Lovely Professional University

Lovely Professional University Term Paper On “Promoting Innovation Creativity among Employees In whirlpool” Submitted to:Submitted by:Manbir kaur Gill

Megha tah

(Lecturer)

RT1901B46 Mba (A)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The project report has been written in a simple and lucid style for better understanding and appreciation of the study it has been compiled systematically to enable one to evaluate detail of the report.Needless to say,I am deeply in debted to Miss Manbir kaur Gill for her supervision and guidance. I sincere fully thank the accounts manager of whirlpool showroom who have helped a lot in providing the relevant information for this Term paper with their co-operative behaviour.

Contents Particulars No.  Introduction

 Literature review

 Methodology

 Findings and suggestions

 Conclusion

 Bibliography

Page

Introduction Innovation is an excellent strategy to increase the valuation of the company, employees which are a most critical element in promoting innovation, must therefore get the best possible and continuing help in their wish and drive to innovate. Innovation is a major strategy for increasing the valuation of a company. Employees are a major success factor in this drive for innovation .Unfortunately, the importance of innovations for the future success may put employees under pressure. Already the word innovation on its own often causes misunderstandings. Employees may thus be unsure of What is really expected from them. They may even be afraid of doing something wrong. Feeling uneasy, maybe even being afraid is however a major killer of innovation. To solve this conflict, we propose to improve the innovation competence of employees. To achieve this, we see it as vital to improve communication on innovation first. Enabling a consistent communication on innovation is the conditio sine qua non for boosting innovative thinking, team work and ultimately faster time to market.

What are Innovations?

Innovations are the profitable implementation of novelty in society. Innovations can be radical or incremental. They can be products or processes. Besides defining innovations as products that are bought by customers, one can define innovation also as the process behind it. Innovation then is the successful management to exploit novelty.

Why are Innovations needed? Innovations are the best strategy to increase company valuation Innovations are a major strategy to differentiate from competitors True innovations reach the highest yields (star products) System innovations are difficult to be copied

Innovations are needed to reduce costs while at the same time increasing the benefit for the customer. For enterprises , innovations mean future success. Innovations are therefore a Top priority of management. They have to be pro-actively managed and promoted at each step of the value chain.

What is creativity? There are many definitions of creativity. A number of them suggest that creativity is the generation of imaginative new ideas (Newell and Shaw 1972), involving a radical newness innovation or solution to a problem, and a radical reformulation of problems. Other definitions propose that a creative solution can simply integrate existing knowledge in a different way.

According to Boden (1998), there are three main types of creativity, involving different ways of generating the novel ideas: •

The “combinational” creativity that involves new combinations of familiar ideas.

•

The “exploratory” creativity that involves the generation of new ideas by the

•

Exploration of structured concepts.

•

The “transformational” creativity that involves the transformation of some dimension of the structure, so that new structures can be generated.

Innovation and creativity is often the key to the success of a business . Creativity is the thinking process that helps us to generate ideas; and innovation is the practical application of such ideas towards meeting the organization’s objectives in a more effective way. There is an urgent need to expose the employees to the process of creativity and remove their blocks so that they can contribute their mite towards developing their organizations.

Purpose of innovation and creativitiy . Purpose of Creativity and Innovation Management bridges the gap between the theory and practice of organizing imagination and innovation. The creativity of individuals, coupled with structured and well-managed innovation projects, create a sound base from which organizations may operate effectively within their inter-organisational and societal environment. Today, successful operations must go hand in hand with the ability to anticipate future opportunities. Therefore, a cultural focus and inspiring leadership are as crucial to an organization's success, as efficient structural arrangements and support facilities. The objective of innovation and creativity among employees are to: Leadership for creativity and innovation; the behavioral side of innovation management. • Organisational structures and processes to support creativity and innovation; interconnecting creative and innovative processes. • Creativity, motivation, work environment/creative climate and organizational behaviour, creative and innovative entrepreneurship. • Deliberate development of creative and innovative skills including the use of a variety of tools such as TRIZ, CPS etc. •

Creative professions and personalities; creative products; the relationship between creativity and humor; arts & humanities side of creativity. •

Objective of the study The objective of the programme is to help participants:

•

To gain conceptual and Operational understanding on Creativity and Innovation

• To learn various techniques of Creativity • To build a Creative and Innovative Organization Climate to sustain innovative ideas and practices.

