The Rauscher Group

Would You Like An Idea To Save $1million in overhead? How About One That Could Generate $20 Million In Revenue?

What if the potential of this program is guaranteed
a return of 10 to 100 times its overall costs?

Ideas are the lifeblood of` a business and they are essential to meet, or more importantly, to beat the competition. Successful businesses must continually find ways to reduce costs, improve efficiency and increase revenue. Every department whether it be sales, operations, financing, engineering or customer support, must constantly improve and adapt to the ever changing world, or your business may loose its share in the market place.

One of the strongest tools you can implement to accomplish this is with an “Employee Creativity/Suggestion Program".

Many companies, such as yours, may already have an employee suggestion program, and if you are, I congratulate you and your company. If you are one that does, do you need additional products or material to “spice” up your Program? Posters? Suggestion Boxes? Forms? Promotional Materials? How about creativity seminars, incentives or material to kick it into overdrive? It is extremely important to keep your program fresh and on the minds of everyone. Please go to the "Product & Services" menu above to review more powerful tools that can "spice" up your program.

Million-dollar ideas have spurred million-dollar companies, which have even created billion-dollar industries. Microsoft was an idea. Ford, General Electric, IBM, Coca Cola all started from a million-dollar idea.

Did you know that establishing an employee suggestion / creativity program is one of the quickest and most inexpensive ways to create a tremendous amount of ideas that can powerfully impact your business. It is one of the lowest costs and highest returns you can do for your business.

Yes, I can hear you say, “we tried creating a suggestion program and placed suggestion boxes in every department but all we got were worthless suggestions, complaints, disgruntled submissions and a whole bunch of slang words. No one paid attention to those boxes and they wound up mostly being used as trash receptacles and flower pots”.

If you only placed suggestions boxes in every department expecting to be overwhelmed with a plethora of ideas from your employees, then you made the gravest mistake in tapping into one of the most powerful resources at your disposal. That type of suggestion program was destined to fail from the get go because unfortunately, it told your employees that you were NOT truly committed to the program, or believed they had anything of value to suggest. It also left out critical elements that could allow you to reach important and critical company goals and objectives.

There are "creativity laws" that have to be adhered to, based on human behavior, to assure a suggestion program can succeed. These "laws" allow anyone to tap into their creativity in the most natural manner in both the conscience and sub-conscience mind.

Yes, having employee suggestion boxes are important to the success of a program of this magnitude but did you know there are numerous other requirements or factors that need to be addressed with the boxes? These include, where they are placed, who places them, what colors should be used, what, if anything, should be printed on them and most importantly, who is responsible for them.

The boxes are just a small (but important) part of what is required for a program like this to succeed but there are so many additional "entities" that have to be in place and addressed. These "entities" (some) include providing guidance, direction and reminders. Without a complete program your company will not get the powerful return that it is able.

Let me ask you, were instructions included of how, where and to whom the suggestions go to? Was an explanation given as to what happens with the suggestions? Did you use the right tools that take advantage of basic human nature in which creativity flourishes?

These are just a few necessary pieces to properly implement a suggestion / creativity program that will rival the competition and provide you with the potential of receiving that million dollar cost savings or the $20 million more in revenue idea.

One of the greatest investments a company has is its employees. You spend time and money recruiting, hiring, and training them to fulfill a requirement within your organization. Of course your objectives are to have them complete a job that provides a beneficial return, and hope they get along with their fellow coworkers and become a strong team player.

Do you know your employees want to feel that they are important and able to contribute to your organization?

Short-Term Employees?

One of the things that hurts a company after spending time and money hiring and training a new employee, is that after a short time, the employee leaves and goes elsewhere. Many times it takes six months to finally begin receiving a return on that employee, taking into account all the training and acclimation an average person requires when entering a new job. You loose money from short time employees.

Smart business owners realize how important it is for their business to get as much return from its employees and a business has every right to tap into everything an employee brings to the company. Isn't that why an employee is hired in the first place - the value they bring?

The value of always being “best” to your customers and to continually grow and improve your total business must include developing new or improving existing products, establishing new business, reducing costs and attracting and keeping the highest in quality employees.

