Innovation And Strategy For People Solutions

Background and Discussion on Organizational Challenge and Value Proposition

Discuss about the Innovation and Strategy for People Solutions.

During past few decades, the companies are adopting different innovations and strategies so that they can deal with the challenges which they face in their operations and processes. These innovations can be applied by revising the business model and value proposition. Moreover, firms use different decision-making techniques to make a decision regarding new value proposition and strategies.

The major purpose of this report is to focus on the challenges and issues which are faced by People’s Solutions. These challenges are discussed in the previous assessment in the context of this organization. People’s solutions in a psychological development consultancy which offers coaching, solutions, and support to the human resources, teams, individuals, departments and even whole organization. The director of the company is Amy Cooper. This report includes the organizational challenges which People’s Solutions is facing today. It includes how the company is making efforts to overcome the challenges by revising its business model and value proposition. The new business model is derived by adopting design thinking process, strategic analysis, and IP protection and collaboration strategies.

People’s Solutions is a human development consultancy which offers training, assistance and solutions to the people, teams, individuals and organizational divisions and organization as a whole. By using the company’s expertise in the different field among psychology and via collaborations with the employees and workforce, business leaders and experts, this consultancy assists its lighthouse customers to resolve their staff’s possibly accessing, determining and evolving the potential of people (Drucker, 2014). Thus, the chosen organization provides different products and services which can be divided into different categories like attraction & selection, development & retention, safety solutions and transition and outplacement.

In its business and operations, People’s Solutions is facing some specific challenges which can affect the organizational growth. The major organizational challenge of the company is that it wants that their existing products and services deal with the mental health of the staff and human capital in the busy working environment rather than only being utilized as a device to remove them from recruitment and selection process. From the previous assessment, it can be stated that current value proposition of People’s Solutions is very general and it does not clearly provide the competitive advantage in the marketplace. Moreover, the value proposition of company has the lack of ability that will make it very complex to grab the attention of its potential clients (Needle, 2010).

Existing Business Model

The existing value proposition of company is that it delivers globally identified, measurable outcomes offers excellent service quality, operates with the professionalism, integrity and authenticity and provides an exclusive and developing set of products. To attain its organizational objectives and mission, People’s Solutions has adopted many effective strategies. The director of the company, Amy Cooper provides the opportunities to new and fresh psychologists by collaborating with different universities in WA (People Solutions, 2018). By connecting with the students, she generates new and creative ideas so that they can meet the needs and requirements of their valuable clients. In addition to this, the consultancy protects its intellectual property rights by complying with related laws and regulations applied to the business. These existing strategies assist People Solutions to gain a competitive edge against its competing brands.

As mentioned above, People Solutions is an independent group of specialist recruitment businesses. It is focused to provide temporary, flexible and permanent training and recruitment solutions to commercial, industrial and driving employee market via different brands. It has grown very slowly and now it is thriving the business families made up of firms which have specialization in key sectors. With different branches in diverse locations, the teams of People Solutions have the domestic market expertise and specialist knowledge of different sectors in which they operate in allowing them to provide a higher level of services with a focus on the national level. The existing business model of People’s Solutions is focused only on recruitment process (Lindberg, Gumienny, Jobst, and Meinel, 2010, 2010). It just uses its products and resources for recruitment process and it does not focus on the development and training of human resources.

The current business model of People Solution is not very impactful as the company failed to enhance its services and fulfill the needs of its clients. The major stakeholders of the company are clients, organizations, universities, media, candidates, government agencies, competitors, employees and employee support programs. Through its current business model and very generic value proposition, People Solutions failed to create trust and satisfaction among different stakeholders. This consultancy confronts various issues and threats as its existing business model do not fulfill any criteria which are required to develop the organization in employment and job consultancy industry. The workshop conducted in the assessment 1 show that stakeholders of People’s Solutions have no trust and confidence in its processes and strategies. The quality of human development and growth services is poor in comparison to other consultancies and it does not have any effective pricing strategy. Additionally, the current business model of the company shows that it failed to provide and grow the employment in the marketplace. There are different people who are approaching People’s Solutions with different needs like attraction & selection, development & retention, safety solutions and transition and outplacement. But the existing business model of People Solution is not able to fulfill all the needs as the system is very slow and it is not technologically advanced (Sengupta, 2014). It takes more time to fulfill the needs of organizations and individual clients. It does not have more partners and communications so it is unable to enhance its brand image. It indicates that current business model of People Solutions is not effective for its services and operations. It is the major reason that company faces different organizational challenges.