Whirlpool Whirlpool, right from its inception in 1911 as first commercial manufacturer of motorized washers to the current market position of being world's number one manufacturer and marketer of major home appliances, has always set industry milestones and benchmarks. The parent company is headquartered at Benton Harbor, Michigan, USA with a global presence in over 170 countries and manufacturing operation in 13 countries with 11 major brand names such as Whirlpool, KitchenAid, Roper, Estate, Bauknecht, Laden and Ignis. The company boasts of resources and capabilities beyond achievable feat of any other in the industry. Whirlpool initiated its international expansion in 1958 by entering Brazil. However, it emerged as truly global leader in the1980's. This encouraging trend brought the company to India in the late 1980s. It forayed into the market under a joint venture with TVS group and established the first Whirlpool manufacturing facility in Pondicherry. Soon Whirlpool acquired Kelvinator India Limited in 1995 and marked an entry into Indian refrigerator market as well. The same year also saw acquisition of major share in TVS joint venture and later in 1996, Kelvinator and TVS acquisitions were merged to create Indian home appliance leader of the future, Whirlpool India. This expanded the company's portfolio in the Indian subcontinent to washing machines, refrigerator,

microwave ovens and air conditioners. Today, Whirlpool is the most recognized brand in home appliances in India and holds a market share of over 25%. The company owns three state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities at Faridabad, Pondicherry and Pune. Each of these manufacturing set-ups features an infrastructure that is witness of Whirlpool's commitment to consumer interests and advanced technology. In the year ending in March '09, the annual turnover of the company for its Indian enterprise was Rs.1,719 Crores. The company's brand and image speaks of its commitment to the homemaker from every aspect of its functioning. It has derived its functioning principles out of an undaunted partnership with the homemakers and thus a slogan of “You and whirlpool, the world's best homemaker” dots its promotional campaigns. The products are engineered to suit the requirements of ‘smart, confident and in-control' homemaker who knows what she wants. The product range is designed in a way that it employs unique technology and offers consumer relevant solutions. Steps adopt by whirlpool for innovation and creativity among employees Functional training The aim of Whirlpool is constant improvement and to achieve this aim it ensures that all its employees receive adequate training as and when a need gap is analysed. Based on the Annual training needs of individuals a Training calendar is drawn to meet individual functional skill gaps. The training calendar is so designed to ensure that training given covers all necessary areas. Various programs like Management Development Programs( MDP), Team Orientation, etc are used to deliver training. Six sigma certification In order to achieve high quality standards we provide our employees with training in Six Sigma, a quality standard and improvement program. Employees are given training in order to promote Whirlpool’s motive of quality improvement through self sufficiency and self sustenance. Whirlpool invests in giving green belt and black belt trainings to its select employees. Training programs are designed in such a way that it ensures that all participants receive an in-depth knowledge into the processes of six

sigma. Training comprises modules which are conducted by global faculty. LWE Leading the Whirlpool Enterprise for Managers (LWE for Managers) is part of a cascade of LWE sessions – in the past two and a half years all Whirlpool Officers and Directors (over 600 leaders) have had similar LWE experiences. These sessions have proven to be effective at aligning and equipping leaders to drive the customer-loyalty. The LWE for Managers experience will be a 3 to 5-day program which is actionbased, including pre and post-session activities focused on developing your capability to effectively lead the transformation. Throughout this experience, you will gain both familiarity with the Whirlpool strategy and the capability to lead as represented in the Whirlpool Leadership Model. Engaging managers The engaging manager program helps participants gain a greater understanding of the impact they have as a leader of others. It helps them to better their employees and enhance their own abilities to get results with and through others. The purpose of this program is to share insights, challenges and successes with other managers. The information obtained through this program and the tools used are for the future use of participants to make this learning sustainable. Virtual University: Whirlpool Virtual University (WVU) A unique learning tool that is for the exclusive use of whirlpool employee, the WVU is an easy to access comprehensive kit of self development options for employees across all locations, functions and levels. Through this, employees can gain access to multiple courses covering a wide range of topics. WVU has courses designed to bridge a large number of skill or knowledge gaps. Employees undergoing these courses are evaluated at the end of the courses and awarded with a certification to vouch for their proficiency.