One of the reasons an employee will leave a great company is that they feel the position does not offer them complete satisfaction and they mistakenly think the company may not truly be looking towards the future. Sometimes employees feel that if they do not have a say, or believe no one is there to listen to their suggestions, then the company and upper management is only looking out for themselves. Of course this is far from the truth.

Why not fully tap into both short and long-term employees, especially if someone can come up with an idea that can save you a significant amount of money? Maybe an idea to increase productivity?

Here is a little story emphasizing how a suggestion / creativity program will effect your business from your employees perspective.

Two college graduates stood next to each other in their cap and gown, shook hands, gave each other the respectful hug and two pats on the back and then left for their respective hometowns, a thousand miles apart.

Ten years later the two met up and discovered that each, though graduated with the same business degree, had different levels of success.

One went to work for a large corporation only to have been lost in the large employee crowd and the daily mundane activities of responsibilities.

The other graduate went to work for a mid-size company and was able to use his talent to climb the ranking ladder and contribute to the overall success of the company by making suggestions, bringing in new business and reducing operating costs. This graduate was full of life and looked forward to contributing to his company.

What makes these two graduates so different, especially when they came from similar backgrounds, is their ability (or lack of - in one case) to feel as if they are contributing to their success and the overall success of a common entity – in this case the company.

The importance and value that one places on having and contributing to a common entity, cannot be emphasized enough.

Why not take this basic human desire and direct it to the continued success of your business?

Now, I can just hear hear you say “implementing a suggestion / creativity program reduces productivity because it takes the employee away from their required, and all important, daily tasks”. And I am sure you do not need your management to be in any more meetings then they already are.

Guess what? Give me forty minutes of your time and you will be amazed at how quickly and simple it will be to implement this quality and in-depth program without effecting your current operations.

How much outsourcing have you done with consultants? During these business times, more and more companies are outsourcing many functions to reduce costs, streamline requirements and sometimes, get more expertise.

Let me ask you, who knows your business inside and out better than anyone? Who has insights into everything going on in your business? When you do bring in a consultant, who and where do they turn for the needed answers? Your Employees, right?

You may already have numerous employees with answers to many of your un-resolved solutions, problems, concerns and issues, you just need to reach out and ask for them and then provide an avenue to receive them and have in place a system that encourages participation.

Your employees spend at least 40 hours working during the week, they communicate with so many other departments and personnel and they constantly discuss your business. The water coolers, lunch rooms or break areas are tremendous places for employees to gather and discuss your business.

Your employees work for you eight hours per day, five days per week. What do you think they are doing the remainder sixteen hours per day and their two days off? Are you aware that this time can be crucial to the success of your business? Its potential is so valuable that words cannot explain it enough!

Oh, by the way, employees will be happy to contribute to the success of your business during their off time, only if you have the proper program in place and lay the ground work, during their work hours.

Not allowing an employee to be creative and providing them an avenue to express their creativity through suggestions that they believe are of extreme value and beneficial to the organization, will make them feel as if they are not part of the complete team - the company as a whole.

There are two critical steps to take to assure your employees get their fair shake when suggesting an idea. The small price you pay for these two entities will be like gas to fire. It will make your employee's competitive and entrepreneurial spirit want to come up with idea after idea. This desire to help a "greater cause" (your business) will be so strong its impact will effect your business for decades.

If you created an employee suggestion /creativity program that did not outline and explain who gets the suggestion, who reviews the suggestion and who and what determines whether or not the suggestion gets implemented, then how and why did you expect to get any suggestions at all?

Employees want to be assured of a fair shake and to know for a fact that competent and trustworthy individuals are going to truly review their suggestion and whether or not the idea gets implemented, that they will receive feedback. Otherwise they may feel their suggestion is just going to deaf ears. Without this knowledge and feedback their next suggestion (s) will only be those slang words.

Also, employees do not like going directly to their supervisor to make suggestions, and a proper suggestion / creativity program should never, ever have the employees supervisor as the first contact because of the important role supervisors and employees must maintain to assure efficient productivity.

Fact!

If you think a janitor or dock worker can't come up with a powerful idea, you are wrong!

Every employee has "life-experiences" that could be the missing link to your next million-dollar product, that next costs savings idea or even the knowledge to solve that problem that has been a thorn in your side for a long time.

What will a new product idea do to your bottom line? Your company's overall portfolio? How will the shareholders feel when the overall value and market position of the business increases because a flux of new ideas were produced? How would an increase in profits effect your business because you were able to substantially reduce overhead or operational costs?

