Nayar and Innovation Essay

| - Lecture: “Managing Innovation and Fostering Corporate Entrepreneurship”- Presentation and Annual Report discussion follow up- Download CompXM Guide from website for discussion Tuesday 11/13.

A recent survey of the nation's top CEO's concludes that innovation remains the lifeblood of business. "For CEO's today, it's all about achieving growth and efficiency through innovation. It's not about product innovation so much anymore as about innovating business models, process, culture and management." (April, 2006).

The employees at Quicken “express an appreciation for the inclusive and creative culture, nurtured by leaders who encourage them to innovate without fear of failure along the way”. (Fortune, 2014)

Furthermore, the true significance of disruptive technology even in Christensen's conception of it is not its displacing of established products. Rather, it is a great means for enlarging and broadening markets and providing new functionality. And according to Utterbacks’ explanation: “The degree to which the market was expanded by the innovation seemed to be the strongest factor favouring new entrants”, a possible conclusion might be that this leads to a never-ending circle.

“The Innovator’s Dilemma” describes Christensen’s theory of disruptive innovation. But, his theory isn’t essentially briefed as one would assume. Her opinion is that case studies (like disk-drive industry) were chosen by the author to demonstrate his perception, as well as subjectively distinct success metrics.

Innovation can be seen as a journey that starts with setting a purpose or goal, and ends up with innovative achievement and new learning.”

When the former CEO, Paul Sagan, decided to step down, the Board of Directors started looking for a suitable replacement for him. Thus, having been involved in the company’s affairs for many years, Tom Leighton was offered a chance to help the company move forward and step up to the CEO role. One of the first things he did as CEO was widely criticized, as he took the unpopular decision to decrease EBITDA margins in order to invest more in R&D what could take several years to pay off. Nevertheless, the long-term holders approved his initiative and even encouraged him to continue investing in future innovation. By most measures, the first two years of Dr. Tom Leighton’ management of Akamai Technologies Inc. can be considered successful if to take into account the company’s stable net income and increasing revenue (Bray, 2015).

In her article titled “In God We Trust All Others Must Bring Data”, (taken from a quote associated with William Edward Deming), Priya Sawhney continues by describing a path to innovation, “competence and creative intelligence in employees combined with the courage and ability to try to create something new and positive are important enablers for innovation”

Being an innovator sometimes means that you have to stand on your own. While setting the tone for others who have become the master of their field, once can face great barriers. Content employees use language such as “this is the way we have always done things”. They are quick to shoot down the ideas of an innovator with terms such as “they are not going to listen to us”. However, it is Barry’s belief that a well thought out plan and presentation to save money and time thus being effective and efficient will open the ears to upper

When comparing the concepts presented by The Innovator's DNA, Nayar, Hitt, Takacs-Haynes, and Serpa, there were a couple of key concepts the resonated across all viewpoints. Specifically, the concepts of the innovative leader and observing the environment appeared to be common across the board. The Innovator’s DNA argues that an innovative leader helps set the vision and leads the organization in future by influencing change within the target market. Steve Jobs and Amazon’s founder, Jeff Bezo are just a couple examples used to demonstrate the importance of an innovative leader setting the stage for their respective organizations. This concept is supported by Nayar, Hitt, Takacs-Haynes, and Serpa in their respective articles. Hitt, Takacs-Haynes, and Serpa resolve that the ability to develop and communicate the leader’s vision has remained vital to the success of an organization over the past decade. Nayar further demonstrates this importance through his description of how he was able to influence change within his own organization by communicating the situation of the company and his observations to his senior managers. He states that he spent his first few weeks meeting with his “senior managers in small groups and larger gatherings”. The concept of observing the environment and understanding the internal and external influences within

In the article A Maverik CEO Eplains How He Persuaded His Team to Leap into the

A 2011 article from MIT Technology Review, "Four Principles for Crafting Your Innovation Strategy” (by Paul B. Carroll and Chunka Mui),

A. Given the nature and demands of technology cycles and innovation streams, identify the two

Harvard business essentials : managing creativity and innovation, 2003, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, Mass.

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.”