Introduction of Innovation Context

 What is Innovation

• Innovation is often described as introducing something new
• Improving systems and processes
• Adding value
• Turning creative ideas into practice
• Linking invention to exploitation through commercialisation
• Anything that provides a new perceived benefit to either  customer or employee
• Source of advancement and development
• Ideas that provide competitive advantage                    
• Strategic Innovation
• Process Innovation-Administrative/Managerial    -Operation-      -Technological
• Product Innovation-Technological -Marketing
• Social Innovation
• Philosophical Innovation
• Political Innovation
   
  The Importance of Innovation: Innovation is a driving force of welfare and contributes to increasing the standard of living.

      The Importance of Innovation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOlMQrATtWA 

According to the report of OECD of Prahalad,Paul and Ruth, they have done some research on the nature of innovation and analysed how innovation has changed in recent years. The New Nature of Innovation can guide policy makers, managers, and entrepreneurs to the realization the potential world.

To predict or even declare “a new nature of innovation” may be regarded as somewhat of an exaggeration. From a macro perspective, new technology has historically been the dominating driver of innovation and a very important reason for an increased standard of living.The process of creative destruction has been driven by new technology and entrepreneurs.This will still be the case in a new nature of innovation, so what is new?

In the past, technology and competition were the main drivers of company innovation. Companies had an “inside-out” way of thinking. Based on internal resources, they designed new products and services and used marketing to persuade consumers to purchase. Companies defined their role in society in accordance with the industrial paradigm. In this system,the political system set the legal framework and defined the rules, while companies could optimise their business as long as they complied with the rules.

Technology has always played an important role in driving innovation, and it will continue to do so in the future, but for many companies technology will gradually move from being a driver of innovation to becoming an enabler of innovation. Today there are new drivers of innovation which are gaining importance and becoming just as important as technology once was. In the future, companies will need to become more open; i.e. to learn from their customers, collaborate with others and assume greater social responsibility. If they fail to do so, they will not survive. While companies will still optimise their business, globalisation and the digital technology have changed the rules of the game.

A new global openness implies that citizens from all over the world are potential customers, and that high quality resources can be found all over the world. From a company’s perspective, this will change innovation. A deeper understanding of user needs will be an important driver of innovation, and new technology will enable companies to come up with entirely new solutions where companies and customers co-create value and create unique individual experiences. In a new nature of innovation, we will see a new balance between technology-driven, competitivedriven and user-driven innovation – with much more emphasis on the users. We will see new business thinking and new business models where companies assume a much higher level of social responsibility.

Ref:  New Nature of Innovation. OECD Report (2009)

http://www.newnatureofinnovation.org/full_report.pdf



Comment:
 

The world is awash with creativity and technological breakthroughs. As can be seen from the OECD report, people's life and global economy cannot develop well without innovation. The nature of innovation can lead people and businesses to a great convenience and contribution. The innovation strategies can identify some new ways when company is operating. Most importantly, innovation is widely used in technology, science, education and some other areas, in the meantime time, innovation can help individuals improve themselves and have a useful reflection after innovation experience.

Innovation Strategies and Creativity

    Developing Innovation Strategies:

• Innovation strategy is part of overall business strategy
• It determines when and where innovation is required to meet the aims of the organisation
• Innovation strategies depend on the particular organisation, its culture and business aims

Strategic Innovation takes the road less traveled – it challenges an organization to look beyond its established business boundaries and mental models and to participate in an open-minded,creative exploration of the realm of possibilities.Strategic Innovation is the creation of growth strategies, new product categories, services or business models that change the game and generate significant new value for consumers, customers and the corporation.

                                         ------- Palmer &  Kaplan (2007)

Traditional strategy versus Strategic Innovation

Differences between traditional approaches to strategy and Strategic Innovation are:

                                                                   ------- Palmer & Kaplan (2007)
          http://www.innovation-point.com/Strategic%20Innovation%20White%20Paper.pdf

Today, innovation performance is a crucial determinant of competitiveness and national progress. Moreover, innovation is important to help address global challenges, such as climate change and sustainable development.