What if the cost of properly implementing and maintaining a suggestion / creativity program is a fraction of the return you will receive? What if the total potential return ranges from 10 to 100 times its initial and continued operation costs?

Let me ask you, what is one idea worth to your business?

The answer depends on the value of the idea, right? Okay, now, what if an idea saved you one million dollars in overhead costs? Or, what if an idea generated an additional 20 million dollars in revenue? What if you had a couple of ideas of this value, what would they be worth to your business now?

The answer to an ideas worth would have to be "what would it cost to get those types of results" - right?

What if the answer to that is a fraction of any savings or revenue generated?

Want One?

Now, what if you implemented a suggestion / creativity program and gained a value that cannot be measured by dollars. For instance, improved employee morale, longer-term employees, an environment with increased productivity, less absenteeism, and possibly an increase in trademarks and patents. How would you value these types of intangible returns that you can receive?

However, every investment does require an outlay of money and with our in-depth program, your outlay costs to implement will not even reach 10 percent of the million dollars saving that could be generated - if that is the only idea ever suggested and implemented.

Take into account that you can expect your return to be 10 to 100 times greater then your overall costs with a continued program commitment. Now what if you did get an idea that saved you one million dollars or produced an additional revenue of 20 million dollars? Then your costs will far out do the 100 times greater of a return.

A proper employee suggestion / creativity program can generate these types of ideas!.

There is a science that goes along with being creative. There are psychological human behaviors that require certain actions that can "trigger" one into producing a creative thought. These requirements can be as simple as a proper placed poster or periodic reminders. With the right knowledge in place you can get someone to, willingly and gratefully, focus their attention on a specific business issue or concern.

Creativity focused towards business or entrepreneurship has been on the rise, especially since the creation of the Internet. There are hundreds of million more businesses because of its existence. Your employees are business oriented and extremely creative, why not guide their abundance of creativity toward the betterment of your business in an agreeable fashion?

Creativity and the teaching of it to your employees is the one element that 99.9 percent of all business who implement a suggestion program never do, or even think of doing. Every time the phrase "suggestion / creativity" is used is because they go hand-in-hand. The importance of teaching an employee some basic creativity insights and provide simple tools will soar their development and then soar the return of ideas. We have creativity seminars that we customize to your business goals and objectives.

Okay, you have an idea committee (or two) and wonder why you should establish a suggestion / creativity program.

How large are these committees? How often do they meet? Is there enough time to truly focus on new business and existing product improvements?

Take into account the mind of management. Management, especially upper management, is usually focused on the important and necessary rules, precedent and company deals. Because of this type of thinking they may not have the same ability as the worker who has a mindset free from this type of thinking.

Also, some situations and circumstances do not allow currently established committees or development groups to come up with all the needed answers because of being to close to an issue, which can restrict the creative process and therefore strain the solution.

Now what if you continued using your same development committees, but now, add one hundred more thinkers into the equation? Perhaps one thousand more thinkers? ALL FOR FREE. How do you think having that many more brains focusing on your areas of importance, will effect and impact your business?

It is my opinion, based on research completed of growth type businesses, every business needs to have committees continually focusing on new business and product development. The value and benefit of continually adding to your product mix long before your current products reach the end of their life cycle cannot be expressed enough.

Furthermore, idea committees need to stay focused on their agendas and therefore may not be the right group that has the ability to focus on other issues effecting the company. They may not even know what other issues are effecting the business or are in need of being addressed because there work scope is in a completely different area.

Do you know there is a "bell curve" associated with a suggestion/ creativity program? Just like the product life cycle curve. The curve associated with a suggestion / creativity program is vital in understanding the meaning of the number of ideas that are suggested, especially in relation to the launch and then the life of a program.

The advantage in a suggestion /creativity curve, is that to a degree, you can maintain its life just by completing a few simple tasks that "trigger" the employee into a creative mode and thus return you a wealth of new suggestions.

Employees may initially suggest ridicules ideas and thoughts but the importance and value of these ridiculous suggestions, demonstrates a sign that creativity is active and can be extremely logical or much more in-depth in the coming short time. But the program structure must be solid and in place before this can take its natural course of action.

