In conclusion, this blog has illustrated the importance of innovation, its many aspects and relevance in today’s word. Innovation is our past present and future. The aim of this blog was to inform and explain some of the aspects of innovation, however, due to the wide scope of this topic it is difficult to cover every area.
My blog has described and studied definitions, competitive advantage, innovative companies, creativity, relevant theories and models, types of innovation, marketing, supply chain management, globalisation, the differences between inventing and innovating, open innovation amongst numerous others. The concept of innovation was also applied to various people and businesses throughout my posts. One post, for example, was dedicated to the work and life of Steve Jobs; illustrating his path to success and innovative attitude working at Apple whilst CEO of the company. Various businesses have also been explored such as M&S, NASA, IBM and Nurofen in a range of industries; innovation occurs everywhere! A selection of posts were also used to describe the Apprentice, its candidates, the tasks involved and experiences.
Schraeder and Jordan (2011:8) explain how “employees can offer insight regarding minor shifts in environmental contingencies that may serve as signs of larger shifts that are looming in the not-so-distant future”. As discussed previously, competitive advantage can be achieved through an organisation’s human assets by providing ideas for innovative products and services, however, managers must be willing to accept certain amount of risk and uncertainty allowing employees to make mistakes.
Adair (1996:256) puts forward the idea of suggestion schemes for employers to adopt as a way of engaging with employees to increase a sense of involvement and therefore motivation and innovative ideas as a result. Employees need to be made aware that all ideas are welcome, will be listened to and can be put forward by anyone. Some ideas will clearly not work, however, every idea should be taken into consideration (possibly creating a forum for ideas). Despite this, these methods are often more successful in smaller companies due to the nature and size of the organisation. It can be achieved with little organisation and can become highly beneficial regarding managers give encouragement, opportunity, listen to employees and any ideas put forward; potentially rewarding them.
Pareto Principle
The Pareto Principle is a well known business concept that was developed by Vilfredo Pareto, an Italian economist, explaining the ratio of effects to causes (80:20). The principle states that “80 percent of the ‘effects’ comes from 20 percent of the ‘causes”’(Open Source Innovation, Accessed 10/01/12). When applied to innovation, this could arguably mean 80% of innovations are planned (improved/new products and radical/revolutionary changes) compared to 20% of emergent innovations (incremental/evolutionary changes that are reactive and flexible to respond to any changes).
Simon Sinek: Golden Circle
A talk presented by Simon Sinek in September 2009 (TED, Accessed 10/01/12) aimed to explain how great leaders inspire action using his concept; a ‘Golden Circle
The Golden Circle
- What - 100% of businesses and leaders know what they do
- How – Some know how they do it
- Why – Very few know why they do what they do (their purpose, cause, belief, reason for existence)
Many think from the outside in (what, how, why) whereas inspired leaders and organisations tend to think and act from the inside out (why, how, what) regardless of their size. The reason they are so successful and inspirational is because “people don’t buy what you do they buy why you do it (…) The goal is to do business with people who believe what you believe (…) If you don’t know why you do what you do, and people respond to why you do what you do then how will you ever get people to vote for you, or buy something from you, or more importantly, be loyal and want to be a part of what it is that you do”. Sinek highlights the importance of hiring people who believe what you believe to ensure they work to their highest potential.
Reference is made of the law of diffusion regarding innovation whereby:
- The first 2.5% of our population are innovators
- The next 13.5% are early adopters
- The next 34% are early majority, late majority and laggards
The early majority won’t try something until someone else has tried it first
Innovators and early adopters are comfortable to take risks and pursue their intuitive decisions “driven by what they believe about the world and not just what product is available”.
He explains the recipe for success as money, the right people and the right market conditions. In spite of this, it doesn’t work if people don’t believe what you believe; they need to believe why you do it. Examples such as Martin Luther King are used to exaggerate the need to ensure people believe what you believe in order to be successful.
Innovator traits
According to Inventors’ Digest (2011:22), the top 10 traits of innovators are:
- Persistence
- Passion and intellectual curiosity
- Independent minded, willingness to go against the grain
- Ability to recognize and combine patterns into new ideas
- Intuitive yet analytical with an ability to understand and interpret data
- Ability to ‘sell’ ideas and concepts
- Focused on the future
- Ability to draw on wide networks for perspective, advice and accomplishing tasks
- Tolerance for risk and ambiguity
- Willingness to fail and learn from failure
Overall, I believe the main ways that organisations can be innovative is to:
- Be resourceful and efficient
- Maximise opportunities
- Add value
- Accept risk
- Listen to employees
- Allow creativity
- Respond to changes (environment and customers needs/preferences)
- Achieve and maintain competitive advantage
- Be innovative
References:
Adair, J. (1996) Effective Innovation; How to Stay Ahead of the Competition, London/Basingstoke: Pan Books Ltd.
Open Source Innovation [online], Available from: http://open-source-innovation.com/arsenal-access/pareto-principle/, (Accessed 10th January 2012)
Schraeder, M. and Jordan
TED [online], Simon Sinek: How Great Leaders Inspire Action, Available from: http://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action.html, (Accessed 10th January 2012)
Top 10 Traits of Innovators (2011), Inventors' Digest, Vol. 27 Iss. 1 p22, Available from Business Source Complete at http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=f2e81653-cb72-4149-bf8c-482b4927de02%40sessionmgr112&vid=2&hid=108, [Accessed 13th December 2011]
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