Productivity Across Times – New Approaches & Tools for Businesses

written by Bénédicte Nuding | September 9^th, 2024

In ancient and medieval times, and up to the industrial revolution, success and productivity could easily be measured by the harvesting results. As a measurement, grains were eventually replaced by coal and iron. Their extraction and production led to increased productivity of labor and growing consumerism. Today, data are considered a new resource. In the digital age, productivity remains a decisive factor to determine the success of a business.

In business economics, productivity is the indicator used to measure the ratio between produced goods / services and required production factors. From a historical perspective, productivity has a strong association to exploitation, capitalism and labor movement. Over centuries, ever-increasing productivity led to exploitation and impoverishment of the working population.

Capitalism, Stakhanovite Movement, “Feel-Good Productivity” ¹

Even though it is a decisive factor for economic productivity, the human component was barely taken into consideration. The capitalist world viewed the workers as mere tools- replaceable wheels in a large business machinery.

Marxism defines capitalism as a society in which the owners of capital rule over the workers. Maximizing profit then leads to the exploitation of the workers. In 1935, the Soviet Union started a propaganda campaign to catch up with this capitalist Western standard of living. This campaign was the so-called Stakhanovite Movement. It provided an incentive to improve the work speed and production and glorified the dedicated and highly productive worker. Since the 1950s, productivity was used a measurement for technical progress: New ideas, innovation, improved procedures, increase in standard of living and purchasing power.

Today, the term productivity has a positive connotation. We talk about positive productivity and even “feel-good productivity”¹: “In short, when we feel good, we are more creative and therefore (at least potentially) more productive.” Productivity shall not be an end in itself but a positive cycle of relaxed and content employees, and increased productivity.

The Digital Revolution and New Challenges for Businesses

Digital transformation equals a societal revolution. Property is communal, singular control is exchanged by shared use, ecosystems arise. Businesses face a number of challenges. In order to increase productivity and efficiency, businesses should be willing to invest in advanced technologies and automated systems. They require qualified and well-educated employees to develop creative solutions.

Businesses should create a motivational working environment that promotes efficient collaboration and optimizes work processes. This will keep the businesses competitive.

"[We want to help] companies today with our products to increase productivity and to focus on essential matters. Our actions of today determine how the world of tomorrow will look like."

innovaphone Vision

The entire product portfolio of innovaphone is in accordance with the company’s vision. The aim is to make work easier and less stressful for employees across different branches, organizations and structures. More efficiency leads to more time for the creative and truly important things – on a business level as well as on a personal one.

Enhance Business Productivity with innovaphone Products

innovaphone myApps – The Motivational Workplace

innovaphone pursues a holistic approach with its myApps ecosystem. The digital communication and collaboration solution myApps is secure and now has AI integration. It enhances effective collaboration and optimizes work processes – an important factor for the success of a business. The continuously growing portfolio provides a versatile selection of collaborative tools and apps for employees to communicate efficiently. Irrespective of the end device and physical location, information and data can quickly be transferred, so that teams are able to work smoothly on joint projects.

Smart Solutions for Intelligent Collaboration

Conferencing

Participate in virtual meetings via the browser from any device (smartphone, computer, tablet) and any location:

Connect

Interactive platform for transparent collaboration across departments, locations and borders. No language barriers & AI integration:

Working 

Reliable and legally compliant time recording tool for HR and employees.
Times can be recorded anywhere, using any device. Suitable for flexible working time models:

Projects 

Efficient Project Management - Another productivity tool is in the pipeline and will be added to the innovaphone portfolio with the next software version 15r1.

Conclusion

Over time, the concept of increasing productivity has undergone drastic changes: Worlds lie between the nasty exploitation of workers and the “feel-good” philosophy and its positive well-being. Today, the increase of productivity in businesses require a holistic approach. In order to achieve long-term success, businesses always need to remain looking for new possibilities to optimize work processes. They need to motivate employees and make sure to stay competitive. innovaphone myApps is based on a modular design and adjusts to any business requirement and any industry specification. Employees will profit from the intuitive and user-friendly interface, and working across borders is a breeze.

Sources:

¹ Ali Abdaal: Feel-Good-Productivity

Productivity: History of a tricky term

Wikipedia: Productivity