Innovation Essay – Bossini International Holdings Ltd
Bossini International Holdings Ltd is a results-driven company. The company is currently investing on the newest product line enrichment and integrated marketing and advertising program. As a main player in the retail industry in Hong Kong, Bossini has to have a balance on where to put resources which could further strengthen the company’s leadership position and hence achieve a sustainable competitive advantage through continuous improvement. In this essay, how Bossini seriously considers innovative strategies will be discussed.
Listening to the voice of consumer (VOC) is one of the critical aspects of innovation especially because it is difficult to take risks without a clear foundation (Harvey and Brown, 2006). Bossini brands have promise, benefit, color and icon: A complete family store that provides delightful shopping experience with more styles and variety of colors to choose from and a trademark that holds warmth and brings enjoyment.
In generating high impact innovations, it is important that the organization should devise a systematic method of identifying opportunities that provide new value for the consumers (Johnston and Bate, 2003). In order to achieve defining moments to revive business performance, Bossini converge with their three core strategic plans: replicate the new brand concept, in other markets, pragmatic expansion to focus on profitability and strengthen design capability and enrich product offering.
Apart from establishing 205 franchised outlets in Mainland China, Bossini cooperated with its business partners in order to build and establish a total of 527 export franchised outlets in 20 countries. Bossini holds satisfactory growth with export franchising business which remains strong with a surge of 33% as it rose by 6% on a year-to-year basis. As of June 30, 2007, Bossini operated 524 directly-managed outlets. The approach that the company utilized upon its inception is regional clustering or the rolling put of stores in different tiers of cites in the same region first before moving out to other regions.
The desire to innovate must also come with the company’s top leadership and permeate every corner of the organization (Paley, 2006). Bossini also considers to innovate processes through stand-alone retail establishments and department stores. Stand-along establishments are independent stores in different tiers which could further showcase the portfolio of Bossini brands. Such establishments are either found in places with most visual opportunity like corners of the street and places where people traffic is high. Occupancy of floor spaces in department stores is one of the most effective strategy albeit the intense competition. For Bossini, it is better to place products at international department stores for more shopping appeal.
As such, the changing consumer preference was an opportunity that is exploited through innovation (Paley, 2006). Bossini understands every family member’s need. So the company came up with a brand portfolio that caters to both men and women of all ages including baby, youth and maternity and is continuing to do so. Moreover, the company recognizes the need to diversify products in order to achieve product advantages via the wide choice of colors and styles. The changing shapes of bodies provide opportunities for improvement for Bossini such as plus sizes and petite sizes. Bossini shall as well recognize the opportunity to widen portfolio through adding plus-size portfolio that will as well as cater to kids, youth, men and especially women. Especially in Asian regions where women are generally petite compared to Westerners.
Edersheim and Drucker (2007) argued that the mismatch between supply and demand in the market is a powerful tool for innovation. It includes unforeseen successes and failure inside the organization and unexpected activities at suppliers, competitors, customers and complementors. Bossini emphasize two main focuses: profitability and efficiency. As well, the company is tapping different opportunities when it comes to people and products in diverse market reach. Within the design teams, there are dedicated and experienced designers that works on continuing stability for existing product portfolios with appropriate but not excessive fashion touch. Further, information sharing is one of the main attributes of the company’s value chain. Bossini is devoted to capture customer profiles and sharing data with supply chain partners. KM are used to extract full advantages as driven by intelligence on competition and customer as well as on human resources, finance, IT, marketing and manufacturing for the purpose of a establishing cross-functional KM teams.
Innovation also means to tolerate internal processes especially those that will contribute to the growth of the company (Johnson and Scholes, 2002). Bossini collaborated with Octopus in 2005 and the first apparel retailer in Hong Kong to accept payment services from external sources. The initiative offered consumers with new shopping experience and convenience resulting to continued flow of consumers. Bossini is also trying to innovate interfacing with customers through online discourse communities. Various discourse communities over the net could provide Bossini patrons the opportunity to discuss with themselves what they want to improve with the products or even service. It is also a way to ensure that the company is serving their customers well in terms of service and brands.
Although innovation directly implicates the initiative to drive profitability, this must be the goal at all times (Harvey and Brown, 2006). An organization must understand that what will really drive profitability is the appreciation for putting innovative strategies into action. Bossini also strongly commits at continuously improving their people’s knowledge as the main source of intelligence, technology, development and innovation. Philip Fung believes that knowledge is extracted when people stop at keeping secrets (Tham, 2004) and hence building an environment of trust whereby people could talk freely of problems, practices, sales and customer feedback. KMF is a program wherein the senior management identifies key focus areas in order to improve operation quality including areas of safety at workplace and delivering effective services.
Innovation directs to the fact that an organization should be capable of bringing genuine innovation while remaining practical while doing so (Harvey and Brown, 2006). Bossini looks up to their employees as customer equals. Aside from being results-driven, Bossini is also people-oriented. The company is committed at investing on employee education and training. The purpose is to keep staff abreast of developments in society and company. Trainings are provided as basic terms especially for frontline managers such as sales technique, language and communication skills. And as needs arise, the company provides special trainings for them like trainings for would-be managers. Bossini believes that the secret for being effective and proficient at work, you should be: positive and cheerful, professional, quick to respond to customer’s request, caring, cooperative, innovative and must win the hearts of customers.
While many people associate innovation with major technological or organisational advances, the vast majority of successful innovations result from a stream of small incremental changes which may individually have only limited effects on consumer behaviour (Johnson and Scholes, 2002). Technologies are used as the driving force behind the operation of Bossini. Like the CRM for example, it allows the company to track, access and analyze customer data. Bossini had taken appropriate measures that would ensure computer systems and equipment requirement since 1999 and is continuing to invest in technology.
In sum, Bossini is committed to innovative strategies that could drive effectiveness and profitability and it is evident on how they treat their people, customers and products. Through an innovative assessment, we learned that the company is investing mostly on brand and knowledge as primary drivers of the business.
There are specific recommendations for Bossini: brain writing, proof of work systems (POWs), annual value chain analysis and qualitative testing plans. The common mistake for many companies is the lack of accurate documentation; overlooking the necessity of such for future forecasting and avoiding repetition of unproductive practices that hurt their companies. Since the company is already in line with technology, likewise work systems must engage protocol or function systems. POWS serves as an economic measure that deters denial of service or other service abuses on network thus improving the security protection of data inputs. The analysis of value chain must be in periodic manner so that the company could pinpoint accurately what areas are in most urgent need for change. Bossini shall as well conduct knowledge testing plans in order to gain insight on strategic plans; objectives, actions and measures specification; implementation time table; allocation of responsibilities; and explicit process for monitoring development.
References
Edersheim, E H and Drucker, P F 2007, The Definitive Drucker: The Final Word from the Father of Modern Management, McGraw Hill Professional.
Harvey, D and Brown, D 2006, An experiential approach to organization development, 7th ed., Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ.
Johnson, G and Scholes, K 2002, Exploring Corporate Strategy, Prentice Hall.
Johnston, R E and Bate, J D 2003, The Power of Strategy Innovation, Sage Publication, London.
Paley, N. 2006 The Manager’s Guide to Competitive Marketing Strategies, Thorogood: London.
Tham, I 2004, ‘First, know yourself,’ The Age.
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