New companies are being created right now from single million-dollar ideas.

WWII & Dot Com (s)

Think back on the last century, how different it was then, compared to today. How many new products can you think of that are here today that were not a century ago?

Take a few minutes and remember WWII and how quickly new products came to surface and then developed and used in the short span between 1930 - 1946. It is amazing how ingenuity can happen when so many are focused on the accomplishment of one item. It rivaled the competition!

When combined properly with business, creativity can be used to create a solution to a long-term problem, increase productivity, reduce overhead costs and/or develop efficient procedures.

During the Dot Com area of the 1990's, a tremendous amount of new product ideas flourished, unparalleled to this day. People flocked to these companies in droves with the dream and passion of making a significance and playing a part in a new type of industry.

In WWII there was this degree of excitement, rich with creativity! And the amount of ideas created in such a short period of time was astonishing to witness.

In both circumstances described above, there were entities put in place to tap into the creativity of EVERYONE. Importance, a cause, attitude, and most importantly, an OPEN MINDED attitude! There was no bad idea!

WWII the importance was freedom and the defeat of a tyrant. The government looked at so many product suggestions and even created criteria for new products with stringent deadlines. The world was at stake. Competition was high and the enemy was being just as creative. People flocked and came forward. Everyone felt they couldn't do enough or get their fast enough. Creativity and ingenuity helped to achieve victory.

The Dot Com companies instilled the same degree of creativity within their businesses. These companies let EVERYONE know how important their creativity was valued. They had such an open mindedness that some companies even let their employees bring a musical instrument to work, and if stressed out, let them sit and play it to relax.

Fortunately WWII ended. Unfortunately the DOT COM area ended. Both left people wandering and wondering. The "high" and "excitement" of being creative has left a number of people with great potential searching for a chance to contribute to a cause.

Nothing can replace the highest form of self-worth,
except the highest form of self-worth - creativity.

Unfortunately, there are even more people who have never been given the opportunity to flourish within their creativity, because they never worked for a Dot Com company or are too young to have been around for a world war (thankfully).

Everyone starts out with some degree of entrepreneurial or competitive spirit. However, human life experiences could either have flourished or squelched this spirit during the course of someone's life - as explained above with our two college graduates. Why not provide an avenue that brings out everyone's entrepreneurial or competitive spirit in a way that benefits your company?

Here is where you ask yourself, "do my employees really have anything to contribute that would be of value to the organization"? "Should I just leave in place the current creative entities and not bother'?

The answer to these two questions can be summed up as: Do you want to grow your business? How successful and profitable do you want to be? Do you have all the answers to all your business needs? Do you truly want to stay ahead of the competition? Do you want to take advantage of every aspect of your business?

If for no other reason.

Establishing and maintaining a proper, extensive and complete employee suggestion / creativity program is vital to your organization because your employees will have ideas!

Ask yourself, "do you want them to share these ideas with you, or take them to, or have them become, your competitor"?

1. Improve productivity.

2. Decrease costs.

3. Solve company problems.

4. Improve employee morale.

5. Reach company goals and objectives.

6. Million dollar ideas have spurred million dollar companies.

7. Ideas are the lifeblood of businesses.

8. Continuous improvement in every department.

9. Squash competition.

10. Make full use of employees potential.

11. Employees want a place to contribute / "cause".

12. Employees have ideas, don't let them go to - or become your competitor.

13. The implementation and continued operational cost is a fraction of the return potential.

14. Intangible and Intrinsic Values / Returns.

15. Improved Safety.

16. Creativity is a Science and Art.

17. Committees can't do it all, especially when you have a "wealth" at your disposal.

18. How much is one idea worth to your business?

19. Dot Com's and WWII used creativity and people flocked to them.

20. Creativity has "psychological laws" that must be addressed.

21. Creativity is big for your business in the potential return it can provide.

22. Ability to adapt and change to meet your ever so changing business requirements.

23. 10 - 100 percent return!

24. Who knows your business better then anyone - your employees.

An employee suggestion /creativity program will provide a business a wealth of ideas that can positively effect its overall market position, improve its bottom line and allow it to keep its quality employees.

For your FREE, NO OBLIGATION EXPLANATION and EVALUATION, just contact us and will be happy to provide you all the details.

All information is confidential.
It will not be traded, sold or given away.