Braintrust Toys is a toy maker that has as its mission, “Our purpose is to expand the minds of children 1 month–100 years old.” Currently they use a product development strategy, but believe that maybe they need to orient their company towards an innovative strategy. Their current objectives are to: Invent 10 new toys every year and reinvent at least 10 more. Increase revenues by 15% per year. Employ motivated and committed workers. Provide safe and intellect expanding toys for everyone. Braintrust Toys has operated as a medium-sized company for about 20 years. Their compensation to date has been based on longevity at the company. The evaluations were performed by their managers after reviewing their results based on: (1) their influence on increased department product output (75%) and (2) increased department sales (25%) at the end of the year. With the increasingly mechanized and digitized toys, and now robotics involved in toy making, many employees have been let go or offered early retirement due to their obsolescence. The new objectives in line with the new innovation strategy include: -Enhance attributes and convenience in at least 20 existing products -Launch at least 15 new products that appeal to new customers and new markets -Develop 5 new markets -Hire personnel that think innovatively -Hire diverse support personnel and designers who are customer service oriented to support new products and markets The 200 remaining employees are beginning to worry and feel their compensation and evaluation process needs an overhaul.
Explain how Braintrust can link their compensation and evaluations to the company’s new objectives and innovation strategy. What methods of performance evaluation might they use? Why?
