Archive for March, 2006

Mar 8th 2006 Innovation Barometer

One barometer for how innovative is your organization can be determined by answering the following questions with a yes or no.

  1. Has one person been chartered with the overall responsibility to manage the corporate-wide innovation process?
  2. Are there performance measures – both tangible and intangible – to assess the quality of your innovation practices?
  3. Do your training/educational programs have provisions to incubate and spin-out new products and businesses?
  4. Does your local, regional or international presence operate as a distributed network of expertise which learns from as well as distributes to customers?
  5. Is there a formal intelligence gathering strategy to monitor the positioning of both current and potential competitors?
  6. Does the rate of production of new products and service exceed the norms of your industry and create new markets in which you can excel?
  7. Has a strategic alliance manager been designated to create and manage the network of partnerships and joint ventures to leverage your firm?
  8. Does your marketing image portray an organization with the capacity to create and move ideas into the marketplace to make your customers successful?
  9. Have resources been allocated to articulate a compelling vision internally and share company expertise externally through publications and participation in major forums?
  10. Is your computer/communications capability treated as a learning tool for internal conferencing and external business leverage on the World Wide Web?

Your Innovation Score
If you answered 7 out of the 10 questions in the affirmative, the chances are that you have a good handle on the innovation process of your enterprise and know how to enable an environment for the optimal flow of ideas contributing to the vitality of the company. However, if you found yourself responding negatively to these basic innovation questions, you might want to take a look at your own processes for taking ideas to market and leveraging your intellectual capability into the future. Even if you scored high, the questions can frame an innovation dialogue.

Source: Gauging the Organization / ENTOVATION® International

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Mar 8th 2006 Inquire Before You Fire

Below is a sampling of the kinds of questions you should ask before you make a final decision to fire an employee.

  1. Does the firing violate discrimination laws or other federal, state or local statutes?
  2. Is the reason for firing in line with company policies and procedures?
  3. Have any assurances, written or oral, been given to the employee about length of employment or job security?
  4. Has the reason for discharge happened in the past, and have other employees been handled in a similar manner?
  5. How long has the employee worked for the company, and how does the reason for termination stack up against the employee’s overall performance record?
  6. Has the reason for discharge been progressively documented in the employee’s performance reviews?
  7. Has the employee been informed of substandard performance, violation of work rules, or other conduct that could lead to termination? Have warnings and disciplinary actions been adequately documented?
  8. Has the employee had an opportunity to correct the problem behavior? Has the employee been told that failure to correct the problem behavior could result in termination?
  9. Has the employee been given the opportunity to present his or her side of the story? Are there any extenuating circumstances that might explain substandard performance or misconduct and alter the decision to fire?
  10. Is the employee about to receive financial benefits, like a pension, which will be lessened or eliminated if the employee is fired?

Source: A Kinder, Gentler (Legal) Way of Firing / Carol Orsag Madigan / Controller Magazine, June 1997

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