During our
career time we Heard a lot about innovation but sometimes we only have a vague
idea of what it’s that or in certain cases don’t see innovation has a leading
process for our personal success. In this paper I will show the reader some
definitions and the approaches from different authors, a little bit about the
history of the word “innovation” and tell you briefly the innovation process
and sometimes how this could lead you to a life of success.
Innovation has
always been around us since the beginning of the time, starting when the human
been found the fire which in that case was something huge for mankind. Those
where our little step of innovation to preserve ourselves but them we start
evolving and thinking different, we invent the wheel and everything start to
change. We emerged from the dark ages with the renaissance and the work of
giants such as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. A mere 300 years later came
the industrial revolution, and the next big spike in knowledge growth was
between 1880 and 1920 with the era of the inventor (Merrill 2008). The innovation starts as a need of the human
been to survive but was evolving as something need to distance normal people
from entrepreneurs or inventors. People as Henry Ford saw the need for speedy
travel; Alexander Graham Bell saw that the need to communicate, Thomas Edison
saw the shortcoming of oil and gas lighting in the home.
For some authors
such as Peter Merrill who wrote in his book Innovation Generation: creating an
innovation process and innovative culture that innovation is about developing
the products and services that the market needs tomorrow, and is driven by the
need for convenience, not by technology. Finding a cool idea while it may be
interesting and exciting has no value unless that idea solves a real problem;
Even then, new ideas will only be adopted if they are easy to adopt (Merrill
2008). This approach of innovation could be seen as good but it’s leading
behind that right now the communication and the technology itself is driven
innovation faster that it did the past two decades.
Now, base on the
business dictionary innovation can be define as “the process by which an idea
or invention is translated into a good or service for which people will pay, or
something that results from this process”[1]. In
order to be considering as innovation, any idea must be replicable at
economical cost and must satisfy the specific need by which was design or
create for. Innovation necessarily involves a deliberate application of
information, imagination, creativity and initiative in finding greater or
different value from resources, and joins that idea until converted it into
useful products. From a business approach, innovation often results from the
application of a scientific or technical idea in decreasing the gap between the
needs or expectations of the customers and the performance of a company's
products. In the other hand in a social context, innovation is really important in making new ways of collaboration
methods between companies and people, such as collaboration methods are alliance, joint venture, franchise, license
and so on.
We could not
forget to mention one of the best authors in management which is Peter Drucker
, who is consider as the man who invent management and contribute to many topic
such as innovation. Innovation is the specific function of entrepreneurship,
whether is an existing business, a public service institution, or a new venture
started by alone individual in the family kitchen. It is the means by which the
entrepreneur either creates new wealth- producing resources or endows existing
resources with enhanced potential for creating wealth (Drucker 1998).
But the real issue for us as future
professional is Why Innovation is important? , nowadays
the companies which do not innovate, improve or make new products to their
target market is not consider as proactive company instead could be said that
it won’t growth as other companies which innovation is part of the
organizational structure. Otherwise Studies have confirmed that all businesses
want to be more innovative. One survey identified that almost 90 per cent of
businesses believe that innovation is a priority for them. The conclusion is
that the importance of innovation is increasing, and increasing significantly.
In the current day economic scenario, innovativeness has become a major factor
in influencing strategic planning. It has been acknowledged that innovation
leads to wealth creation. Even though efficiency is essential for business success,
in the long run, it cannot sustain business growth (Shukla 2009).
Innovation
capacity is the ability of enterprises to identify trends and new technologies,
as well as acquire and exploit this knowledge and information (Tidd, Bessant
& Pavitt 2005). The innovation capacity concept needs to take distance from
dynamic innovation capability; the real deals with the firm’s specific ability
to continuously transform knowledge and ideas into profitable innovations. In this framework, (Terziovski 2007) developed
a leadership-based model, in which firms innovate across three domains—new
product development, sustainable development and e-commerce—using all aspects
of the firm’s capacities.
The
process-based conception of innovation capacity, connecting technological and
human capital stimuli, highlights the role of learning in the innovation
process (Lichtenthaler 2009). In the past two decades innovation research focus
on the technological factors that improved innovation, identifying all the elements
of the innovation process, such as R&D, physical sciences education,
engineering and design (see Tidd, Bessant & Pavitt 2005, p.112). But now the
approach has added one more factor to the common R&D (Research and
Development) adding Innovation in the equation, ending as R+D+I. As studies on the human factors of innovation
within the enterprise began to appear after (Kanter 1983), the need arise to
link these human factors into an overall macro view of the complete innovation
process that operates within an enterprise.
As seen before
innovation is more than fundamental nowadays to any company, now has turn into
a fundamental factor that could lead to the highest point in market and at the
same time help you take distance from your competitors. Innovation process
should be part of the company in every division making that all people start
thinking and giving new ideas how to improve the products or services provide.
- Merrill Peter, Innovation Generation: Creating an Innovation Process
and an Innovative Culture, 2008. Page
XVIII. Available at : http://books.google.com
- Business dictionary
definition. available at : http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/innovation.html
- Drucker Peter, The Discipline
of innovation. Harvard Business Review, 1998. Available at: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/innovation.html
- Shukla Amitabh, What is
innovation? Why innovation is important, 2009. Available at : http://www.paggu.com/getting-into-roots/what-is-innovation-why-innovation-is-important/
- Tidd, J, Bessant, J &
Pavitt, K 2005, Managing
innovation: integrating technological, market and organizational change, 3rd
edn, John Wiley & Sons, Chichester.
- Terziovski, M 2007, Building innovation capability in
organizations: an international cross-case perspective, Imperial
College Press, London.
- Kanter, RM 1983, The
change masters: innovation and entrepreneurship in the American
corporation, Simon & Schuster, New York.
- Lichtenthaler, U 2009,
‘Absorptive capacity, environmental turbulence, and the complementarity of
organizational learning processes’, Academy
of Management Journal, vol.52, no.4, pp.822–46.
- Kanter, RM 1983, The change masters: innovation and
entrepreneurship in the American corporation, Simon & Schuster,
New York.
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario