Well its come to the time when its time to say goodbye! My deadline is tomorrow so best finish it today!
From writing this blog I have come across many things. First there is a lot of research on innovation about Apple, Steve Jobs and Google! As I didn't want to follow every other blogger and write loads and loads about them I hope you did enjoy the 2 posts about Steve Jobs! One might have been a bit controversial over whether or not he was an innovator or a tweaker? From my personal opinion I think he was a bit of both! He took products, whether they were his own ideas or someone elses, and made them into the successful products they are today. I don't think there are many people on this earth who don't know what an iPod, iPad, or MAC computer are! Even my 80 year old Nan knows what a iPod is!
I always knew the Virgin Group were innovative due to the amount of different markets that they are in, but I was quite shocked to find out that they had over 300 companies, all running from the one name and all under the name of Sir Richard Branson. I think virgin is one of the most innovative companies there is, due to that fact Sir Richard built by himself from the age of 15. Virgin have managed to dip their fingers in every single pie they could! And have succeed to eat most of that pie them selves! (excuse the saying!)
One thing I did learn is that innovation is something needed for the business to succeed. If a company didn't innovate they would defiantly be out of the market before they could say hello profits! Each company needs to innovate just to survive the cruel market place!
Another discovery was how innovation is a subject that needs to apparent in every single corner of the business, from products to leadership to marketing even to the competitiveness of the business.
I think i have come across many innovative products on my research and development of this blog. I think the main one for me was the pocket shower. I think its an amazing idea and I'm tempted to buy one for use in the festivals I'm going to next year!
Well I think thats it from me, so thanks for reading and I wish you all the best!
Becky
Thursday, 19 January 2012
Innovation Life Cycle
This video shows how the US government are trying to educate more people with the way in which an idea becomes a successful product. (www.youtube.com 19/01/2012)
This video shows the way in which a company uses the innovation lifecycle and how it can help a company to innovate. (www.youtube.com 19/01/2012)
Innovation as a strategy
While all businesses will be seeking to imporve, some organisations put innovation at the heart of their strategy. These are companies in industries such as electronics, pharmaceuticals and computers. A failure to innovate in these industries mean you will fall behind. If innovation drives your strategy:
- You must be prepared to invest for the long term. There may be a big projects that will only pay back over 15 years, if at all.
- You must be prepared for failure; not every new idea will work. The culture people to try. This means your Human Resource Management team must recruit people with ideas, people willing to challenge, and people looking to move things forward. You must provide a reward strategy and management style that fosters such creativity.
- Your marketing strategy may well be one of differentiation as you 'sell' the benefits of your new products and systems. The product may cost more money but the benefits are much greater for the customer. Alternatively, if the innovation is about finding cheaper ways of delivering the service then a low-cost strategy may be appropriate.
Innovation, Culture and Structure
To encourage innovation internally a business will want a culture that encourages people to try out new ideas. If the standard way of doing things is to do as you are told and if people who keep their heads down and just follow instructions are the ones that get promoted then this will not encourage new ideas and new ways of doing things. Innovation therefore requires a culture that encourages people to try new ideas, that does not punish failure and that rewards those who do come ip with new approaches. The commitment to innovation can be shown by the leaders of the business: What do they value, what do they recognise and praise? If you want innovation to occur you need the senior managers to set an example. This will include making the funds available to those who need them to experiment and try new ideas out. Apple, HP, Intel and W L Gore, for example, are organisations that are said to have a particularly innovative culture.
The culture is important because it supports all other actions and highlights the priorities for the business. The culture is supported by and directly related to the structure of the organisation. Innovation requires the sharing of ideas and approaches. This is more likely in a structure that puts people from different departments than one where individuals stay very much within their own area. By using cross-functional teams that cut across functional boundaries, such as bringing together marketing, operations, finance and human resources, a project can be seen from different perspectives and this can help create new solutions to problems. Using Handy's models of culture, innovation is more likely to be a task culture that a role culture. (Surridge&Gillespie 2009:147,148)
The culture is important because it supports all other actions and highlights the priorities for the business. The culture is supported by and directly related to the structure of the organisation. Innovation requires the sharing of ideas and approaches. This is more likely in a structure that puts people from different departments than one where individuals stay very much within their own area. By using cross-functional teams that cut across functional boundaries, such as bringing together marketing, operations, finance and human resources, a project can be seen from different perspectives and this can help create new solutions to problems. Using Handy's models of culture, innovation is more likely to be a task culture that a role culture. (Surridge&Gillespie 2009:147,148)
Research and Development: R&D
Research and development is part of the innovation process. research and development (R&D) is the generation and application of scientific knowledge to create a product or develop a new production process which can increase the firm's productive efficiency. For example, it may involve a team of employees at a confectionery company researching into a new flavour of sweet and then trying out different versions until they have one they and the customers are happy with.