External Analysis

The major competitors of People’s Solutions will be similar consultancy firms which provide different products and services like recruitment, selection, safety and development and career transition (People Solutions, 2018). For this organization, it is very important to implement the above strategies and revised business model so that it can deal with the competition in the industry. Additionally, People’s Solutions need to focus on its pricing strategies like it needs to become cost-effective and provide its services at reasonable rates. The major competitors are Chandler Macleod and Hudson, Sentis and Directioneering.

People Solutions may face the threat of new entrants in this industry as it is very easy to set up a new business of consultancy. These new entrants can be with the modern and updated technology, better support services and easier recruitment and coaching process than People Solutions. Under this business, the start-up costs are very low so new players can enter easily.  

Threat of substitutes is moderate for People Solutions Organization as people can take assistance from offline job consultancies. Additionally, universities directly contact the companies which remove the interference of consultancies (Sara, Beckman and Barry, 2007).

Suppliers’ bargaining power for People’s Solutions is low as there are various suppliers who supply the required materials for consultancy. Agents also work as suppliers as they supply candidates for recruitment and coaching (Wisdom et al, 2014, 485).

The major stakeholders of the company are clients, organizations, universities, media, candidates, government agencies, competitors, employees and employee support programs. After adopting collaboration strategies, the company can develop its stakeholders like advertising agencies, colleges, government bodies etc. Advertising agencies will assist the organization to increase its presence among lighthouse customers (Sutter and Kieser, 2015). By generating lighthouse customers, the company will be able to increase its customer base.

Furthermore, the external analysis of People Solution is conducted by using PEST analysis. The PEST analysis of the company is given in the below table:

Furthermore, the internal analysis of People Solutions is conducted by using SWOT analysis and core competencies of the organization. Internal analysis of People Solutions is given below:

SWOT analysis is a framework to conduct internal analysis that includes four dimensions such as strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. The SWOT analysis of the chosen organization is stated below:

Core competencies of an organization are the abilities which are acquired by it over a period of time. These core competencies can be in different forms like human resources, technology, skills and abilities and intellectual property. These assist the organization to gain an effective competitive edge over competing brands. Core Competencies of People’s Solutions are given below:

The above-mentioned core competencies of People Solutions are very significant to its value proposition and business operations as they assist the organization to gain win-win situation. In addition to this, the company is able to develop effective communication process with customers and partners. The resources and core competencies of People Solutions are very unique than its competing brands. By using these competencies, the company will be able to deliver its value proposition and value of money to its customers. Competencies can assist the firm to improve both recruitment and training process.

From the above analysis, it can be expected that company will be able to generate long-term revenues by pursuing these resources and core competencies. By developing an extensive network with the partners and universities, the company will be able to increase the number of customers and avail the organization growth in the future (Liedtka, King and Bennett 2013, 20-25). 

                            Non-Core                     Core-Competencies

As mentioned above, People Solutions Company needs to adopt more effective strategies that will help the company to deal with the challenges and improve the performance of the company in future (Jandhyala, 2015, 286). The recommended strategies for People’s Solutions are given below:

Intellectual property protection strategy is very important for the business of People Solutions Company. Under this, the organization needs to make sure that its business model and policies are protected at the beginning of application in process. Currently, Amy Cooper has not adopted a right approach to protect its intellectual rights. It is not able to protect the IPR so other new entrants are imitating the business model and ideas of People Solutions.

In order to protect IPRs, the company should use effective methods like trade secrets, patents, trademarks, copyrights and agreements. Looking at the above issues and challenges of People’s Solutions, the company needs to patent its business model and technology resources that it will be using under its revised business model (Jolly, Anthony and Philip 2012). It will enable the organization to limit the rivals to copy its resources and competencies. By effective management of IPRs, People Solutions will be able to protect technologies and assist to maintain competitive edge. If the company implements these strategies effectively, it will have various benefits.

Collaboration strategy is one of the most important strategies that should be practiced by People’s Solutions to enhance its position. Generally, People Solutions believes in developing partnerships and creating firms with higher quality human resources by complying with a systematic approach. Currently, the company has collaborated with various public, private and non-profit sector organizations. It has a licensing agreement with the City of Subiaco in Western Australia. It has done some outsourcing arrangement to get the human resources. For this, it has collaborated with safety experts, human resource professionals, business leaders.

