By Pooja Shenoy,[/b] Prateek Saxena [/b],Pratik Nayak [/b], Pratiti Bhattacharjee[/b], Priyanka Kalia [/b],Priyesh Tungnawat
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In knowledge society, we have to make innovations continuously. Innovation can start anywhere – from a fisherman’s hamlet or a farmer’s households or a classroom to a lab or an industry or an R&D centre.” - APJ Abdul Kalam
What is Innovation ?
When we think of innovation, which companies come to mind - Google, Sony, Apple, Microsoft, Starbucks, and 3M? Technically, "innovation" is defined merely as "introducing something new”. In the present era, innovation occurs when a new or changed product is introduced to the market, or when a new or changed process is used in commercial production. The innovation process is the combination of activities – such as design, research, market investigation, process development, organisational restructuring, and employee development and so on – which are necessary to develop and support an innovative product or production process.
With growth in most major industrialized countries likely to be modest for some time to come, organizations cannot rely on “business as usual” to see them through. They need to come up with products and services that are fresh and exciting. Above all, they need to capture the imagination of the public.
The problem is that even companies with well-established and successful product-development processes are unlikely to have all the skills and insights necessary to achieve this on a regular basis
What drives innovation and when does the need arise?
What determines the success of any particular innovation effort usually comes down to one or two critical ‘lynchpin drivers.’ Our heuristic framework for innovation will help you discover those lynchpin drivers and tailor your process to accommodate them.”
Innovation is the core of success. Both in corporate environments as well as in the studio, doing something new, different, unique, and memorable are keys to selling your station and maintaining your brand equity and position within the minds of your audience. Innovation = uniqueness = differentiation = powerful positioning strategy. Innovation is different than change. People generally dislike and resist change. Changes are events -- innovation is a process. Innovating involves changing philosophies, methods, practices, and overall functions of thought
Innovating legacy mind-sets: established industries are usually populated with old and rigid mind-sets. These legacy attitudes cut across all players in the industry, leading to a disease of sameness- everything, from products, packaging and promotions to advertising, looks the same. Innovating in an industry steeped in legacy requires the courage to challenge and go beyond well-entrenched paradigms. This is very difficult in a hierarchical culture.
Innovating to take on giants: In many organisations, there is awe and fear of and deference towards giants, towards size. The belief is that if we provoke a giant he will come after us and we can’t take him on. We are too small, too helpless, too resource-starved, and too weak to challenge. But last decade has seen the emergence of challengers who have demonstrated how entrepreneurs can create winning ideas even in markets dominated by giants. They believe that they can take on MNC’s with ‘new-insights ideas’ and also demonstrate how an entrepreneurial organization can be better at innovating. Innovating for underserved markets: There are millions of consumers who earn between two and five dollars a day. This forms a huge unserved market and many organisations want to be able to tap into this.
Innovation Traps: Risks and Challenges for innovation thought process / challenges of innovation
Every industry has its entry barriers and its growth barriers. And everybody in the industry operates within them. The barriers keep newcomers out and the growth barriers maintain the status quo.
Following are some of the challenges to create an environment in which innovation can flourish – Indifference, hostility and isolation.
a) Indifference[/b] - Some CEO and senior executive of a company are good, smart, and highly competent people. It's just that innovation is not a part of their DNA. The majority of executives make it to top positions by being very good operational managers: meeting sales objectives, improving products and services to keep up with competitors, supporting existing customers and acquiring new ones, managing mergers and acquisitions, achieving the required financial results quarter after quarter, and so on. These management jobs are very tough and getting tougher, given our rapidly changing, fiercely competitive, global business environment. Being a good manager takes very hard work, attention to detail, and organizational discipline. But as executives rise up in the organization, other skills become increasingly important. They need to transition from being a manager to being a leader.
For the second part of this article please visit
http://www.managementparadise.com/article/4577/the-dynamics-of-break-through-innovation-an-analysis-of-hbr-june-2011-part-ii