Various process for innovation and creativity among employees in whirlpool `People process and systems

To ensure a robust performance driven work culture we at whirlpool have various people processes and systems that help whirlpool retain and grow its employees. Committed, smart, passionate, innovative, challengers-these are a few features unique to the people in whirlpool. We have world-class people contributing to our success every day. Our various processes and systems are there to ensure that these people are recognized and given an opportunity to grow. Talent Pool Whirlpool aims at the holistic development of its employees. The ‘Talent Pool' process provides a robust framework for individuals' potential development. Talent Pool is a comprehensive process that is used to assess an individual based on his / her potential and performance. A Nine Box Matrix serves as a tool which helps in assessing every employee depending upon his/her performance and potential is placed in one of the boxes of the nine box matrix. This matrix helps us evaluate the employee's current position and helps in planning his progress. The Talent Pool process is critical in succession planning and career planning. The talent pool process uses the leadership model to assess employees. Performance management systems The performance management process is intended to facilitate the establishment of individual objectives annually with the intention that they will be updated and reviewed at least semi-annually or on an as needed basis - the PMP is a "live" document. These individual objectives need to directly support the achievement of the next level (manager) objectives, and align within each group (no gaps or overlap). An effective performance management process requires clear SMARTER objectives with Alignment and Stretch and Team and Individual Extraordinary Effort and Results yielding extraordinary performance and results. The performance management system enables greater differentiation of performance, higher rewards for exceptional and Robust performance dialogue. Internal job posting Internal Job Posting, a process by which all the employees are informed about the various vacancies available in the organization helps in increasing transparency in the

process of recruitment and provides the employees with multi functional opportunities. This process helps in promoting a positive culture where the employees working with the organization are given an opportunity to grow. The objective of having a process of Internal Job Posting is to create a clear and transparent process for vertical or horizontal movement to the advertised Position, to create the growth path for employees and to promote the right candidate to the advertised position in the Organization.

Literature review In 2000, Whirlpool had cut costs by hundreds of millions of dollars, yet judging by everything from stock price to profit margin to market share, they were no better off than a decade earlier. Prices of Whirlpool appliances were falling at an average rate of 3.4 percent a year. Whirlpool had to come up with exciting new products that could command premium prices. Management had a number of issues to address. How to define innovation? How to measure success? How to teach people to be creative? Believing that brilliant ideas were buried in the corporate hierarchy, the CEO invited each o f the company’s 61,000 employees to unleash their creativity: “Everybody everywhere, innovate”! In the Italian Alps, a crew of 25 handpicked workers got to work with a single purpose: to create unique products or services that would truly differentiate Whirlpool from competitors. A year later, they came back with “an internet business that would enable people to race one another over the web on stationary bikes.” Not an encouraging start!