In some sectors, such as the car industry, pharmaceuticals and energy, research and development can take many years and be very expensive. Glaxo calculates that on average a new pharmaceutical take 10 to 15 years and cost £500 million on average to develop.
However, research and development is often very risky. This is because you may never end up with an idea that is actually viable . Even if you do manage to launch a product, you may find that you do not have very long to recover the costs of development. (Surridge&Gillespie 2009:145)
In some sectors, such as the car industry, pharmaceuticals and energy, research and development can take many years and be very expensive. Glaxo calculates that on average a new pharmaceutical take 10 to 15 years and cost £500 million on average to develop.
However, research and development is often very risky. This is because you may never end up with an idea that is actually viable . Even if you do manage to launch a product, you may find that you do not have very long to recover the costs of development. (Surridge&Gillespie 2009:145)
What is innovation?
The process of turning an idea into a saleable product or service is known as innovation. Innovation is defined as 'the successful exploitation of new ideas'.
Innovation allows businesses to develop new products and new processes. Innovation can help you create new markets such as Nintendo shaping the family gaming market with its Wii games. It can help to create new ways of doing business.
However, innovation can bring new competitors into your market. For example.Wrigley was threatened by Trident's entry into the chewing gum market, Kodak was attacked by Sony's entrance into the camera market, Gillette was challenged by King of Shaves' move into the razor market. Innovation can also make markets obsolete, such as VHS and typewriters if they don't keep up.
Given that customers are likely to be demanding more each year, innovation can be essential to help a business remain competitive by increasing the benefits it provides and/or reducing the costs of providing the product. Innovation may be essential just to keep pace with what competitors are doing.
The extent to which innovation occurs in some markets is clear. Just look at the razor market and you can see enormous innovations on a regular basis : more razor blades, better razor blades, faster, smaller electric shavers and shavers for women. The same is true in the toothbrush market. (Surridge&Gillespe, 2009:143)
Innovation allows businesses to develop new products and new processes. Innovation can help you create new markets such as Nintendo shaping the family gaming market with its Wii games. It can help to create new ways of doing business.
However, innovation can bring new competitors into your market. For example.Wrigley was threatened by Trident's entry into the chewing gum market, Kodak was attacked by Sony's entrance into the camera market, Gillette was challenged by King of Shaves' move into the razor market. Innovation can also make markets obsolete, such as VHS and typewriters if they don't keep up.
Given that customers are likely to be demanding more each year, innovation can be essential to help a business remain competitive by increasing the benefits it provides and/or reducing the costs of providing the product. Innovation may be essential just to keep pace with what competitors are doing.
The extent to which innovation occurs in some markets is clear. Just look at the razor market and you can see enormous innovations on a regular basis : more razor blades, better razor blades, faster, smaller electric shavers and shavers for women. The same is true in the toothbrush market. (Surridge&Gillespe, 2009:143)
Steve Jobs...a innovator or a tweaker?
Many people see Steve Jobs as an innovator. But Walter Isaacson’s biography suggests that he was much more of a tweaker. He borrowed the characteristic features of the Macintosh—the mouse and the icons on the screen—from the engineers at Xerox PARC, after his famous visit there, in 1979. The first portable digital music players came out in 1996. Apple introduced the iPod, in 2001, because Jobs looked at the existing music players on the market and concluded that they “truly sucked.” Smart phones started coming out in the nineteen-nineties. Jobs introduced the iPhone in 2007, more than a decade later, because, Isaacson writes, “he had noticed something odd about the cell phones on the market: They all stank, just like portable music players used to.” The idea for the iPad came from an engineer at Microsoft, who was married to a friend of the Jobs family, and who invited Jobs to his fiftieth-birthday party. As Jobs tells Isaacson:
This guy badgered me about how Microsoft was going to completely change the world with this tablet PC software and eliminate all notebook computers, and Apple ought to license his Microsoft software. But he was doing the device all wrong. It had a stylus. As soon as you have a stylus, you’re dead. This dinner was like the tenth time he talked to me about it, and I was so sick of it that I came home and said, “Fuck this, let’s show him what a tablet can really be.”
Even within Apple, Jobs was known for taking credit for others’ ideas. Jonathan Ive, the designer behind the iMac, the iPod, and the iPhone, tells Isaacson, “He will go through a process of looking at my ideas and say, ‘That’s no good. That’s not very good. I like that one.’ And later I will be sitting in the audience and he will be talking about it as if it was his idea.”
(www.newyorker.com 19/01/2012)
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