More recently, the importance of innovation has been reinforced both by globalisation and by rapid advances in new technologies, notably ICTs, which have enabled new forms of competition and opened new markets for the creation and delivery of innovative products and services. Globalisation has also increased the pressure on OECD countries to move up the value chain and engage in a continuous process of adjustment and innovation.

Ref: http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/2/31/39374789.pdf   (2007)

Innovation and Technology Strategies
Just as technology is critical to a business strategy, innovation is essential to business strategy for those businesses that are going to compete nationally, internationally, and globally from now on. With technology development and innovation and managerial innovation becoming more directly tied to productivity and profitability, it is time to formulate the right technology strategy and integrate this in the business strategy to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage.
                                                                                             (Soares, 1997. p27)

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=hhXSP3WONz4C&printsec=frontcover&dq=innovation+and+Technology&hl=zh-CN&sa=X&ei=_h0TT83fNYWohAednMyUAg&ved=0CDMQ6AEwAA#


"Innovation is about convergent thinking.
 Creativity is about divergent thinking.”
  --Ikujiro Nonaka
         http://www.innovation-point.com/Strategic%20Innovation%20White%20Paper.pdf

There is no doubt that creativity is the most important human resource of all. Without creativity, there would be no progress, and we would be forever repeating the same patterns.
                                                                                              —Edward de Bono

As Serrat refers that the definitions of creativity and innovation are:
Creativity is the mental and social process—fuelled by conscious or unconscious insight—of generating ideas,concepts, and associations. Innovation is the successful6 exploitation of new ideas: it is a profitable outcome of the creative process, which involves generating and applying in a specific context products, services, procedures, and processes that are desirable and viable. Naturally, people who create and people who innovate can have different attributes and perspectives.

What Is The Difference Between Creativity and Innovation?

(Laird D. McLean, 2005)
Throughout the creativity literature, and particularly the literature focused on organizational creativity, the term“innovation” is often used and the distinction between creativity and innovation is an important one. Sternberg and Lubart (1999) define creativity as “the ability to produce work that is both novel and appropriate. Although the measurement of creativity deserves a lot of attention, words associated with this definition of creativity include idea, invention, and breakthrough. They go on to write that “innovation refers to the process of bringing any new problemsolving idea into use. It is the generation, acceptance, and implementation of new ideas, processes, products, or services”. This process can take place in many different domains; it can be technical, to be sure, but also organizational.  To bring an idea from concept to market, it must be recognized for its potential; it must receive funding in an environment of scarce or at least competing resources; and it must overcome potential obstacles such as technology challenges, competitive pressures, and a variety of other obstacles. The process by which this happens is referred to as innovation and it is an important process when talking about creativity in the context of organizations. It would not be a stretch to say that when it comes to organizations, creativity without innovation is of significantly diminished value.
http://mcleanglobal.com/public/MGC/publications/Org%20Culture%20and%20Innovation.pdf

Comment:

The importance of creativity and innovation in organizations, there has been relatively little empirical work done in the area of organizational culture and creativity and innovation. Creativity and innovation cannot operate separately as creativity is an essential part on innovation process. Particularly in the context of an organization, is on taking a creative idea and bringing it to fruition. Such as technology challenges, competitive pressures, and a variety of other obstacles. The process by which this happens is referred to as innovation and it is an important process when talking about creativity in the context of organizations. Innovation refers to identify important problems and solving while creativity is defined as generating new ideas. Amabile et al (2004) says that innovation as the successful implementation of creative ideas within an organization”. The converse is also true: without creative ideas to feed the innovation pipeline so they may be promoted and developed, innovation is an engine without any fuel.

                         

Innovation in Culture: HP Company Accelerates the Development with Innovation Culture

The most successful innovators ensure that their culture not only supports innovation, but actually accelerates its execution.
The innovation culture, of course, is likewise an expression of people, their past, and their current beliefs, ideas, and behaviors. They make innovation happen, and they do so consistently over time.

(By Langdon Morris,2007)

As the business world becomes increasingly complex and still more astonishingly competitive, companies are turning to innovation as one of the few durable sources of competitive advantage. Innovation is now among the top priorities for the majority of the world’s large companies. The necessity of innovation is now universally accepted, but beyond their enthusiasm for bright ideas, most leaders know that to be successful over the long term they have to develop a strong innovation culture. Such a culture can be recognized as an organization that is known externally in the marketplace as a genuine innovator, and equally that it is known internally among the people in the organization as a dynamic, innovationfriendly place to be.

