From Focus on Price to the Pyramid of Innovation, Information, Cooperation, Value and Trust: A Success Story of Five Swedish Building Material Manufacturers

Jan Sundquist

doi:10.5130/ajceb.v10i1/2.1595

Abstract

This is a reprint from vol 8 no 2 which has not previously beeen available electronically.In the building sector, value for the customer, is often regarded as being value for money and this, in turn, is achieved by means of competitive tendering. However, there are companies that also focus on innovation as a competitive parameter in their contribution; hereafter referred to as innovative companies. Five managing directors from innovative companies in Sweden were interviewed about how innovation is dealt with in their respective companies. As well as the importance of information, this study points to two additional important factors for innovation, namely cooperation with a carefully chosen partner and the transference of values to the employees. Those innovative companies made careful choices and use means of information, cooperation, value and vision to create innovation in order to build trust for the company and for its products and services.

Highlights

Some companies use genericThe construction sector has shown to be capable of building complicated structures
The purpose of this study is to study processes of innovation, information, cooperation, value and vision used in innovative companies within the building sector
It would appear that better innovation processes are connected to better processes of information and, poorer information processes lead to poorer innovation (Larsson et al, 2006)

Summary

Introduction

The construction sector has shown to be capable of building complicated structures. It has at the same time, been accused of being non-innovative and conservative. Governmental reports have been written on the subject, such as, for instance, Rethinking Construction, (Egan Report in UK, 1998) and Skärpning Gubbar (Pull up your socks chaps, SOU 2002:115 in Sweden). The complaints management methods such as Total. They are oriented towards continuous improvements (Chen and Jones, 2007). Have a built in system to acquire new ideas of products and services. The employees are encouraged to suggest changes in production and improvements of products or services in order to improve performance

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