Innovation in Sales

I've been reading more from Ron Baker on valuing the knowledge worker vs. mesuring what he or she does. This article is great: Broken Speedometers: Quantifying Knowledge Worker Effectiveness?

Instead of writing a blog on Innovation in Sales I will quote Ron here.

Innovation Sales "measures revenue from services introduced in recent years, and measures the firm’s innovation in offering additional services to its customers. It is an essential measurement to determine the lifetime value of the firm to the customer. For example, Hewlett–Packard wants 50 percent of its revenue from products that did not exist two years ago. Intel achieves 100 percent of its revenues from products developed within the last three years. 3M targets 30 percent from products that did not exist four years ago.
Firms spend an enormous amount of resources measuring billable hours, realization rates and other internal metrics, but we have found very few that measure innovation sales and make it a key component of its strategic vision. This is not to say firms are anti–innovation, it is more a matter of not being pro–innovation, by not having measurements and reward systems in place to encourage this behavior. Innovation is essential to creating new wealth."

For the full article click here

A Quote on Integrity

Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.~Samuel Johnson

The Billable Hour and Timesheets

I recently had the opportunity to stop doing timesheets. It is a real relief, considering the stagnation it causes. It is so counter productive in organization where timesheets are extolled and then billed by the hour for work performed. There is a movement out there which I follow and have learn a lot from in doing away with the billable hour and timesheets.

Check out the following links:
http://www.verasage.com/index.php/community/comments/trailblazer_brains_on_fire_inc/

http://www.brainsonfire.com/blog/index.php

Ron Backer at VeraSage is dedicated to the effort of abolishing the billable hour and timesheets.

An inspiring quote

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience but where he stands in times of challenge and controversy.~ Martin Luther King, Jr.