Leading Innovation & Change

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

Innovation may be linked to positive changes in efficiency, productivity, quality and competitiveness, among other factors. Benefits of innovation could be the improvement in the workforce. By improving the workforce an organisation will benefit from increased productivity and improved morale and lower staff turnover. Employees will feel more valued which therefore increases motivation. This is beneficial to employers because it provides the organisation with knowledgeable, reliable staff who will have a more positive contribution to the needs of the organisation. Staff are a valuable source of innovation, even if it is not expected as a major part of their job. An innovative work environment means being creative and try new techniques. As Albert Einstein said “if you always do what you’ve always done, you will get what you’ve always got.”

Technological change is a fundamental driver of economic development and performance, not only at the level of firms and industries but also economies. Innovation is the organizational process through which new

Innovation can sometimes be confused with the term invention. According to Tidd (2014) states that the society often confuses innovation with invention this is because they have similarities in bringing good ideas to the event industry. Innovation and invention are very closely related, Invention specifically refers to making new discoveries, deigns and coming up with new ways of doing things. Innovation can make a difference to an organisation of all shape and

Not only innovation lead to change inside organizations, but also some changes in side organizations can lead to innovation. Moreover, managing innovation and change is not an absolute easy process as it seems, as it requires lots of human interaction with different backgrounds, contexts, cultures that require aligning all your human resources to respond to new innovations, and related changes and this will only be done via good and efficient leadership. Generally, innovations and related changes may include change in organization structure workforce planning, marketing strategy, geographical distribution , culture, …ect which directly impact human resources in any organization , therefore the role of the leader is so crucial to manage tensions, conflicts, resistances, uneasiness and development areas that usually appear with new changes and innovations. Leading Innovation and change being part of managing human and organization behaviors is kind of a complex processes that include several factors, stages, models, perceptions and definitely outcomes. In this paper I will get a deep dive and close up view stating the various definitions, different related models, how they work in practical life and what kind of failures such models face in real life implementation; along with a self reflection to the applied experiences of such study and what will be the development plan leading to more successful practices in future.

For Elster (1983) invention is “the generation of some scientific idea, theory or concept that may lead to an innovation when applied to a process of production”

A wise man once said, “The only permanent thing in the world is change,” an adage that rings especially true for organizations in this fast-changing era of technology and communication. Daft very deftly puts the inescapable need for change in three simple words, “Innovate or Perish” in his book “Understanding the Theory & Design of Organizations” [2].

Innovation is the process by which ideas are created, selected and implemented to bring about profitable change to organisations. Innovations come as a result of an identified need for organisations to change their current processes, activities or operations. Andriopoulos and Dawson (2009) explain that organisational change is ‘new ways of organizing and working’. They explain that change occur in two dimensions – movement of state and scope of change.

Christensen argues that disruptive innovations can hurt successful, well managed companies that are responsive to their customers and have excellent research and development. These companies tend to ignore the markets most susceptible to disruptive innovations, because the markets have very tight profit margins and are too small to provide a good growth rate to an established (sizable) firm

Companies live and breathe innovation; or, at the terribly least, notice it basic to their success. Such companies are those that others ought to emulate for they recognize that to do business, as Peter Drucker prompt in an exceedingly recent Harvard Business review article, “Every firm—not simply businesses—needs one core competence: innovation.”

Successfully exploited processes, technologies, products, services or business models that allow organizations to significantly change conventional competitive rules, thus transforming the demands and needs of existing markets. New performance dimensions are introduced in direct conflict with traditional approaches, which historically could have only been offered by specialists, to enable a larger population of customers to consume products and services in a more convenient setting. The disruption takes a foothold in an underserved customer segment (or with those who choose non-purchase as an alternative) and both the path and resource dependence of incumbent organizations result in their displacement as a major player, thus offering the disrupter significant new wealth opportunities.” (p. 6).

"It is a false assumption of mankind to assume the resilience of outdated practices," said western thinker and philosopher Slavoj Žižek. I agree with Žižek in supporting the statement that it is always necessary to find new solutions to problems. Innovation is paramount to our growth as a civilization, and will perish if not used, which can be exemplified through literature, history, and current world affairs.

Currently, organizations are immersed in a dynamic and competitive environment. Changes in technology and markets, products and services, and changes in consumer preferences are an integral part of such environment. For example, companies are inventing various products while advancements in information and communication technologies (ICT) are continuously changing the ways and channels of product production and delivery (Greenhalgh & Rogers, 2010). In addition, increased corruption, incessant occurrence of disasters, and effects of the global economic meltdown are rapidly influencing the market and business operations around the world. Nowadays, business environment becomes more turbulent which further influences the operations and decisions of organizations (Shorthose, 2012). Organizations need to reinvent themselves to catch up with these changes and generate more profits. It is possible through continuous innovations. Innovation is a significant force in increasing economic development and growth, and organizational performance (Van, Alvarez, Peris-Ortiz, & Urbano, 2015).

We often think of innovation as the introduction of new things or methods, but we tend to forget all that goes into introducing these new things or methods. You see there is the thought of a basic idea; and then there is the thought of ideas having sex. Matt Ridley, an author, discusses how we as a species become more prosperous as we become more populous. He states, “What we 've done in human society, through exchange and specialization, is we 've created the ability to do things that we don 't even understand. It 's not the same with language. With language we have to transfer ideas that we understand with each other. But with technology, we can actually do things that are beyond our capabilities. ("When Ideas Have Sex." Matt Ridley: Accessed August 28, 2016. https://www.ted.com/talks) With innovation you initially need an idea, then you need a partner to share this idea with. Within the collaboration of ideas

The word ‘innovation’ is derived from Latin word ‘innovare’, which means “to change something to new”. In other words, we may say that ‘innovation’ means changing the regular way of doing things and involves doing the regular things in a novel way.