Archive for Financial Trends
Business Model Innovation: E-Lynxx Makes Procurement Transparent with Automated Auctions
Ask the leaders of a business how much they spend on printing. The response can be interesting, even hilarious. It’s an expense that is easily overlooked yet can be substantial. Few companies know if they are being overbilled. Decisions may be handled by cloudy processes where influences other than quality and value sometimes hold sway. Indeed, the fundamentals of the procurement process in many companies leave inefficiency if not outright abuse. The problem isn’t just in printing, either. Many parts and services handled through standard procurement systems can result in excessive costs. Enter an interesting business model innovation: E-Lynxx. For added spice, we’re talking patented business model innovation. Yes, E-Lynxx has a business model enhanced with the aura of two US patents.
William Gindlesperger is the founder and CEO of E-Lynxx. My source tells me he has over 25 years of experience in the printing industry, where found that the decision making process was antiquated and left companies vulnerable in many ways. He pursued business model innovation to come up with a system that could make the process transparent and more efficient. Under his business model, be provides software and services up front at not cost, getting paid only when the client saves real money from his work. Then he gets a cut of the savings. Low risk.
When a company turns to E-Lynxx, they receive software and training in how to use E-Lynxx’s open auction system. Bids are offered to a large array of qualified vendors who then bid on the deal. The vendors can see the competitive bids and so can the client. This transparency helps bring costs down substantially, often reducing print costs by 25-50%. E-Lynxx gets part of the savings. What’s not to like? Well, those who aren’t getting as much gravy might not like it, but if it’s your business, these kind of cost savings should be welcome news.
E-Lynxx has three granted US patents and another pending. The granted patents are US 6,397,197; 7,451,106; and 7,788,143; all by the CEO and founder himself. Business method patents are still alive and can play important roles in some companies. Whether they are needed or not for this company, I like the innovative approach that E-Lynxx is taking to bring the procurement process into the light where more efficient transactions can occur with large costs savings.
London Gets a Boost in Innovation: The New Masters Program at City University London
London may be getting a boost in innovation with an exciting new innovation training program, the “MICL” (pronounced like “Michael”), short for Masters in Innovation, Creativity, and Leadership, a masters degree program offered at City University London. See http://creativity.city.ac.uk/ for details. The program involves the arts, business, law, social science, and informatics. Looks like a good cross-disciplinary blend.
As the University began building this program, they got a quick taste of some of the realities of innovation as the economy shuddered and forced new approaches in light of economic reality. This was viewed as an opportunity for creativity–very healthy–and the result is the subject of this entertaining Youtube video they created.
Hats off to City University London and best of luck with the MICL!
Is Your Business Missing the Green Light of Opportunity During the Economic Chill?
During a recent snowstorm, I took the above photo of a traffic light not far from our Innovationedge offices in Neenah, Wisconsin. Thanks to heavy, wet snow, the traffic signals were largely hidden. I saw it as a metaphor for what happens when times of economic chill blind entrepreneurs and businesses to the opportunities around them. A downpour of discouraging economic data and fear can pile up like snow on a traffic light and obscure the green light of opportunity that otherwise could be telling you to move ahead. The lesson is not to just plow ahead, nor is it to remain at a standstill until the chill ends, but to learn to look for the fainter clues that show the true color of the largely hidden glow.
This may be the right time to move ahead for the opportunity before you. Indeed, many great companies have their roots in times of economic recession. While others are cutting back on innovation and preparing to put their companies permanently in park, those who invest in innovation now will have the decisive advantage and be miles ahead of the competition when the chill ends. Look closely – there may be a green glow under all that snow.
At Innovationedge, we’ll work with you to find the glow and understand the opportunities you face. Let us help you plan and prepare for your journey with our innovation roadmap services and other strategic tools. The intersection you’re parked at may provide an exciting avenue to opportunity-if you have the right help to know which way to turn and where to go. Give us a call today! Talk to Cheryl or any of the Innovationedge staff at 920-967-0470 to learn more.
Thanksgiving sees trends in travel
The Wednesday before Thanksgiving is seen as the busiest travel day of the year in the United States, and as I post this, millions of Americans are sitting in airports, train stations or in their cars waiting to get going on their Thanksgiving travel plans.
About 38 million domestic travelers are expected to go somewhere this holiday, but that’s 20 million fewer than in 2005 when the economy was brighter. Thanks to the economy and higher transportation costs, many of you are opting to drive or take trains and buses instead of shelling paying for higher airline tickets.
