HKQMA Seminar on IQI & Towngas' Strategy to build an Innovation Culture

The seminar named "Innovative Quality Improvement (IQI) & Towngas' Strategy to build an innovation culture" was organized by Hong Kong Quality Management Association (HKQMA) and partner of Six Sigma Institute (SSI) on 5^th Aug 2017.  The seminar mentioned Dr. Lo’s PKIR (問知創行) innovation model with Towngas Implementation, as well as, Towngas Innovation Culture. I took a photo with speakers for memory.

(Left: Ms. Senna Cheung (Sr. HR Manager, Towngas), Dr. Victor Lo (Chairman, ISI) and I)

In the beginning, Dr. Frankie Lam (Chairman, HKQMA) gave welcome speech and introduced two guest speakers. 

Dr. Victor Lo (Chairman - Institute of Systematic Innovation, HK) is the first guest speaker and his topic entitled “Innovative Quality Improvement”.  Firstly, Dr. Lo used an old photo about IBM 5MB hard drive in 1956 compared with 1TB USB in 2013 that demonstrated innovation power.  He reviewed Boston Consulting Group (BCG) 2010 Senior Executive Innovation Survey and the top two factors of measuring success at innovation were Customer Satisfaction and Overall Revenue Growth.  He also quoted Michael Schuman statement in TIME (18 Nov 2013) that “Why China Can’t Create Anything – The country is getting rich but unless it can learn to innovate, its economy will never overtake the United States”.  Dr. Lo then quoted Prime Minister Wen Jiabao statement (2007) that “To act on our own innovations, methodology becomes primary”.

Then Dr. Lo reviewed “What is Innovation?”  Dr. Lo quoted The American Heritage Dictionary that “The act of introducing something new” and “The successful exploitation of new ideas” from Department of Trade and Industry, UK.  Moreover, he also quoted Peter F. Drucker that “Change that creates a new dimension of performance”. Finally, he defined Innovation as “Novel ways to solve problem that bring values”.   Dr. Lo explained his definition of Innovation through NNFV named Need (需), New (新), Function (用) and Value (值).

Dr. Lo briefed his approach of IQI using both Human Centered Innovation (Design Thinking) and TRIZ. TRIZ (In English named Theory of Inventive Problem Solving (TIPS)) is a systematic innovation tools.  It comes from many many patents and consolidated to 40 Inventive principles (Ips). It is most suitable for Engineering System.  On the other hand, Design Thinking is people centered innovation and focused on “Empathy” which created by Tim Brown, David Kelly and Tom Kelly (IDEO).  

“Design Thinker” creates solutions which bring new meanings and which stimulate the various aspects (cognitive, emotional and sensory) involved in the human experience.  Dr. Lo developed some new cards for Design Thinking.  

And then Dr. Lo introduced PKIR (問知創行) innovation model was introduced where P – Problem identification, K – Knowledge acquisition, I – Ideation and R – Realization with 50 Flash cards.

Finally, Dr. Lo introduced some organizations implemented IQI model and he could verify the model and got feedback from customers.  

One of success cases was implemented in Towngas from Superior Quality Service (SQS) to innovative Superior Quality Service iSQS since 2012.

During the break, Dr. Victor Leung (Director, HKQMA) gave announcement of HKQMA coming events included 1-day workshop named “Managing Knowledge for Service Quality” jointly organized by mtrAcademy and company visit to Towngas, etc.

Ms. Senna Cheung (Chairperson, Continuous Transformation Office; Sr. HR Manager, Towngas) was the second guest speaker and her presentation topic named “Towngas’ Strategy to Build an Innovative Culture”.  Firstly, Ms. Cheung introduced Towngas established in 1862 and they provided street lighting (Gas Lamp) at that time.  But the light bulb invented by Thomas A. Edison in 1879.  If Towngas stopped innovation, they never still exist.  Their innovation diversified products and service from water heating, cooking to show room, etc.  So Innovation is Tremendously Important!

