Examples of innovative companies

Chapter 1: Introduction

1.1 General Introduction

My TMIA report is about the topic “Innovation” the topic Innovation has been described below with some solid examples of Innovative companies.

TMIA assignment gave me the opportunity to learn more about Innovation and research on this interesting topic to know more about how companies follow innovation in their organizations to be succeeded in the international market in today’s competitive world. Now a day’s Innovation became a very important issue for any organization because all businesses want to be more innovative and if they really want to survive in the market and wants to sell their products regularly to gain good name and high profits from selling their products.

1.2 What is Innovation?

Innovation is anything that is new, an innovation is the implementation of a new or significantly improved product (good or service), or process, a new marketing method, or a new organizational method in business practices, workplace organization or external relations.

There are different innovations definitions are available like: Product, process, organization and marketing innovation but depends which definition apply to your topic of research.

A product innovation is the introduction of a good or service that is new or significantly improved with respect to its characteristics or intended uses. This includes significant improvements in technical specifications, components and materials, incorporated software, user friendliness or other functional characteristics.

In short Innovation means thinking out-of-the-box exploiting new technology and employing new ideas to generate new value and to bring about significant changes in society.

1.3 Why innovation is important for any organization?

‘Get innovative or get dead’

Most of the businesses want to be more innovative. According to the recent surveys it has been identified that 85-90 percent of businesses believes that innovation is a priority for them. These surveys helped to conclude that innovation is increasing and there is a significant increase, this became very important for profit maximization and to remain competitive and effective in the market. According to the management experts; if an established organization is not able to innovate it faces decline in growth and will lose their position in the market.

Innovation is imperative if the quality of life in these trying circumstances is to improve. Innovation will make the world a better place for the younger generation.

In present, we need more innovators than in past. Companies are feeling the impact of globalization, migration, technological and knowledge revolutions, and climate change factors. Innovation will widen the employment base and will bring the added value. Innovation is unavoidable if innovators want to improve the quality of life to achieve high living standards of life. This helps to make the word better place to live and makes life easy, enjoyable and luxurious.

Following points explain the importance of innovation in a company and what will happen if the companies don’t innovate:

• Company needs to innovate to harmonize with the advancing technology. Fast changes in technology demands that the products are more and more sophisticated.
• Evolving society needs advanced products. The customers demand the best possible thing for the day and the latest products are in demand. Thus the factor ‘customer satisfaction’ is vital and it relates to innovation.
• The products, processes and services of the company need to be one step ahead of competitors. Otherwise the company loses the game.
• Innovation leads to better corporate positioning, increased market value and faster growth in the company.
• Fast changing environment and lifestyles of people have greater expectations. Moreover, the good ideas are quickly copied and there is pressure to devise new and better products, processes and services for the customer.
• If the companies don’t innovate, the customers stop buying the products, the sales drop, revenue drops, stock price drops, shareholder returns drops, and employees leave the company and finally the company collapses.

In this report I will firstly try to present an outline of Hybrid innovation in Toyota

Next I will provide an outline of the organizational structure and by the end of chapter 2 I will try give you an idea of my position in it.

Chapter 3 will cover the daily as well as the weekly tasks that I carried out throughout the period that I worked there.

In chapter 4 I will attempt to mention some characteristics that I believe I have in me, and will relate this with the job that I did. This will be followed by chapter 5 in which I will extensively describe the cultural experience(s) that I had during my stay at ABB.

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Hereafter I will seek and describe the relation between the job that I did and IBMS. Among others I will mention the subjects that were most relevant to my job, and whether or not these are/were taught in IBMS. Finally in chapter 7 I will present my findings and conclusion.

Chapter 2: About Toyota

2.1 Industry & Company Information

Automotive industry

The automotive industry designs, develops, manufactures, markets, and sells the world’s motor vehicles. In 2008, more than 70 million motor vehicles, including cars and commercial vehicles were produced worldwide.

In 2007, a total of 71.9 million new automobiles were sold worldwide: 22.9 million in Europe, 21.4 million in Asia-Pacific, 19.4 million in USA and Canada, 4.4 million in Latin America, 2.4 million in the Middle East and 1.4 million in Africa. The markets in North America and Japan were stagnant, while those in South America and other parts of Asia grew strongly. Of the major markets, Russia, Brazil, India and China saw the most rapid growth.

In 2008, with rapidly rising oil prices, industries such as the automotive industry, are experiencing a combination of pricing pressures from raw material costs and changes in consumer buying habits.

Toyota Motor Corporation

Toyota Motor Corporation is a multinational corporation headquartered in Japan, and the world’s largest automaker by sales. Toyota employs approximately 320,808 people worldwide.

The company was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda in 1937 as a spinoff from his father’s company Toyota Industries to create automobiles. Three years earlier, in 1934, while still a department of Toyota Industries, it created its first product, the Type A engine, and, in 1936, its first passenger car, the Toyota AA. Toyota also owns and operates Lexus and Scion brands and has a majority shareholding stake in Daihatsu and Hino Motors, and minority shareholdings in Fuji Heavy Industries, Isuzu Motors, Yamaha Motors, and Mitsubishi Aircraft Corporation. The company includes 522 subsidiaries.

Toyota is headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi and in Tokyo. In addition to manufacturing automobiles, Toyota provides financial services through its division Toyota Financial Services and also builds robots. Toyota Motor Corporation (including Toyota Financial Services) and Toyota Industries form the bulk of the Toyota Group, one of the largest conglomerates in the world.

