Last week's theme on our website was to encourage innovation (we called it breaking
things). The next step is to gain approval for your innovation idea so we had a
chat with a senior management member this week and came up with the following
advice.
The system these
days is not as structured as it used to be.
Traders are
encouraged to come up with ideas.
The future
of the market relies on new ideas and innovation.
The best way
for traders to approach this process is to formalise their thoughts so
different levels of management can consider the proposal.
Small
Business Victoria has a great template for a business plan which is designed to
assist entrepreneurs analyse and present their proposal. They have a simple one page Business plan summary and details can be found here - Business Plan
The first port
of call for an innovative proposal should be Category Managers although,
whatever you do, a comprehensive written proposal is your best guarantee of
success.
All proposals
will be considered and there are some ingredients that we know are on the top
of QVM’s wish list. Those things will include Melbourne Made, Aussie Made, and Regional
Victoria Made. And there are important aspects of modern consumer expectations
including environmental and social sustainability.
A trader
will be concerned primarily about profitability but these days that will almost
certainly include some more expansive considerations. Let’s put it this way –
your idea to create increased profitability will have a better chance of
success if it ticks some other important consumer and community expectations
like environmental and social sustainability.
One more
thing you should do before preparing your proposal is to read the QVM Retail Plan (click here). That plan is what drives market decision making, and accommodating its
aims in your own plan gives you a better chance of getting a “Yes” to your
innovation proposal.