Then Ms. Senna Cheung briefed their green journey.  Their pollutant emission on SOx, NOx and CO2 were 0.003%, 0.1% and 0.8% total in Hong Kong, respectively.  

After that Ms. Senna Cheung introduced Towngas’ Metamorphosis from “Traditional Utility” (Square Box) to “Market-oriented, Customer-focused & Value Creation” (Wheel).  Their change was from bottom-up and top-down.  In 1992, SQS used Quality Circle and then two times of Business Process Review (BPR) in 1996 & 2016.  In 2017, they established Strategy & Innovation Department. 

Ms. Senna Cheung mentioned their Innovation Drivers though their Quality & Innovation Framework that included “Management Philosophy” (Growth (G) = Innovation (i) x Implementation (i)), “Knowledge”, “Structure”, “Training”, “Process & Tools”, “Eco-system” and “Employee Motivation”. 

Finally, Ms. Senna Cheung shared their Innovation experience that Innovation need-

i)                    Stimulus: They employed Dr. Victor Lo’s model and TRIZ methodology

ii)                  Encouragement: Quality Day, Quality Festival and Study Missions

iii)                Open Minds: Learn from Singapore, Korea, etc.

iv)                Innovation Grows in Communities: employed Yammer, WeChat and Bi-monthly Publication

v)                  Your support: customer like their innovation such as Facebook page

vi)                Supports: Towngas Innovation Funding

vii)              Recognition: Your design would be exhibited in Towngas Hall of Innovation

viii)            Relaxed Environment

ix)                Fun

For Towngas Innovation Funding, Ms. Senna Cheung said Towngas allocated resource for staff R&D and top management buy in the “Allow Failure” concept.  If R&D project is success /commercialization, employee / team would be award.  

Another need was “Fun”. Towngas top management involved in the innovation initiated and became a hero for promoting and supporting their approach.  At the end, Ms. Senna used G=ixi concluded the talk and closed with their slogan “Lighting the Past, Enlightening the Future”.

Q&A session:

Q1. Innovation affected the production line.

Ms. Senna Cheung said they employed “Task Force” to drive the project and streamline the process.

Dr. Victor Lo added innovation needed to consider benefit among “Company”, “Stock holder” and “Staff”.

Q2. How to face fail?

Ms. Senna Cheung said it must discuss with top management and got their “Buy in” to allow fail.  Sometime failure was not from the idea but the timing.

Q3. Towngas is a stable company, why innovation?

Ms. Senna Cheung said their CEO focused on growth rather than stable.  So Innovation is only way to growth your business.  Moreover, they had competitors such as electricity company.

Reference:

HKSQ - www.hksq.org

Institute of Systematic Innovation, HK - http://www.isi.org.hk/

Previous Towngas Quality Day:

20151216 - Towngas Quality Day 2015 - https://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2015/12/towngas-quality-day-2015.html

20141216 - Towngas Quality Day 2014 - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2014/12/towngas-quality-day-2014.html

Previous related seminar summary:

20160429 - HKIE-MI AGM Seminar on Developing an Innovation Workforce - https://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2016/04/hkie-mi-agm-seminar-on-developing.html

20150207 - HKSQ & ISI Workshop of Innovative Total Quality Improvement (iTQI) - https://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2015/02/hksq-isi-workshop-of-innovative-total.html

20150116 - HKSQ & ISI Seminar of Innovative Model – iTQI - https://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2015/01/hksq-isi-seminar-of-innovative-model.html

20140425 - HKSQ Technical Visit to Towngas - Quality & Innovation - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2014/04/hksq-technical-visit-to-towngas-quality.html

20131212 - HKSQ Seminar on Innovative Total Quality Improvement - PKIR (問知創行) innovation model - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2013/12/hksq-seminar-on-innovative-total.html

20130824 - ISI Seminar & Summer Networking 2013 - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2013/08/isi-seminar-summer-networking-2013.html

20111122 - Seminar on Business Excellence with Innovative Improvements - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2011/11/seminar-on-business-excellence-with.html

20110414 - HKU Quality Management Student Forum - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.com/2011/04/hku-quality-management-student-forum.html