Net bike racing didn’t draw on any of Whirlpool’s strengths. They needed to direct the focus of the creative effort to be in line with the company goals and objectives, and utilise its strengths. Real innovation requires a lot more than simply urging thousands of employees to tap into their creativity. It requires hard work, structure, and unwavering discipline. The company moved to a more traditional centralised model of product Development Since 2001, revenues from products that fit the company’s definition of innovative have s oared from $10 million to $760 million in 2005. Whirlpool’s s hares have almost doubled in value over the same period. They allocated $45 million from the capital budget for innovation in 2000 and doubled this the following year. Although employees didn’t receive anything for their ideas, they were enthused by management’s interest in their ideas. They set up an “knowledge management” intranet, to capture these ideas and received up to 300,000 hits per month in the 2001-2 period. Middle management however were peeved that their sub-ordinates were working on side projects when they had “real work” to do. Many members of senior management could shrug off the initiative, because they hadn’t been given any concrete goals nor was t heir performance measured against any innovation metris. The CEO and his team realised, in 2002, that they had to structure the innovation process. New ideas would have to enhance the company’s existing brands or products – innovators had to demonstrate that their proposals were something that real people would buy and market research would identify the validity (focus). Ideas were then graded by innovation consultants on a scale o f 1 to 10 – only ideas with a grade of at least 6.5 could proceed (evaluation). The CEO began setting annual revenue and pipeline targets (goal setting). Employee surveys were conducted to gauge worker’s involvement in innovation (assess employee buy-in). An assessment was made as to whether the new product would achieve supernormal profits, again through market research. Once more, ideas that scored less than a 6.5 got weeded out (assess return on investment). Senior executives would have to hit all of these numbers or lose 30 percent of their

annual bonus (ensure management buy-in). R&D focus switched to act on consumer feedback rather than just individual ideas (adding another dimension to their innovation model). Teams also re-assess ideas that previously failed. They underlined a philosophy of never killing ideas and shelving them so that they could be reexamined later (build a portfolio of ideas). Since 2003, innovation revenue has quadrupled annually, easily surpassing goals and they are no longer caught in a price war, forcing rivals to innovate as well or fade away. With a lot of buns in the oven, they calculate that new appliances, once they’re on the market, could produce $3 billion in annual sales. This is a clear endorsement for the value of c reativity and Innovation In business. Many other companies utilize the intellectual capital of their employees the use of kaizen (continuous improvement). Often employees are awarded up to half of the savings achieved, which enhances motivation. ‘Our people are our greatest asset’ is a management cliché that is often given much lip service, but little else

Methodology RESEARCH DESIGN •

PRIMARY DATA is collected through direct interview with whirlpool showroom manager & with employee’s. •

SECONDARY DATA is being search sites like magazines, newspapers, journals,

websites and the data has been collected through other approaches.

DATA COLLECTION The researcher collected information through the official websites, magazines and journals.

DEVELOPED THE RESEARCH FRAME: This included deciding upon various aspects for the project on which the entire research is based. The research frame included:

NATURE OF STUDY The project on which the researcher worked is descriptive and inferential in nature.

DATA SOURCE: The researcher took the help of both primary as well as secondary sources. Secondary sources being interaction with various whirlpool showrooms of the selected and has been chosen for the research by the researcher. Secondary sources being the internet as the medium and the official sites of the whirlpool company

FINDINGS



Whirlpool provides various beneficial process for innovation and creativity among Employees.

 Talent pool and job rotation adopted by whirlpool helps to assign right man at right job.



Each department employees provides regular training for motivation and so that they Can have good knowledge of work they are assigned and also become more creative and innovative.

 Whirlpool believes that with employees hard work and creativity whirlpool provides continually different products with different features.

Suggestions

 Routes to creativity at work (Process of inculcating innovation) The avenues or routes through which creativity in the workplace takes place have not been the focus of significant scholarly theorizing and research in organizational behavior, with some notable exceptions. For example, conceptual models have been proposed to account for how one specific large-scale creative project unfolds over time in a work organizational In contrast, psychologists have formulated models focusing on the cognitive processes underlying creativity and For example argued that the creative process includes the following stages: preparation, incubation, illumination, and verification. In her “componential framework of creativity, outlined five stages: problem or task presentation, preparation, response generation, response validation, and outcome.



Identification

Some creativity in organizations arises from the recognition that an unexploited opportunity exists or that an unresolved problem is in need of a solution. Thus, as a

route to creativity, identification can be either proactive (in the case of opportunity recognition) or reactive (in the case of problem recognition). Creativity opportunity recognition can

through

help overcome the “success breeds complacency”

problem as it suggests that people should follow their natural curiosity to seek out new opportunities even when things are going well and there are no apparent problems.



