Today is a whole new business world.
Things are moving faster than ever,
and companies are looking to the future as much as they are concentrating
on the present.
James Snyder, professor and department
chair of automotive supply management at
Northwood University in Midland, says
business is now global with rapidly changing technology. Executives must learn to
lead efficiently while developing innovative products and services. And the key is
continuing education.
Smart Business spoke with Snyder about
how executives can hone their business
skills and learn new ones to adequately
manage innovation and technology.
Why is managing innovation and technology
such a vital component of executive education today?
The impact of technology on today’s corporate executives is being felt not only
with product and process innovation, global product development and new business
models for innovation, but also in the way
organizations are being restructured and
managed. The factors that lead to a company’s success may also contribute to its
failure. The leadership, vision and culture
that have provided growth can become its
Achilles’ heel as technological and market
conditions change over time.
In order to prevent failure, senior executives and managers must learn to lead efficiently in current markets while developing
innovative products and services for the
future of their companies. The challenge is
that the required internal structures and cultures needed to foster innovation are often
seen as threats to an organization’s current
priorities and future success.
Where does innovation come from in today’s
business world?
Since the early 1990s, our competitive
benchmarks have increasingly come from
growth and development in Asia. Forty
years ago, companies were typically provided a quotation to bid on for manufacturing a
part. The customer would choose between
one or two suppliers that would manufacture these parts. The question arose, ‘Do
you want a quality part or do you want the
part at the lowest price available?’
The quality revolution of the ’80s brought
about experts in this field — Deming, Juran
and Crosby — who emphasized that quality
is free and that you can reduce cost without
first addressing quality. Quality systems
became the norm, and innovation in quality
became the major selling point. In the ’90s,
we implemented ‘lean and just-in-time’ delivery and emphasized the total cost impact
these concepts held for the customer.
All along the journey, there were reasons
why the early adopters received the orders.
The innovation was not only in the product, but in the process of manufacturing
and delivering parts.
What are some of the tangible results of honing an executive’s skills in this area?
An executive education program in managing innovation and technology should
consist of an introductory module that provides a framework of how the manufacturing industry has created and embedded
constraints that affect their ability to
respond effectively to challenging competitors and the continual reshaping of markets. The program should also include a series of discussions around visualization,
discovery, transformation and integration
to provide the understanding of how transformation to self-sustaining organizational
effectiveness may be achieved quickly by
intelligently leveraging technology.
The tangible results of such a program
include transitioning into leadership roles,
creating long-term improvement in the
organization’s performance, making more
informed executive decisions, and attaining higher levels of sustainable growth.
What sort of options do executives have
today for pursuing more education?
Executives continually face ever-increasing
demands on their time. Many universities
design class schedules structured to fit the
schedules of today’s busy executive by offering programs at campuses, at company facilities, and distance education via Internet.
Why is it important for executives to continually pursue more education?
In today’s fiercely competitive global
economy, almost every company faces the
challenges of ever-increasing complexity.
‘Keeping up’ while maintaining competitive
costs and satisfied customers has become
more challenging due, in part, to supply-and-demand variables that are changing at
a more rapid pace than ever before.
Despite these challenges, a handful of
companies consistently produce strong
revenue and profit growth. Market leaders
have a common characteristic: agility — an
exceptional nimbleness and unparalleled
ability to respond rapidly and appropriately to changing market conditions.
In order to survive and grow in the global
market, executives must reinvent their
business model through discipline (common processes and systems), yet maintain
flexibility with their local management and
decision-making process. Creativity and
innovation will require more disciplined
approaches and integration of the entire
business, from design to delivery.
JAMES SNYDER is professor and department chair of automotive supply management at Northwood University. Reach him at
(248) 649-5111.