1. CONTINUOUS IMPROVMENT ‘Responding to changing market conditions’

2. LEARNING OUTCOME …to understand the meaning of innovation …to understand the relationship between continuous improvement and added value

3. INNOVATION “the adoption of an idea or behaviour, whether a system, policy, program, device, process or service, that is new to the adopting organisation.” (Damanpour, 1992) “something new or improved, which is done by the enterprise to significantly add value either directly or indirectly for the enterprise or its customers.” (The Innovation Study Commission)

4. CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT (CI) “The collection of activities that constitute a process indented to achieve performance improvement.” (Jha et al., 1996) Improved production efficiency Enhanced customer satisfaction

5. THE PRODUCT LIFECYCLE (PLC) Time Sales Development Growth Maturity Decline

6. FIVE STAGES OF PLC Development – zero sales/high investment cost Introduction – low sales/trial Growth – growing sales/increasing profits/entry of competition Maturity – slower sales growth/ lower profit levels Decline – sales fall off/exit

7. THE BOSTON CONSULTING GROUP MATRIX A star: High share in a growing market. A question mark: Small share in a rapidly growing market. Opportunity to grow. A cash cow: Large share in a market that is not growing, and may even be shrinking. A dog: Small share in a market that is not growing. Short term profitability.

8. SWOT ANALYSIS Strengths (internal) Weaknesses (internal) Opportunities (external) Threats (external)