Growth Through Innovation

WHAT IS INNOVATION? Before PCOs can recognize the benefits of innovative thinking, they must first understand what it means to be innovative. Jenkins defined the process as a “a mixture of idea generation, developing ideas and then taking it through to the market.”

The tools for understanding what it truly means to be an innovative thinker are at everyone’s disposal, he said. They include being able to identify and understand the public’s wants and needs and being able to perform a proper self-evaluation of one’s company. “Know what is going on in your marketplace and find out what your company is doing (to meet the demands of the marketplace),” he said. Then ask, “Are you really doing what you want to do in the marketplace? Are you being innovative or not?”

One way to discover whether or not you are “in touch” with the public is to take a step back and look at your company through the customer’s eyes, Jenkins suggested. Don’t look at the marketplace from your business’ perspective, look at it from the consumer’s perspective. You may be surprised at what you discover in the process.

“Walking in the customer’s shoes is often the best way of trying to get a feel for what new products or services might be needed, or if the products and services you are delivering are a useful way of distinguishing your company from your competitors,” Jenkins said.

Another way to determine your level of innovation is to study your company’s role in the “business system.” Whether your revenues total $50,000 or $5 million, understanding where you fit in the business system is essential to maximizing the benefits of innovation, according to Jenkins.

Jenkins used a company in the heavy chemical industry to illustrate his point. In his example, raw materials would go to an ammonium nitrate plant, which would then refine the materials and sell them to a pharmaceutical company. The pharmaceutical company would, in turn, sell the refined materials to a shopper’s drug mart, which would then sell the finished product(s) to the consumer. Along each step of bringing the product to market, value is added. “If you get raw materials from your provider, you do something with it. You add value by providing services to your customer and your customer then gets benefits out of it in some other way,” he said.

The same holds true for the structural pest control industry. Along every step of the customer relationship (i.e., initial contact, inspection, treatment, follow-up, etc.), PCOs need to determine where they can add value. “You need to think about where opportunities lie in the process,” Jenkins said, identifying where your company can do things better, where you can eliminate steps to streamline the process, or how you can do something in a completely different way to add value to the relationship.

SLOAN VS. FORD. Perhaps no one individual is a better example of an “innovative thinker” than General Motors founder and CEO Alfred Sloan. Innovative thinking on the part of Sloan had a radical effect on the automobile industry, according to Jenkins.

In the automobile industry’s early days, Jenkins observed, Ford founder and CEO Henry Ford took a “process-oriented” approach to business, producing more of the same cars cheaper and cheaper. The customer “could have any color they wanted as long as it was black,” was Ford’s motto.

But Sloan took a different approach, according to Jenkins. “Sloan said instead of doing things better and better and better with the same model, I’m going to look at my marketplace and say ‘it’s not the same and, in fact, there are different needs if I break down the segments differently,’” Jenkins said. As a result, Sloan and GM segmented the industry, producing different cars for consumers with different needs.

In other words, Ford was an adapter, relying on a safe, methodical approach to business, while Sloan was an innovator, thinking in risky, unexpected ways (see chart HERE).

Just what were the results of these two different approaches? In 1920, Ford was the leading automobile manufacturer in North America with a market share of 60%. But by 1940, Ford’s share had fallen to less than 20%. GM’s had risen from 12% in 1920 to 50% in 1940, making it the largest, most powerful business in the world.

And all of this was because the chief executive officer of the company was an innovative thinker!

INNOVATION FOR PCOs. The benefits of innovative thinking are as evident today as they were in Sloan’s days. Just look at today’s most profitable companies, Jenkins said. He cited Coca-Cola, Merck and Microsoft, among others, as companies that have grown largely through innovation. The aforementioned companies took a critical look at their businesses, evaluated and re-segmented the marketplace and grew. Fueling that growth was a commitment to innovation, Jenkins said. They challenged themselves to expand the marketplace, despite the fact they were already very successful.

PCOs must do the same, according to Jenkins. “If you only offer one service, which is pest control — and that’s all you have — you are losing an opportunity,” Jenkins said. A variety of innovative technologies and add-on service opportunities are available to forward-thinking PCOs, he said, but it takes an innovative thinker to identify those opportunities.

If you choose not to innovate, Jenkins warned, the risks are considerable. “There will be somebody in your marketplace eventually who will think about doing things differently and you will be a follower and not a leader,” he said.

In concluding his presentation, Jenkins urged PCOs to focus more of their energies on understanding and meeting the needs of female customers. “Women are more dissatisfied with pest control services than are men, they see more information about pest control services than men and they are more pressed for time,” Jenkins observed. “It makes no difference if they are in a full-time salaried position or if they are working from home,” their perceptions are the same.

Further, he said, women “make more health care decisions and (more) purchases than men. They value convenience and they look for small signs of sensitivity” from service personnel, all critical information when examining the market critically, with an eye towards innovation.

CONCLUSION. So what does it all mean? Jenkins said the key is not to rest on your laurels. Find that service or that untapped market, then figure out how to provide a needed service or reach those untapped consumers.

“We find that leaving go of the old ideas is often more difficult than accepting the new ideas — if it ain’t broke don’t fix,” Jenkins said. “My answer is, if it ain’t broke, make it better.”