Information gathering

Some creativity is awakened when people gather or are exposed to information that they might not normally encounter on a day-to-day basis. Through the interpretation and assimilation of this information, new ideas emerge. For example, researchers might attend a series of presentations at a conference that are not directly related to their own research programs. Yet through gathering information on diverse topics, their primary research is energized and they find new ways to advance their field. Information gathering can broaden one's perspective, cause one to perceive new connections between seemingly disparate ideas, and literally “think outside of the box” of one's own research paradigm, one's preexisting cognitive schemas, or dominant shared mental models in an organization



Idea generation

Sometimes, creativity is awakened by the process of idea generation. The idea generation activity can be related or unrelated to the instance of creativity and the idea generation process can include creative or standardized ideas. However, through the process of generating ideas, a creative inspiration emerges. Brainstorming sessions are formalized mechanisms for generating ideas and sometimes the ideas so generated can lead to creativity in other areas not directly associated with the content of the brainstorming session. 

Idea evaluation and modification Evaluating ideas, verifying feasibility, communicating ideas to others, forecasting future implications, and gaining support are examples of ways in which idea modification takes place. And sometimes it is through the modification process that the truly creative idea emerges. For example, sharing problems and ideas with others can result in different perspectives building off of one another and new and better insights. Other times, creative solutions to vexing problems occur to people when they start describing the problem to others, even if those others are primarily listening and not actively contributing. Through idea modification, people adopt a flexible approach to their concerns that can lead to the awakening of creative ideas



Idea implementation

Creativity can also be awakened in the process of implementing ideas. In this case, creativity emerges from focused activity. For example, an architect/builder might design a structure and commence building. In the process of implementing the idea for the building (i.e., starting to build the structure), a creative idea for more efficiently and attractively combining form and function emerges.

Conclusion 1- Put aside preconceived ideas, innovation is vital. Innovation must be a behaviour and must be seen as a source of competitiveness. Leadership, open-mindedness, being close to employees and interest in new technologies are essential attributes of an innovative manager. Innovation must not be seen as a constraint. Ideas are the basis of innovation but giving ideas must always remain a possibility, not an obligation. Managers should gave employees autonomy and let them free to express their ideas. Time for reflection is also important. 2-

To innovate, we must learn to think out of the box. Managers face many constraints in terms of innovation, especially regarding legal framework. However some laws have been created to encourage innovation. Managers should also act together in order to change the most important constraints. 3-

Culture of Innovation: listen before acting. Communication is vital to find new ideas. Managers should ensure feedback with internal and external actors. The ideas of people working directly on a product are essential. It is important to establish structures of formal and informal communication. 4-

Making academic research more accessible. Universities and other academic institutions are main sources of innovation. Organisations should seek agreements with universities, invest in academic research and use these kinds of partnerships to identify and recruit creative people. 5-

6- Innovation and social protection are compatible. Social protection and innovation are complementary. The objective of managers is to ensure that employees work in good conditions. They must facilitate work-life balance, provide a creative work environment and see that stress doesn’t affect the daily work of employees.

7- Networking facilitates innovation. Innovation is not only the matter of the leaders of a company. It is essential to establish an exchange of knowledge on a regular basis, with the employees, the customers and among all the managers of the company. 8- Rewarding inventor feeds innovation. Innovative ideas come more and more from employees working directly on products and managers must encourage them to innovate through rewards. Economic primes, benefits and professional recognition can help foster creativity. 9Protecting the environment and encouraging innovation both are possible. Environmental protection and innovation are compatible. Eco-design, technological innovation and other environmental friendly strategies can give the organization a positive public image. 10- Innovation has no sense if man it is not at its center. Innovation is not a goal in itself but a way to achieve better productivity and a better quality of life. We are talking about a closed process, initiated by man and which should end with man at its center. Innovation must contribute to improve living standards.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Organizational behaviour-kalyani publishers (pg 21.2)

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Website : www.whirlpoolindia.com/learning-development.aspx www.whirlpoolindia.com/people-process.aspx

 Indian journal of Marketing-Innovation & Creativity nov 2009( pg 57)



Business today –Magazine (pg 14 )26th oct 2009.edition