The average price for a gallon of gas this weekend is $2.63, up about 65 cents over last year at this time. That will push the average fuel cost for trips of about 5 hours to about $101.
Certainly forgoing air and long roadtrips for Thanksgiving and opting for cheaper alternatives is a sign of our current times. But another trend I am seeing is families are staying home more this Thanksgiving, even if it means missing that yearly family get-together.
In the last two years Thanksgiving travel took a nosedive–by 25 percent between 2007 and 2008, and AAA doesn’t see that changing much this year. In fact AAA predicts there will be a 6.7 percent decrease in air travelers this holiday compared with last year.
Are you part of that trend? Wherever you are this year, I want to wish you a very happy Thanksgiving.
Inventory is one of the biggest challenges stores face this holiday season
This is a "Zhu Zhu Pet," retailing for about $10. It's one of the hot toys this season, but don't be surprised if you can't find it.
Remember the hot toys from years past–Tickle Me Elmo, Cabbage Patch Dolls and Furby? This year the holiday season’s early hit is the Zhu Zhu Pets hamster, an interactive mechanical rodent. But it is also almost impossible to find as the holiday shopping season draws near. It’s not because parents are rushing out to buy the robotic mouse.
No, instead of those parental buying binges of the past, the empty shelves are pointing to another trend in our down economy: The shortages come from stores that are concerned about ordering too much (like they did last year), and are keeping their inventories thin.
The result, with seven weeks to go before Christmas, is that popular toys and perhaps even the unpopular ones are already hard to find.
(Other hot “must have” toys this year are Mattel’s Mindflex, a Nerf dart thrower called Nerf N Strike from Hasbro Inc., and Barbie Fashionista.)
One analyst at Timetoplaymag.com predicted shortages of the top 100 toys by early December, rather than the traditional top 15.
Other analysts report that in recent weeks toy makers have dispatched executives to China to make sure they get enough products to keep shelves full.
Last year retailers ordered too much merchandise and had to take huge discounts almost as soon as the products hiot the shelves. You’ll remember the headlines last year that said holiday sales posted their biggest decline in at least three decades. That was enou8gh to put stores like Circuit City out of business.
This year, Karabus Management, a retail advisory firm reports that inventory is 8 to 13 percent smaller for mid-price clothing, and 10 to 15 percent smaller for home furnishings.
My advice as inventories are shrinking: Shop early. Better yet, do something really radical this holiday season and find creative–even philanthropic–ways to give gifts to loved ones!
Blogging from CoDev leads to Visions
Today’s blog is a blog of a blog!
Seriously, I’ve been doing a lot of writing lately about the economy and how businesses can strategize around their outsourcing efforts: How to make those decisions sound, get them set up correctly and and make the most of those partnerships.
So I put together a blog-like article and it was published in PDMA Visions magazine. I wanted to give a personal account from our annual PDMA/MRT co-development conference, and what the attendees glean from their time in Scottsdale, Ariz.
For instance this year we covered how companies can foster environments that allow open innovation to thrive and integrate multiple business models to achieve greater returns on their open innovation investments.
You can read all about it here.
Food Trends: Processors Feel the Bite of the Economy
I’ve been looking at trends in the food manufacturing realm lately, and while the processors are feeling the crunch of our economic climate as are most businesses, some analysts are predicting big problems in store for the entire industry.
In fact author Hank Cardello, a food industry expert and author of Stuffed: An Insider’s Look at Who’s REALLY Making America Fat, says that food processors need to pay much closer attention to emerging health trends and not just the economy. He predicts that if manufacturers don’t stop producing overweight foods, they could face a fate similar to auto manufacturers who continued to produce overweight cars with a focus on short-term profits and a lack of innovation.
This former executive at Coca-Cola even compares gas guzzlers in the auto industry to “weapons of mass consumption,” and talks about how products like the 14-hundred calorie Hardees Thickburger is equally to blame. I can’t say as I disagree with him. Remember how the auto manufacturers missed the market signal that “smaller is better?” Remember when gas prices rose to $4 per gallon how consumers quickly began to look for more efficient cars?
With the food industry giving us more than 30 percent more calories than in the 1950s, perhaps it’s time for these processors to look at trends more seriously and re-invent their offerings.
