what the rest of the business is doing and lead a company astray.
The power of clarity
The internet is littered with ‘advice’ blogs that are essentially self-promotional vehicles for the self-important. And from its title Jim’s Marketing Blog (http://jimsmarketingblog.com ) sounds like just such a vehicle. Too many management bloggers seem to write in the belief they can parlay their finite wisdom into a consultancy for IBM but Jim’s blogs offer much wisdom for small and medium sized businesses. One of Jim’s key messages is the need for clarity: “Many small business owners are fuzzy or vague when it comes to explaining what they do and why you should buy from them.”
The key, Jim suggests, is to answer three questions:
- What is your service? Define it in clear, buzz-word free terms.
- What is the value of your service to a client?
- Why should they purchase that product or service from you in particular?
Sounds exceptionally obvious but revisiting these three questions every year may help you clarify your goals, strengths and weaknesses.