Heather Villa » Innovation

Weekend Reading: My fav’s from this week: 2/5/10

Heather Villa, CMA, MBA, MSM — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 21:17:53 +0000

The Single Greatest Way To Discover Innovation

‘Next Gen’ CPA Firm? “Now We’re Talking…”

Taking Control of Your Life Once and For All

You CAN Do That: What Happens When You Dare to Dream – Whether you’re into X-Game sports or not, this video is worth taking a few minutes to view.

How high is your bar set?

Astronaut Tweets Beautiful Earth Images From Space

And of course there are more. Check them out on HeatherVilla StumbleUpon.

Happy reading!

Business “best practice” in today’s economy

Heather Villa, CMA, MBA, MSM — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 11:55:32 +0000

We’re living in turbulent economic times. Economists are now predicting that most of 2009 will continue this way with a market resurrection in the end of 2009 and through 2010. Larger businesses may have the assets and borrowing power to survive. But smaller businesses do not and many of them are wondering if they’ll survive during the year.

At the risk of sounding like I’m stating the obvious, I feel that it’s important to highlight the one best practice that all businesses should be pursuing this year:

MORE SALES

Businesses need to increase revenue (assuming that they are able to earn some profit on that revenue). When economic conditions are better, businesses can tweak their processes and spend a little more on development and innovation, but in these times they need to sell more, plain and simple.

Here are some tips to help you sell more:

List all of your current customers and determine how much they buy from you in a quarter. Then find a way to get them to buy just a little bit more. It might be because of increased value, or it might be because of a promotional sale, or it might be because you’re giving them a discount on a bulk purchase… or any other number of reasons. Make it a goal to increase your per-customer revenue from each customer, even just slightly.

List all of your previous customers. Working backwards from most recent to oldest, reconnect with them and entice them back to you. See if you can determine why they no longer buy from you. Do they no longer need your product or service at all or are they buying from someone else instead? Don’t make assumptions – find out!

Explore the possibility of offering your products to a slightly different market. First, consider how your current products or services might be attractive to another market. Then, consider how you can slightly modify your products or services to a completely different market.

Approach your increased sales as a project. (Yes, I’m saying that as a project manager, because I know that this method is successful). Build an entire project around the goal of “increased sales” and work with a project manager to drive the project to a successful completion.

Big Bank Balances make Happy Entrepreneurs,

Heather Villa

An Innovation Mindset – “Should you listen to your customers?” Continued

Heather Villa, CMA, MBA, MSM — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 13:25:37 +0000

Yesterday I talked about the tricky balance between the customer always being right and Henry Ford’s admission that if he had listened to people, he would have invented a faster horse.

Ford states it well and if I were to restate what he said I would put it a little more bluntly: the customer doesn’t really know what they need. I mean that customers know they need a solution to their problem or a fulfillment to their desire but they will solve that need with the best available solution. Thus, if Henry Ford had listened to the market, he would have given them a faster horse because horses were the available solution for getting around.

But Ford knew that the real need the market was experiencing was the need for easier, faster, (and less smelly?) transportation.

The same goes for Edison, too. He could have stuck with candles because the marketplace thought they needed candles. But he knew that what they really needed was light.

So, when you are thinking about innovating new products or services, stop thinking about augmenting existing solutions because that is what your customer is asking for. Instead, think about what their REAL need is and then create a solution that meets that true need.

Innovation is the key to all products and thought processes alike,

Heather Villa

Should You Listen to Your Customers?

Heather Villa, CMA, MBA, MSM — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 13:19:12 +0000

Businesses need to work hard to stay competitive: they need to find new customers, outpace the competitors, stay on top of marketplace demands, and continually innovate. One problem that many businesses have is that they listen too closely to their customer.

I’ll pause here a moment while you pick your jaw up off of the floor. I’m sure that many people don’t like to hear what I just said, particularly with our customer-centric view of business success. Some of you (especially my customers!!!) might want to know what I’m thinking and how I can balance that against the beloved business maxim “the customer is always right”.

So, let me clarify: I said “one problem that many businesses have is that they listen too closely to their customers”. In general, I believe that businesses SHOULD listen to their customers and should bend over backwards to make sure that their customers are thrilled. They should provide so much value to their customers that those customers wouldn’t think of shopping anywhere else.

BUT…

When it comes to innovation and evolution in the business, the customer’s point of view should be shuffled to the back. The reason is, the customer is focused on themselves and what they can derive from the business and so they approach the business and its products or services from their own perspective. However, a business comes at the situation from the opposite direction.

As Henry Ford famously put it, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said ‘a faster horse’.”

I would suggest that you sell your existing products and services with the approach that the customer is always right. But you innovate with Ford’s idea that the customer is wrong.

In an upcoming blog, I’m going to tell you about an innovation trick that (I think) demonstrates this method extremely well.