In the future, People Solutions should buy the updated information technology sources by partnering with IT consultancies. It will allow the firm to offer innovative solutions to challenges confronted by company (Dodgson, 2018). It can collaborate with the universities from where it can take the details about the students and candidates. In addition to this, they need to establish a strategic alliance with advertising agencies so that they can enhance their brand presence. It should collaborate with the local councils so that it can enhance the overall services which it offers to current and lighthouse customers. Local councils will assist the organization to get licensing for opening offices and contacting universities (Lin, Tsai and Wu, 2014, 1985).

According to Liedtka, King and Bennett (2013), design thinking is the process of developing creative strategies which can be used by the designers during the designing process. It has been developed as a model to eliminate the issues outside the design practice as in social contexts and business. It refers to the strategy that is followed by the makers to develop an innovative approach so that they can resolve the complex issues in an organization (Liedtka, King and Bennett 2013, 20-25). In this context, Plattner (2011) stated that design thinking is a human-focused innovation procedure which focuses on quick learning and growth, collaboration, observation, prototyping of concepts, visualization of ideas and opinions etc. The foundation of design thinking is constituted by different factors like logic, ideas, creativity, thinking, analysis etc. (Plattner, 2011).

By conducting a research on design thinking techniques, it is identified that design thinking process primarily includes several steps such as empathizing, defining, ideate, examining and prototyping. 

To find out the new future challenges, a workshop is conducted in the previous assessment. The workshop has identified new value proposition and organizational challenges. Some of the stakeholders are identified to conduct this workshop. After that, People Solutions has distributed cards to them and asked them to note down all the challenges and issues which they face. It has designed a 3D model to take the stakeholders’ feedback. 

This model illustrates that People Solutions do not want it to be exclusively used as a recruitment tool which determines whether an individual is in or out, but rather than as a way to organize and assist the employees (Wylant, 2008).

The design thinking processes used by People Organization resulted in new challenges and value proposition. Under this workshop, the challenge of the firm is changed considering the response of customers. It has identified the issues that lighthouse customers are using these tools in the wrong manner. People’s Solutions has been offering its consultancy services for more than 18 years. Though, the company is not sure that the tool for selecting people could be a failure in the marketplace for employment. Thus, the new challenge for this company is to make sure that its recruitment tool can avoid the hysteria which leads to productive and effective placement of right person on right place (Miozzo, Desyllas, Lee and Miles, 2016, 1340). New value proposition of People’s Solutions is to develop human capital and transform the human departments from cost centers to profit centers via effective and strategic payroll techniques and consultancy solutions. Moreover, it states that “consulting advice and psychometric evaluation from People Solutions’ professionals help in putting a person in the most appropriate position in the company.”

Considering the different issues and challenges identified in the workshop, it can be stated that People’s Solutions will revise its existing business model so that it can eliminate these challenges and adopt new value proposition. To enhance its services and process and position, this consultancy can adopt the resource-based business model. Resource-based business model is a framework that is used to determine the strategic resources with the capacity to provide competitive advantage to a company. Under this model, a firm exploits the resources and competencies to attain sustainable comparative edge (Teece, 2013, 175). It emphasizes on the enhancement of core resources and competencies for delivering significant value to the customers. The focus on core resources and abilities will offer a comparative advantage and emerge as an exclusive strength of People’s Solutions. As this consultancy offers the services related to growth and training of employees so it needs to focus on developing the core competencies and resources. This type of business model will be very complex to copy by its competitors.

This business model will offer various benefits to People Solutions. The company will be able to enhance its service delivery by using innovative resources like technology and other systems. It will make the system faster than earlier. This business model will be more focused on the growth of employees. It differentiates the model from previous business model as that is only focused on recruitment of candidates. At People Solutions, this business model highlights the requirement for a fit between marketplace in which it runs and its capabilities. It will be valuable for the company and its stakeholders. If People Solutions will adopt this new business model in its operations, it will be able to enhance its performance (Tidd and Bessant, 2014). According to the previous analysis, it has been assessed that the company has to develop a business model that requires assisting the connection between people management and usage of company’s recruitment tool. So, it needs to implement modern and advanced technologies in its operations. People Solution will be able to generate more positive results by using these resources. When this company will implement the resource-based model in its process, it will be using a systematic structure to recognize challenges and eliminate them. The below-process shows how this organization can create value by developing its resources and capabilities. 

