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

• Main Author: Jan Sundquist
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: UTS ePRESS 2010-07-01
• Series: Construction Economics and Building
• Subjects: Innovation; Information; Benchmarking; Cooperation; Value; Vision; Trust

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.