 Favorable Innovation Culture and Difference

http://www.innovationtools.com/PDF/CreatingInnovationCulture.pdf


Booz & Company’s annual study shows that
spending more on R&D won’t drive results.
The most crucial factors are strategic alignment
and a culture that supports innovation.
                             (by Barry Jaruzelski, John Loehr and Richard Holman,2011)

Culture plays a critical role in this strategy, says Palensky. “For over 100 years, 3M has had a cultureof interdependence, collaboration, even codependence. Our businesses are all interdependent and collaboratively connected to each other, across geographies, across businesses, and across industries. The key is culture.”

See on the right: Only 44 percent of companies surveyed have both highly aligned culturesand highly aligned innovation strategies, and it pays off in performance:They outperform on growth in both profits and enterprise value.

Not surprisingly, companies saddled with both poor alignment and poor cultural support perform at a much lower level than well-aligned companies. In fact, companies with both highly aligned cultures and highly aligned innovation strategies have 30 percent higher enterprise value growth and 17 percent higher profit growth than companies with low degrees of alignment. (see on the right)

Similarly, companies agree strongly on the cultural attributes that are most prevalent at their companies.There was less unanimity on the importance of other attributes, with very few citing tolerance for failure in innovation as essential. Together, cultural elements help sustain the set of capabilities that enable companies to succeed.
There is a specific company telling us that innovation culture gives the appreciative insights for the company and accelerates the development.

Hewlett-Packard Company has made a conscious effort to integrate its innovation efforts more tightly with the business, and to ensure that both its strategic goals and the innovation culture that supports those goals are aligned with that overall strategy. And although the company’s overall strategy may change as a result of the recent arrival of Meg Whitman as chief executive officer, the tight link with the innovation culture is likely to continue. In many ways, Agilent’s innovation culture stems from its history as part of HP, but Solomon notes that the company has defined its own values. Now, she says “the cultural areas we’ve really tried to strengthen are speed to opportunity, customer focus, and accountability.Innovation itself has always been a strength; but to really address customer needs more swiftly and to focus on the things that matter most are where the culture of this company is today.”

(by Barry Jaruzelski, John Loehr and Richard Holman,2011)

http://www.booz.com/media/uploads/BoozCo-Global-Innovation-1000-2011-Culture-Key.pdf

Comment:

Nowadays, innovation culture generates as an important guideline and principle for businesses. Innovation occurs when new product entries to the market or existing technical problems need to be solving. At this time, the combination of innovation culture can assist them effectively because the context of innovation culture can provide critical thinking to support business development. Such as the HP Company referred, their innovation culture can support their goals and successfully entry the market. Together, cultural elements help sustain the set of capabilities that enable companies to succeed. There is a specific company telling us that innovation culture gives the appreciative insights for the company and accelerates the development.

                                      

Generalize The Importance of Creating a Culture of Innovation

Culture Is Key, it is full of challenge..

• Most successful business are important to developing their new ideas
• Brilliance in the market.
• Understand the what is innovation culture
• Build up the company's finances
• Be an innovation manager, Communication is everything, Open a business opportunity
• Company should really understand the service they need to offer, working with customers and stakeholders..
• Creating control process

Creating a Culture of Innovation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyqHGdIMcas





"Improving" and  "Enhancing"  ....

Holding your core competencies....

• Innovations are always a part of Strong Organizations
• Think much more than invention
• How you relate in the outside world
• Get somes systems and structures

How to create a culture of innovation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uo3WH_cSJ9I

Comment:

After watching the video of creating a culture of innovation, I have learnt that most of successful businesses have already applied the innovation culture in their development. Innovation culture can help companies create more ideas and assist managers in solving the problems for customers and understanding the key point of innovation and build up their finance and reputation in the market. Most important, innovation culture can help company to open more opportunities and reduce barriers and risk. So we need know how to create a culture of innovation. As the world is changing, innovation is improving and enhancing, the top down approach and bottom approach are used in different organizations and learning the innovation culture will always good for us on skills-improving. It will help us move forward finally.