When strategizing on revenue growth, success requires outside-the-box thinking. If everyone is shooting for the same goal and frequently goes into coast mode when they achieve that level, then eventually, everyone will do the same things, and no one will have a differentiation-based competitive advantage. Sounds boring to me.
Today, if you mention innovation to people, they frequently think about Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and maybe James Dyson. These people have a different way of thinking about business, products, and services than most. They also have amazing luck and a willingness to take significant risks. But what can the rest of us do to reposition our business and leave the competition choking on your dust?
The four people I mentioned created products and services from the ground up. Steve Jobs, well, everyone knows what he did. The same goes for Jeff Bezos. Elon Musk is behind the Tesla electric car, SpaceX launch, and orbit vehicles. His company is now delivering supplies to the International Space Station. And Dyson’s innovative vacuum cleaners are changing how we clean our homes.
But what if we don’t have those intellectual skills and talents? We, too, can innovate if we spend time thinking about people’s problems and the tools we have to solve them. Here is an example.
Volvo Wants To Use Your Car (A Volvo, Of Course) As A Delivery Location
According to a Bloomberg article, Volvo has devised a way to direct product deliveries to your locked car! Really outside the box thinking! Using a proprietary App., GPS, and its On Call technology, the process works like this:
- At the time of placing an order, the Customer agrees to accept in-car delivery
- When an item is scheduled for delivery, Volvo sends a digital key, car location, color, model, etc., and license plate to the delivery person.
- Using the App and digital key, a delivery person opens the car through On Call.
- After placing the item in the car, the delivery person locks it and sends a delivery notification to the owner.
It sounds far out, but it worked in a test in Stockholm. In cities and high crime areas, the delivery can be made in the car’s trunk, or items can be left on the car seat or floor.
Now, assume your field service technician is working on a customer site, and you dispatched spare parts the previous day. The tech works on the equipment as best he can until he is notified that the parts are now in his trunk. When he decides what he needs, he goes to the parking lot, takes these parts to the customer’s location, and completes his repair. While the article does not mention this, I assume the process can be reversed, and the delivery service can retrieve a defective part from the trunk and ship it back for repair. Think of the possible reduction in the overall reverse logistics cycle! Gotta love innovation.
What Can A Service Manager Or Executive Do To Replicate this Example?
If you can identify a problem that is annoying you, disappointing your customers or costing your business some money, you have a fantastic opportunity. You can pull together a few smart, self-confident people and generate a solution to the problem that will create some advantages for your business. All you have to do is present the challenge and talk about outside-the-box thinking. Consider how much fun you will have while figuring out how to save money or increase customer satisfaction. Start small, as Volvo did in the experiment in Stockholm, and learn from the outcome. It may take a few attempts, but it will be worthwhile.
Why not give it a try?
Related article: Innovation, Customer Value Creation, and Goldilocks
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