BQF Innovation Blog » reductive http://www.bqf.org.uk/innovation The BQF is the community for every business seeking excellent insights, tools and experiences to improve itself. Fri, 10 Feb 2012 14:11:30 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Using Innovation in a Recession http://www.bqf.org.uk/innovation/2008/08/20/using-innovation-in-a-recession/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=using-innovation-in-a-recession http://www.bqf.org.uk/innovation/2008/08/20/using-innovation-in-a-recession/#comments Wed, 20 Aug 2008 09:27:38 +0000 Paul Sloane http://www.bqf.org.uk/innovation/?p=121 We tend to think of innovation as a tool for inventing and marketing new products and services.  This is certainly its main thrust.  However, as Jeffrey Baumgartner points out in this article on Innovation Tools, you can use innovation for streamlining business processes, eliminating steps, reducing waste and cutting out costs.  When times are tough we [...]]]> We tend to think of innovation as a tool for inventing and marketing new products and services.  This is certainly its main thrust.  However, as Jeffrey Baumgartner points out in this article on Innovation Tools, you can use innovation for streamlining business processes, eliminating steps, reducing waste and cutting out costs.  When times are tough we should use what he calls reductive innovation to examine and improve every aspect of our business.  As well as asking ‘How can we delight customers?’ or ‘How can we double sales?’ We should ask questions like, ‘How can we eliminate costs?’ and ‘How can we use less energy?’  Then we use the same creativity techniques for cost cutting as for new product ideas.

Paul Sloane

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