Here is to innovation,

Heather Villa

What’s stopping you?

Heather Villa, CMA, MBA, MSM — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 16:00:35 +0000

Creating new products or services is fun! I love the idea of taking an idea and helping someone develop it, turn it into something real, and then sell it. And I know my clients like it, too, because I stay busy with this work!

Unfortunately, I’m seeing a dangerous trend in the market that impacts this product or service development. It’s related to the economy, of course: Companies are spending less on product development and many are choosing to wait until the economy improves before they bring new products to market.

While I do appreciate and preach (and practice) prudence in business spending, and I wouldn’t want a company innovating itself out of existence, the trend toward less innovation is worrisome.

I’d like to suggest that the best time to innovate is now. The best time to turn ideas into products is now. The best time to take new products to market is now.

Here are my reasons:

Chances are, it will cost less because other businesses (who may become your vendors) are slashing prices to get work. Spending some now will probably mean spending far less than if you were to buy the same products or services when the economy is good.
Your competitors are choosing the no-spending/no-innovation path. They’re just keeping their head down and hoping to make it through the recession! If you take a different approach, you’ll differentiate yourself from your competition.
You may not sell a bunch of these products or services now, but you’ll have time to perfect them before the market picks up again. Then, when the market is chugging away (like we all hope it will… and like we all know it has in the past), your products will be market-ready for people who are eager to spend!

Now is the time for innovation! What’s stopping you?

Please don’t let it be me! I will offer this, for the first 3 people to comment (valid comments) on this blog post, I will offer 2 coaching sessions (1 hour x 2) free of charge – to speak with you about your doubts, your ideas, process outlining or project implementation.

Now is the time to step up to the plate, now is the time to embrace the current economic situation and fly with your ideas.

Have a great day,

Heather Villa

Staying Ahead of the Competition…

Heather Villa, CMA, MBA, MSM — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 22:40:29 +0000

As a business consultant and entrepreneur, the big ‘C’ word (Competition) is always looming over my head and the heads of my clients. I notice that my clients, colleagues and competitors are always ‘focused on the competition’. It is difficult not to be, I understand, but at the same time if you are focusing more on the competition than yourself/your business/your offerings – you are not being really efficient or effective.

I actually spend several hours a week just brainstorming with my notepad. Everywhere I go I carry one with me, this year it is this nifty little Red Alligator Skinned Journal that my Public Relationist Cindy Rakowitz gave me for Christmas. When I am out, at lunch, in bed, on the computer, phone or working and something hits me I note it in my notepad and doodle thoughts, concerns and goals. When I was at lunch today, I got a telephone call from a colleague, Christy, and she said “Name of one of my competitors, just launched a feature in their application. What are you going to do, that was one of your big selling points?” I just laughed and said “What do you want me to do? They are free to launch anything they want, and I applaud them for doing so, it will make their application more valuable.” I received a bunch of hemming and hawing from Christy – we talked about a few more things and we got off the phone. I went back to eating my lunch, but whipped out my little red book and started jotting some things down.

I believe that the original intent of the ‘doodling’ was to compare my service with their service, but by the end of the lunch I realized that I did not do much comparing. Rather than making a list or diagram of what we have and what they have and seeing who has what I ended up noting down 2 aspects and a sub-aspect of the competition and 4 aspects and 5 sub aspects of us. I was not really focusing on the competition, even though I think when I pulled out the notebook that was the goal. Rather I was focusing on us and what makes us unique and/or the things I want to provide. You will see notes such as: #1 Service = Community, Response, Love, Respect and Disclosure; Providing a means to an end; Listening to users; Don’t reinvent the wheel. By the competition you see Features, Product and Service. Hah! It may be that I just don’t pay too much attention to my competition, or it may be that I am just really self absorbed. Certainly I have to remain alert and attentive to my market and any prospective competition, but if I spend all day focusing on others – will that really help what I am doing? Honestly?

I can’t control what the competition does and neither can my clients, so should we really worry or be absorbed in their actions – or should we focus on what makes us unique. Let’s be honest, so this ‘company’ released a feature that I have and they did not… that is just benchmarking, it is definitely not innovative thinking. I have a couple other tricks up my sleeve that are coming up in the next 2 months, I am sure shortly thereafter one or more of my competitors may do the same exact thing. Oh well. As long as I am the innovator, and they are the benchmarker’s, don’t you think the clients, consumers and people that need our services will see that? I say “Kudos to them – I am glad we taught them a thing or two!”

In summary, to stay ahead of the competition, you need not be focusing on the competition – focus on your market, your customers, your audience and everything that they have to say – you will be the innovator – you will prevail – and your competition will be following in your footsteps. Don’t be upset or worried, be happy! It means you rock and did something great!

-Heather Villa