There are some ways how the company can address the organizational challenge and deliver the new value proposition. These ways are given below:

• By using resource-based business model, the company can manage its resources which can be used for both recruitment process and growth of employees.
• As it provides services for recruitment and selection so it can develop its training resources. This business model will enable the organization to establish evaluation centres and assist the clients to select them successfully.
• The proposed business model will assist their experts to train the teams of client organizations for managing selection processes in right and effective manner.
• Through this model, People Solutions will be able to make sure that its products and services are not just used for recruitment purposes, but rather a tool to assist manage and support the staff when they are recruited at work (Teece, 2013, 175).
• By adopting this business model, the company will be able to put the most appropriate people for the right job. In this way, it will be able to deliver its value proposition.

Conclusion and Recommendations 

In the limelight of above strategic innovation report, it can be concluded that design thinking techniques are strong tools which assist in understanding and approaching the roots of organizational challenges.  It is a systematic manner of considering the perspective of each and every stakeholder and evaluating the impacts of possible solutions. The above report found out the effective solutions which will assist People Solution to deal with issues which the company is facing. These solutions will lead the organization to future development and growth.

It is hereby recommended that People Solutions should focus on its strategic analysis so that it can harvest maximum benefits from its future opportunities. It should protect its business models and ideas in the beginning phase so that its competitors cannot copy them. In addition to this, the company should enter into collaborative business so that corporations can work together and attain collective objectives. It will offer various opportunities to emphasize on long-term objectives rather than short-term only. Developing the cooperative intelligence will increase the competitive advantage to People Solutions.

References 

Dodgson, Mark. 2018. Technological collaboration in industry: strategy, policy and internationalization in innovation. Vol. 11. Routledge.

Drucker, Peter. 2014. Innovation and entrepreneurship. Routledge.

Jandhyala, Srividya. 2015. “International and domestic dynamics of intellectual property protection.” Journal of World Business 50, no. 2: 284-293.

Jolly Mark, Fletcher Anthony C., and Bourn Philip E. 2012. “Ten Simple Rules to Protect Your Intellectual Property. https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1002766

Liedtka, J., A. King, and K. Bennett. 2013. “Solving Problems with Design Thinking : Ten Stories of What Works.” Columbia University Press, 1-216.

Lin, Chinho, Hua-Ling Tsai, and Ju-Chuan Wu. 2014. “Collaboration strategy decision-making using the Miles and Snow typology.” Journal of Business Research 67, no. 9: 1979-1990.

Lindberg Tilmann, Raja Gumienny, Birgit Jobst, and Christoph Meinel. 2010. “Is there a need for a design thinking process.” In Design thinking research symposium, vol. 8, p. 2010.

Miozzo Marcela, Panos Desyllas, Hsing-fen Lee, and Ian Miles. 2016. “Innovation collaboration and appropriability by knowledge-intensive business services firms.” Research Policy 45, no. 7: 1337-1351.

Needle, David. 2010. Business in context: An introduction to business and its environment. Cengage Learning EMEA.

People Solutions. 2018. About Us. https://www.people-solutions.com.au/.

Plattner, Hasso. 2011. “An Introduction to Design Thinking – Process Guide.” Institute of Design at Stanford, 1-6.

Sara L. Beckman. S. L., and M. Barry . 2007. “Innovation as a Learning Process: Embedding Design Thinking.” California Management Review, 50 1: 25-56.

Sengupta, Jati. 2014. “Theory of innovation,  In Theory of Innovation”  Springer, Cham, pp. 1-25.  

Sutter, Michäas, and Alfred Kieser. 2015. “How consultants and their clients collaborate in spite of massive communication barriers.” International Journal of Business Communication.

Teece, David J. 2013. “Business models, business strategy and innovation.” Long range planning 43, no. 2-3: 172-194.

Tidd, Joe, and John Bessant. 2014. Strategic innovation management. John Wiley & Sons.

Wisdom, Jennifer P., Ka Ho Brian Chor, Kimberly E. Hoagwood, and Sarah M. Horwitz. 2014. “Innovation adoption: a review of theories and constructs.” Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research 41, no. 4: 480-502.

Wylant, Barry. 2008. “Design thinking and the experience of innovation.” Design Issues 24, no. 2: 3-14.

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