The Importance of Innovation Architecture

Innovation is a word that draws attention, elicits excitement, and makes a company stand out. Innovation architecture can be described in the same manner, but it applies to ideas and products that already exist. Whenever a product is formulated or redesigned innovation is an important aspect. My interview took place with an employee of Wework, which is a company that has changed the atmosphere of how entrepreneurs meet and interact. My reflection will provide an overview of the company, what challenges I face with my current employer, and how I can foster an innovative culture within my own organization.

The purpose of this paper is to show how to evaluate the impact on innovation through strategies, processes, products and services through three different organizations. The organizations evaluated are Wal-Mart, Barnes & Noble’s and the University of Phoenix. As a manager of the in original and companies, it is important that several companies find a system to pursue accordingly and maintain the focus on remaining competitive. Consumers of all three businesses will profit from innovated options such as keeping the cost of products and services at a lower cost and by offering better options for a price which will enhance savings.

7. Institutionalized Innovation: In today 's hyper-charged business environment, innovation is an integral component to any organization 's continued long-term success. For example, to thrive at Google, employees have to learn to work, and to innovate, on a much larger scale. Google has institutionalized policies that allow some of their employees to spend approximately 20% of their time pursuing independent projects of their own choosing, allowing employees to be innovative.

The purpose of my research is to diagnose the existing organizational culture of Redwood Coast Petroleum (RCP) to establish a more sustainable culture of innovation. With this research I have identified key cultural factors that must be changed for future sustainability of RCP. Using a hybrid qualitative and quantitative methodology, I conducted the diagnosis of RCP’s organizational culture. I used an Innovation Survey Assessment Tool from Innovation Point, a boutique innovation-consulting firm. The Innovation Survey Assessment Tool (ISAT) was given to all the managerial leaders at RCP. I conducted interviews with five of managerial leaders and from the data; I was able to determine that there is a strong preference for

Leaders of innovation must imprint their DNA onto their organization to the extent that it resonates throughout the workforce. If a leader is able to successfully accomplish this task, the workforce will become an integral part of the innovative process within their organization. Former CEOs, Vineet Nayer of HCL Technologies, Steve Jobs of Apple and Jeff Bezos of Amazon are examples of leaders who were able to successfully utilize the five discovery skills described by Dyer, Gregersen, & Christensen (2011) to develop an innovative culture throughout their respective workforces in order to boost the overall innovation of their companies. Specifically, Nayer, was able to quickly surmise that his IT company was at risk of losing market shares, struggling to keep up with their competitors and were not prepared to face the changes that here taking place in the IT services industry at the time. The following paper will explore the global trends that influenced the need for Nayar to create a more innovative organization and the relationship between the global trends and Nayar 's role as a leader of innovation. In addition, the article will analyze Nayar’s use of the five discovery skills as an innovation leader and finally explore recommendations for better use of the discovery skills.

The textbook, Exhibit 18-1 (Robbins & Judge, 2011, p. 591), lists some forces for change in the contemporary workplace. These include technology, the nature of the workforce, social trends, world politics, and economic shocks (Robbins & Judge, 2011, p. 604). The most studied innovation source is structural variables. First, organic structures help build innovation. Second, having management in place for a long time improves innovation. Third, having a financial surplus allows organizations to buy innovation. Finally, innovation is high in organizations with good inter-unit communication (Robbins & Judge, 2011, p. 604). Innovation is higher in an organization which learns. Exhibit 18-6 lists characteristics of a learning organization This list includes the members sharing the organization 's vision, giving up old ways of doing things. Other characteristics are having a system of interrelationships, having open communications and putting the good of the

According to Larry Bock, Senior Vice President Google’s Peoples Organization, (cite) tapping its employees and allowing their ideas to percolate up has keeps the pipeline of innovation moving forward. With the open culture at Google, everyone is a contributor and has the ability

The challenge here is how does a company want to innovate and how will they control it. The company has to decide what technology they wish to pursue to innovate their products. Then they have to decide how they will be able to that, and then execute on such. How does the company want to innovate, how will they innovate, how will they respond to changes? A company has to answer questions like these, it often takes careful planning and setting goals for a company to be able to satisfy such questions.

Creativity and design are important features of a well-developed knowledge economy, not only for having a favorable impact on people's well-being and business performance, but also on innovation (Hollanders & Cruysen, 2009). Creating an innovative organization requires more than understanding the design of an efficient development process (Stamm, 2003). Innovation deals more with and organizations or individuals ability to of creating and implementing a successful idea. This idea does not necessarily need to be creative. Sometimes a common sense solution, when implemented properly, can be the most efficient and effective organizational innovation. However, when

Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) is best known for its highly profitable advertising and search businesses, which are revolutionizing how consumers globally access, analyze, interpret and use data and information. Since its founding in 1998, Google's founders and senior management teams have strived to create a culture that enables rapid, disruptive innovation. Google's Rule of 20%, which states any engineer has the freedom to invest up to a fifth of their time in a research project of interest, is today responsible for 57% of total revenues (Steiber, Alänge, 2013). The Google culture thrives in innovation as a result, with a well-defined process in place for initially evaluating, qualifying and then prioritizing specific research projects. Each engineer has the opportunity to own the project from initial definition through presentation to senior management and eventual launch (Steiber, Alänge, 2013). The motivation to excel with their own inventions and innovative new product ideas has led to the development of Gmail; Google+, the highly successful social network that Google launched in response to Facebook's' dominance; and a myriad of other developments including visual and contextual search, two technologies still under development.

Radical and incremental innovations have long been the cornerstone of which firms base their knowledge and methods of technological innovation. However, this paper serves to bring attention to one of the less apparent forms of innovation, whose importance is increasingly being brought to light. Architectural innovations are, as defined by Henderson and Clark, "innovations that change the way in which the components of a product are linked together, while leaving the core design concepts (and thus the basic knowledge underlying the components) untouched".

The relationship between an organization’s culture and its innovative tendencies have been well documented (Büschgens, Bausch, & Balkin, 2013). Following, the resource-based view (RBV) and external collaboration, as well as a cross-cultural approach are examined as unique frames of reference which offer distinct analyses of some theoretical assumptions vis-a-vis factors implicated in the measure of a culture of innovation.

As we all know, Google is a dominant force in the technology world and has been for years. One of the main reasons for Google’s success is their innovation friendly work environment and lack of fear for failure. With company slogans such as “Don’t Be Evil” and “Do the Right Thing”, it’s no wonder why Google has such a huge consumer following and brand loyalty in today’s culture. Undoubtedly, Google is constantly working on new ventures, both known and unknown. However, a few of the known ventures has the possibility to be capitalized on, changing the way we interact with technology as a whole.

The company uses a system that group employees to carry out the necessary functions; for example, the organization has a Sales Operations group, an Engineering and Design Team, and a Product Management Team, among others. A flat organizational structure means that Google’s employees, teams or groups can bypass middle management and report directly to CEO Larry Page. Every employee is conditioned to contribute innovative ideas. The organizational culture setting gives those employees the opportunity to not hesitate when it comes to sharing their thoughts and opinion.The general vibe at Google is warm on the grounds that the organizational culture maintains a small-company-family feel, where individuals can easily talk and impart thoughts to each other, including CEO Larry Page. In this manner, Google 's organizational culture supports excellence in innovation through sharing of ideas and capability to rapidly respond to the market.

The importance of innovation architecture is to start with a vision and generate a company platform designed of new processes, create an open-culture and pursue a unique management system. All three of these components support and work well with innovation architecture. Google, Netflix and Ikea have built a framework designed of new company culture, management systems and process that have capitalized their business on innovation and intrapreneurship.