Proposed Solutions for Challenges Faced by General Mills Canada

Innovation may be linked to positive changes in efficiency, productivity, quality and competitiveness, among other factors. Benefits of innovation could be the improvement in the workforce. By improving the workforce an organisation will benefit from increased productivity and improved morale and lower staff turnover. Employees will feel more valued which therefore increases motivation. This is beneficial to employers because it provides the organisation with knowledgeable, reliable staff who will have a more positive contribution to the needs of the organisation. Staff are a valuable source of innovation, even if it is not expected as a major part of their job. An innovative work environment means being creative and try new techniques. As Albert Einstein said “if you always do what you’ve always done, you will get what you’ve always got.”

Developing a sourcing strategy is vital with my new “buyer” position at General Mills. I need to consider what General Mills is looking for and what best suits their company.

Due to bureaucracy policies and procedures, it sometimes becomes hard to come out with innovative ideas quickly at Rio Tinto. To streamline the bureaucracy, I recommend Rio Tinto to embrace open innovation through collaboration internally and externally. Rio Tinto should assemble a global task force across all the product groups committed to accelerating ideas from concepts to reality. Prioritization of good ideas needs analysis by potential impact, risk and time to market, and should quickly transition open ideation to define the project teams. The open collaboration should embed the four innovation pillars employees reward mechanism, idea generation, idea conversion and idea diffusion.

The environment of an individual including culture of the company, management style, level of stress at work, etc…are also very important factors.

This is the first case study report for the course ED5317: Strategies for Managing Innovation that is based on the Harvard Business School case titled ‘Design Thinking and Innovation at Apple’. The report consists of the following question:

General Motors applies the IEEE Spectrum Patents Scorecard to measure its patent prowess in the automotive and parts industry where GM was ranked third in the 2010 patent power rankings. This was a decline from the number one position it held in the 2008 patent power rankings. (7) Correspondingly, GM Engage is another tool that is exercised to measure innovation. It is a crowd sourcing instrument designed to harness the knowledge and creativity of every GM employee for product innovation. In other words, how receptive the culture is to open innovation. (8) On a whole the importance of innovation cannot be overestimated because it leads to prosperity and a higher quality of life for everyone.

Environmental factors effecting Fraser Foods is their current carbon footprint. They are aware of their current carbon footprint and are trying to minimise this by using as little non-renewable packaging as possible and increasing the amount of recyclable packaging on their products.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS), our company, is a global consumer foods company. We develop distinctive value-added food products and market with our unique brand names. We work continuously to improve our established products and to create new products that meet our customers’ potential needs and preferences. Our company has $14.88 billion in sales last year. Our sales has grown substantially throughout the years due in large part to our popular brand names, this however is only part of the reason that we has been so successful. We markets global brands such as Green Giant, Old El Paso, Häagen-Dazs, Yoplait, Cheerios, Betty

GB Canada bread Ltd, provides freshly baked bread rolls and tortillas globally to millions of customers. Local unit of the organization provides baked goods to various food chain customers like A&W, Wendy’s, Dairy Queen, Harvey’s, including retailers like Sobeys, Save on Foods, Safeway, and many more. Production associates on various positions like Scalers, Mixer operators, Divider operators, Oven men, and Bagger operators. Distribution associates including transportation and sales associates contribute a major role in producing and suppling these products to the customers. Apart from above mentioned team players Quality Assurance, Product development team are the ones who provide the support and guidance to make the product as per the customer

According to the financial report given, General Mills is an insolvent business. This is because even after making sum purchases and general expenses; it is still able to settle for them through its everyday operation. The various sources of money are also evidenced from the financial report.

From time to time, corporate executives encounter ethical dilemmas that seem rather challenging. In this text, I concern myself with an ethical dilemma faced by the top leadership of Nutritional Foods Inc. In so doing, I will amongst other things explain (in detail) the actions I would take were I to find myself in a similar scenario. I will also explain not only the reasoning behind my actions, but also the results I would be expecting.

Littleton has a stated goal of making quality products at a low cost, but employees at the front line fail to understand how they are connected to that mission. Managers also struggle with what they believe to be insufficient communication and support from corporate headquarters about long-term strategy. Because Littleton has no stated mission statement, it is hard for employees to stay grounded on how their individual tasks build towards a common goal. Additionally, communication is a one-way reporting of historical facts rather than an interactive dialog that allows for questions and clarifications. Littleton does have an opportunity in that the workforce including hourly employees and middle management have a desire to see the company do well and a vested interested in its success. It is recommended that Littleton explore an interactive problem solving strategy like Work-Out at GE. Work-Out is described by Change Events, Inc. as “a simple, high-involvement process for cutting bureaucracy and solving problems quickly.” ("Change events," 2010) It entails four basic steps that Littleton can easily employ with the help of an advising company.

Coca-Cola believes and implements that open communication is the key to effectively solicit and leverage innovative ideas amongst its workforce. For example, global associates and bottling partners have contributed ideas to major initiatives, such as the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games activation. Employee input has been a key ingredient to the Company 's Mission, Vision & Values. Another example of Coca-Cola’s regular dialogue with their associates is their global Employee Insights Survey. In 2010, the results of the global Employee Insights Survey showed improvement across almost all survey categories, including an 84% associate engagement score -- a two- point increase over 2008.

Tidd and Bessant (2009) argued that “Unless an organization is able to move into further innovation, it risks being left behind as others take the lead in changing their offerings, their operational processes or the underlying models that drive their business”.

The era of ‘know it all’ management in creating solutions to problems affecting different sectors of the economy is long gone. Most innovative firms are turning to challenge driven innovation to churn out new technologies to the market. These sectors range from the energy, agriculture, reduction of carbon gas emissions to Information Technology among others. Firms have realised that there is a better pool of innovative ideas out there that is cheaper, effective and workable than internal product development procedures. In fact, the internal process may take so long and involve many product and market tests. Unfortunately, a significant number of these ideas fail to solve