Innovation Organization Support

Alongside the entrepreneur spirit, Innovation is the process of taking new ideas and implementing them into the market. Key word being “new”, an innovation can be sometimes viewed as the application to better solutions that meet new demand-requirements, inarticulated needs or existing market needs. Innovative ideas range from: goods, services, products, processes, services, technologies or ideas that create value for which customers will pay for. For an idea to be an innovation, it must be replicable at an economical cost and must satisfy a specific need. This means is that one must be ready and willing put their new idea to the test. On the other hand, there is recognition that “innovation is also critical to cultural, environmental, social, and artistic progress as well” (Bullinger, 2006). With this stated, high-tech innovation is ultimately the reason why we can be thankful for the many new conveniences of the 21st century. Although we might see the forefront of innovation being very prominent in today’s world, innovation is truly nothing new. From the start of modern man times, innovative ideas have paved the way for civilization to advance and develop into what we are today and at the same time, we have barely begin to chip away at the tip of the iceberg of our true human potential. Some scholars believe that innovation is a

Key goals of this paper will be to provide a structure for thinking about innovation across the fields, highlight important streams of research on innovation, suggest interrelationships, and provide taxonomy of related topics.

Creativity and innovation are necessary in life, whether it is for evolving and adapting to new surroundings or for pulling a company out of a financial crisis, we use our creative abilities and innovate every day. In order to develop and grow the ability to think creatively, one must first understand where these ideas come from and in what environment innovation flourishes. Steven Johnson, Edward Burger, and Michael Starbird suggest change comes from productive thinking and working collaboratively in a group. Effective thinking can be broken down into five essential elements, while working collaboratively in a group setting allows for different views on the topic at hand creating a stronger more defined product or process.

Empirical creativity enables 10xers to make bold creative moves bound to their risk. In this core behavior Collins and Hansen uses Andy Grove, chief executive of Intel as an example. Andy Grove finds out that he has prostate cancer. Gover does not want to cure his cancer the traditional way which was removal of the tumor and chemotherapy. Instead, Andy Grover decided that he will conduct his own research and find a nontraditional way to cure his prostate cancer instead of “relying on his doctors to create a treatment”(Collins, J. & Hansen, M. 2011, p. 24). Gover reads articles, “sends blood work to different labs to calibrate the degree of lab variations in the test, get a MRI AND reads prostate cancer references books”(Collins, J. & Hansen, M. 2011, p. 24). So instead of sitting back “relying upon opinions, whim, conventional wisdom, authority, untested idea” (Collins, J. & Hansen, M. 2011, p. 25), Andy Gover allowed himself to become empirical which enable him to make bold, creative choices which could have been

Learning organizations also promote teamwork and cooperation and an organizational culture that encourages experimentation. The fact that the paper suggests that these five strategic building blocks and the supporting foundations are the key factors in this new organizational archetype called a learning organization. These building blocks and supporting foundations need to be present or to be implemented to have a learning capability. However, if this idea of a learning organization is to take hold in organizations and gain credence and support by practicing managers, it must also have an impact on organizational performance.

Innovation is the new and useful thing as it can be considered as a product or a service. It can also be considered as a method of organizing. Linda believes that innovation can be breakthrough or incremental. What we commonly believe is that the heart of innovation is the paradox. The organization needs to unleash the passion and talent of the people they need to harness them into the useful work. Innovation is a journey of collaborative problem solving among the people having significant points of views and

Secondly, the first cognitive skill stated in Innovator’s DNA is questioning which I also consider myself to me good at. I believe that it is the questioning part of innovation that actually leads to solutions. As an example, in an industry where I do not know anything about, it’s only through questioning that I will be able to understand the ins and outs. Similarly, this was illustrated in the IDEO video.

For the past couple of weeks, I have been reading The Innovator’s DNA. I was a little hesitant at first because the title alone says that it will be talking about being innovative. I didn’t really think I had an innovative bone in my body. The introduction and chapter one of the book tells us though that innovation can be practiced. The one thing that caught my attention is that the authors have been experimenting for years about finding out about what makes people innovative. The book gives us five “discovery skills” that make people more innovative. The discovery skills in the book are association, questioning, observing, networking, and experimenting. This paper will be my personal action plan on how I am going to practice

skills regularly could produce the same positive outcomes. The five above mentioned discovery skills are identified as the DNA of innovators.

The business environment is continuously evolving with the integration of new management trends developed to create opportunity and respond to various challenges. However, with the unpredictability of the business environment which is driven mainly by globalization and technology, innovation turned out to be increasingly critical to success. It means that innovation and strategy are converging to help in productivity. Innovation has the potential to change the agents within an organization to become better entrepreneurs to meet various challenges. Strategic thinking is crucial in creating a coherent, integrative and unifying framework for making decisions particular regarding the direction in which an organization goes and the resources it plans to utilize (Goldsmith, 2009).

Whether the project is a joint venture or a merger, new innovation ideas are developed by those who actively seek to create a disruptive innovation (Bowers & Christensen, 1995). Those in research and development may or may not be the innovation champions, yet they play a large role in developing a successful disruptive innovation.

As the world becomes more interconnected and organization becomes more complex and dynamic, learning becomes more vital. It’s just not possible any longer to figure it out from the top and have everyone else following the orders of the grand strategist. The organizations that will truly excel in the future will be the organizations that discover how to tap people’s commitment and capacity to learn at all levels in an organization. Learning organizations are possible because, deep down, we are all learners. Learning organizations are possible because not only is it our nature to learn, but we love to learn.

Today’s shaky economy provides no guarantees that new businesses will be effective or will survive in a highly competitive market. Startup companies must have a solid road map or organizational plan to successfully launch and then, sustain through turbulent times. This plan is a top-down view of the organization’s goals, objectives, and resources. Organizational plans are not random thoughts on a piece of paper, rather they are detailed requirements devised by management on how to best introduce the company and to stay in business. A company’s plan must be structured and comprehensive. In other words, the plan must be organized. The organizing process is the method managers must follow to develop a plan that defines how the company will meet its short-term and long-term objectives.

In an era of accelerating competition, limited market growth, and declining corporate lifespan, a dramatic change in our approach to strategic planning is an absolute necessity. Companies flourish and fade with increasing frequency. A commitment to “Strategic Innovation” must replace traditional Strategic Planning. Executives who fail to acknowledge the importance of and act on this sea change are almost certain to see their companies’ fortunes fade in the face of new disruptive forces that render old methods and relationships obsolete.

It is a widely accepted fact that innovation creates new industries which drives the business cycle and provides the basis for sustained economic growth and prosperity of an economy (Schumpeter, 1961). Innovation is an evolutionary, systematic process which results from various associational interactions among a number of actors in a given region (Cooke & Morgan, 2000). Under the influence of theories for fiscal decentralization, regional innovation systems and industrial clusters are becoming more and more popular in various countries across the globe. Top-down devolution of power for policy design and implementation has been accompanied by bottom-up demands and regional