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CORE COMPETENCY
A unique ability that a company acquires from its founders or develops and that cannot be easily imitated. Core competencies are what give a company one or more competitive advantages, in creating and delivering value to its customers in its chosen field. Also called core capabilities or distinctive competencies. Competence that does not exist in that industry other than that particular firm. Eg: 3M- Innovation Apples unique competence seems to be its product design process. Honda - Engine
BACKGROUND NOTE
In 1911, three brothers- Frederick, Louis & Emory Upton- setup Upton Machine Corporation in USA which produced electric motor-driven wringer washers. In 1916, partnership with Sears, Roebuck & Co. The brand name is Allen. In 1929, Upton merged with Nineteen Hundred Corp. of New York, USA. It entered global market by 1936. In 1948, Nineteen Hundred marketed an automatic washer under the Whirlpool brand.
In 1950, Whirlpool expanded its product range to include automatic dryers, refrigerators &air conditioners. Whirlpool financial Corporation was setup to provide credit to customers (these service was dropped in 1997). In 1970, Cool Line (customer interaction center) In 1987, Whirlpool & Sundaram Clayton of India formed TVS Whirlpool Ltd to make compact washers for Indian market. In 1989, went for a joint venture with N.V. Philips
Whirlpool aimed at integrating all its regional subsidiaries through its common systems. In 1993, Whirlpool won the US$ 30 million Super Efficient Refrigerator Program (SERP) Challenge for its better energy efficiency levels. In 2002, e-commerce service known as e-Partner. As of April 2006, Whirlpool home appliance maker was largest in US 2nd largest in global
Training the employees in creativity, giving them access to expertise & small amount of seed funding, the freedom to work on their ideas &way to share information. The first challenge was to create a knowledge management(KM)
In 1999, Whitwam created a new position, director of strategy deployment and appointed Snyder to that post. Consultants trained the employees to think differently, explore for new learning & then use their new perspectives to generate new ideas, and existing ideas, concepts, or products. Whirlpool also looked at other great innovators of that time for inspiration
In 2000, US$ 45 million allocated for innovation not considering about the result but just to lay a good foundation of corporate culture.
All the projects were listed on the I-Pipe on the website. The I-Pipe helped innovators to create strategy and top managers to edit it so as to fit the companys requirements. For the I-Pipe, the company built a platform on its SAP infrastructure. Whirlpool hosted innovation fairs to felicitate inventors and encourage the flow of ideas. The I-mentors helped employees to reflect on customer needs, industry trends, and their own experience. Different ideas came from various disciplines.
In mid-2004, Fettig succeeded Whitwam and he carried forward the initiative started by him. Whirlpool had become more flexible and adoptable. As of April 2006, Whirlpool had 717 ideas in an inactive status but rather shelved them for possible use in the future. The company had
THE RESULTS
Revenues from innovative products resulted US$ 800 million in 2005 as compare to just US$ 10 million in 2001. 2003 to 2005 revenue grown at a rate of 9 % per annum. As of April 200, innovation pipeline had 568 projects under development of which 195 were being scaled up for commercial launch. The avg. pricing increases by 5% per annum since 2003. As a result of the change in corporate culture, the employees had a freedom to contribute more. In April 2006, it also acquired long time rival Maytag Corp.
OUTLOOK
As of April 2006, about 1500 employees out of the 60000 Whirlpool employees worldwide worked on innovations on any given day. Around 5000 people worked on innovations in any given year. According to analysts, Whirlpool had laid a foundation on which it could continue to recreate its core business and stay ahead.