2.2 Innovative Product

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Prius open link

Toyota Prius

The Toyota Prius is an extra ordinary and advanced developed new technology car for the world to enjoy the real luxurious drive for less money. Toyota is doing well and number one in automotive industry that’s why I selected this topic to work on it because in present Toyota is a good example for innovation in the world. They are always coming up with new ideas and bringing innovation in use in their cars. The visible innovation results can be seen in Toyota Hybrid Technology.

The Toyota Prius is a full hybrid electric mid-size car developed and manufactured by the Toyota Motor Corporation. It first went on sale in Japan in 1997, making it the first mass-produced hybrid vehicle. It was subsequently introduced worldwide in 2001. The Prius is sold in more than 40 countries and regions, with its largest markets being those of Japan and North America. In May 2008, global cumulative Prius sales reached the 1 million vehicle mark, and by August 31, 2008, the Prius reached worldwide cumulative sales of 1.43 million units. As a top seller, the U.S. market made up more than half of the 1.2 million Prius sold worldwide by early 2009.

The Prius is the most fuel efficient gas car currently sold in the U.S. according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA and California Air Resources Board (CARB) also rate the Prius as among the cleanest vehicles sold in the United States based on non-CO2 toxic emissions. The UK Department for Transport reported the latest Prius is the second least CO2-emitting vehicle on sale in the UK with 89 g/km.

Topic innovation

Managing Innovation: Toyota’s Strategy

Story: I had the opportunity to ask Bill Reinert, national manager of advanced technology at Toyota Motor Corporation, how he manages innovation. His answer was multi-faceted, so I’ll describe his ideas over several blog posts. First, let’s look at the numerous innovations that Reinert and his team integrated into the Toyota Prius hybrid automobile. For the 2010 Prius, Toyota took a systems approach to innovation. That is, rather than simply changing one subsystem, the company redesigned many aspects of the car to achieve the end goal of fuel economy. The Prius isn’t just a regular Toyota car with the combustion engine swapped-out for a hybrid drive system.

To achieve the best possible fuel economy, the 2010 Prius has extensive aerodynamic features. The front, sides, top, back, and bottom are all designed to minimize drag-inducing air turbulence. The changes are much more than cosmetic. Reinert’s team replaced the rarely-seen rough underside of a normal car with smooth aerodynamic panels and two little winglets that reduce drag in the air that passes between the road and the car. Even the wheelhouse liner and shape of the wheels help reduce the drag. The result is that the Prius’ shape gives it a lower coefficient of drag than the “sleek-looking” sports cars on the road.

To reduce fuel-guzzling weight, the team made the battery an integral structural part of the car, not just a bolt-on box. Nothing escaped the team’s scrutiny. The team even improved the interface between the car and driver. The car now provides real-time feedback on fuel consumption and power system activity – something that hypermilers love. Specifically, the new 2010 Prius offers three performance modes in which it can be driven, each at the touch of a button. The car can be driven in EV-Mode (running off the battery alone for about 10 miles), Power Mode for snappy acceleration, and Eco Mode for fuel-sipping energy conservation. The different modes actually change how the car responds to the gas pedal: Eco Mode means that even a lead-footed driver gets better gas mileage. Finally, the new Prius has a solar-powered fan on its roof that cools the cabin temperature so that drivers don’t have to blast the air conditioning when first entering the car.

In all, Toyota created more than 1000 patents during the development of the Prius, resulting in an EPA estimated city/highway mpg rating of 50 in the city, 49 on the highway and a combined 50 mpg.

Action:

• Think about the ultimate purpose of some proposed or available innovation (e.g., a hybrid powertrain can improve fuel economy)
• Examine other design elements for opportunities to achieve that purpose (e.g., aerodynamic shape improves fuel economy)
• Provide users with product features that help them achieve that purpose (e.g., add controls and displays that affect and monitor performance)
• Integrate all the improvements together to mutually reinforce the ultimate purpose.

2.3 Benefits

• Car User
• Eco Friendly
• Go Green

http://editorial.autos.msn.com/article.aspx?cp-documentid=435228

2.4 How to inspire innovation within your company

2.5 Technology Mission and Vision[1]

• Technology
• Sustainability
• Mission and vision
• Strategy

2.6 Organization chart Benelux

2.7 My position in ABB

Chapter 3: Tasks that I carried out

Chapter 4: Personal functioning and qualities

Chapter 5: Describing the Cultural Experience

5.1 Considering things now

Chapter 6: Relation Of IBMS With The Job

Chapter 7: Conclusion

List of sources

Internet:

• http://www.mbs.ac.uk/research/innovation/documents/SOFTINNO VATIONpresentation.pdf
• http://www.paggu.com/getting-into-roots/what-is-innovation-why- innovation-is-important/
• http://business-school.exeter.ac.uk/executive/tutors/brown_innovation.php
• http://web.ygoy.com/2009/07/05/what-is-innovation-why-innovation-is-important-for-a-company/
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automotive_industry
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota#Production_and_sales_numbers

Literature:

• d L. Bovee & John V. Thill. Business Communication Today
• Þ ABB_Annual_Report_pdf

• Source: http://benelux.inside.abb.com/cawp/gad00666/cab71028ecc053c8c1256ae800313e6d.aspx