Innovation Projects Consultation for a Children’s Library Business

Question: Explain Innovation Projects Consultation for a Childrens Library Business and write about the profile of the Library Business and Key Stakeholders. Answer: Introduction This report has proposed to introduce product innovation and process innovation by attempting to introduce bar coding technology in a small business of Childrens library services, run by Delta Enterprises in the city of Melbourne. The Bar-coding is a relatively old technology; however, the increasing reader base of the library, necessitates few steps towards automation in several record keeping procedures, conducted on a day to day basis in the library. The Bar coding attached to the books would result in efficient book tracking in the automatic fashion for the business. 1. Profile of the Library Business Childrens Library Services is a small childrens library operating in the city center of the Melbourne city. This is a relatively old establishment (business), which is run by organization Delta enterprises as a part of the Corporate Social Responsibility of the Organization. Very nominal charges are demanded for the subscription of this library services, and most of the business funding is managed by its parent organization- Delta enterprises. This Childrens library gives free reading access to all the children visiting its premises and demands a nominal subscription charges for take home books. Currently there are only two employees managing the front desk, book records and subscription records that makes their jobs a bit of stressful. The library has an old computer donated by its parent organization that is hardly used. 2. Key Stake holders of the Business The Following are the key stakeholders of the Childrens Library Business:1. The Children of the neighborhood and Public at large who have open free access for in-house reading2. Subscribers for the take home library services, who issue and return books on a regular basis3. The two employees of the Library who are efficiently managing their respective jobs.4. The Financers of the Business (Delta Enterprises) who monetarily support the business on time to time basis.5. The Regulators of the land/ Australian Government, under whose governance, the business are run in the city.6. The Publishing houses and the suppliers of the various childrens books 3. Process Innovation and Product Innovation Strategy The introduction of bar coding system in the Childrens Library would result in both product innovation, as well as process innovation for the Business. The core product of the Business books, as well as the membership cards of the subscribers, would be attached bar codes for easy transacting, this would be a prominent product innovation for the business. The Installation of suitable Bar code scanning equipments in the library, and capturing barcodes for recording transactions, would result in major process innovation, as the installation of bar code systems would save all the manual recording efforts of the staff members. 4. Work place establishment The first step towards work place establishment would be a face to meeting, conducted by innovation projects consultants with the employees and management team of the parent company. This meeting would involve the discussion of the key operational and recordkeeping issues faced by the staff of the business, and the participants of the business would be encouraged to think of solution to these problems.The usage of technology tools in managing the library business would then be presented in front of these key stakeholders, who would work on the investment-returns calculation, before taking a positive decision. 5. Innovation Promotion Plan The innovation of including bar coding system to the books would be promoted to its respective stakeholders, by convincing them for the large benefits that the business would reap due to this innovation. The following benefits of the proposed innovation may be included in the innovation Promotion plan: a. Improvement in the overall efficiency of the employees managing the business b. Easy and accuracy of work for both the employees and suppliers c. Easy in record keeping and stock verification process for the parent company, to keep control on the businessd. Reduction in the overall cost of managing business, the benefit of which may be further passed to the customers and general public. 6. Implementation Plan The following would be the typical implementation Plan for the establishment of bar code systems in the library: a. Putting Barcode stickers manually on each and every books of the library collection. (Approximately 2000 books) b. Additional man power would have to be deployed for this work. However, it would be a onetime expense for the business. c. The Library would have to be probably kept shut for a day or two for the entire revamping process.d. Capturing all the barcodes in a computerized data base and further linking them to issue and return book transactions. e. Issuing bar code enabled membership cards to the subscribers. f. Installing suitable Bar code scanning equipments in the library. 7. Communications Plan The Financers of the Business, employees, and the customers would be the prominent stakeholders that need to be convinced first. Secondly, the Customers of the library would also be required to give necessary co-operation to the management for going through the change. The effective communications plan for these stakeholders is a very important step to keep all the stakeholders interested in the innovation journey. The communications plan would typically in clued the following aspects: 1. Publishing of Operational Manual for successful operating of the new bar code systems by the staff 2. Technology Training to the existing staff of the Library 3. Meeting with the existing customers and general public to explain the issue of new membership cards 4. Sending mailers to the Suppliers for informing the changes in the process. 8. Probable Feedback/ Outcomes from Stakeholders The measurable operational gains, achieved through this proposed innovation, in comparison with the fixed monetary investment would be the key decisive factor in the process. The feedback for successful implementation of this innovation process, can be measured through customer surveys and face-to-face feedback from the employees of the library Conclusion Having an innovative idea itself, is not sufficient to make the business progressive. The promotion of this innovative concept, to all the stakeholders of the business, and acceptance of the innovative change by all these stakeholders, are very important for a successful business functioning. The Implementation of this innovative concept of having bar codes to the childrens books would highly help in simplifying the record keeping procedure for the books and help increase accuracy and efficiency of the business. References G.K. Manjunath and S.M. Pujar, 2002, Barcoding of Library documents: Planning, Techniques and Tools, Annals of Library and Information Studies, 49-4, pp 119-124. Jeevan J., 2000, Bar-coding for faster library transactions, Desidoc bulletin of Information Technology, 20-2, pp 15-19.