Date: 6 August 2008
Regional Director for Microsoft in Scotland, Raymond O'Hare, explains why your employees hold the key to business success.
Any discussion about innovation usually focuses on 'invention' - making and selling new things. But innovation is not just about gadgets and widgets, it's also about people and ideas.
At risk of cliché, people are a company's most important asset and your employees' customer relationships are the only thing your competitors can't replicate. Socio-economic developments have made this even more important.
Over the past year, Scottish Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has grown consistently and solidly, but construction, production and agriculture have all declined; it is services, and people-intensive tertiary industries such as banking, communications and consultancy, that have outperformed the other sectors and supported continued growth.
In this people-led economy, Scottish businesses in all sectors need to start to think differently about the way they get the best out of their employees. They need to attract new employees, increase staff retention rates and ensure they have the right tools to help people work together, share ideas, make decisions and add more value. Innovation in this context means being more agile, putting new ideas into the market quickly and ensuring you capture the skills and knowledge in your business.
Microsoft believes that it is people, and not process, that is driving the new wave of innovation and competitive advantage. If your employees are not allowed to use the right tools to let them work how, when and where they want, and with access to the right information, then you will never achieve your full potential. For further information go to Microsoft.
Microsoft sponsored Chamber Premier Series Dinner on 5 August 2008.
