Competing for the future, innovation

It is worth saying that innovation is a path, by which we can get the future we pre­fer; it touches every aspect of a company's activities. So, a company should use all ideas, talent and resources to satisfy customers’ needs and desires. The focus of its management must be based on creating new forms of demand and value that leads, in turn, to close connection between strategic thinking and innovation. Companies tend to have a clear picture of their future, but it takes a lot of time, money and effort.

In fact, any company isn't developing in a vacuum: it shapes knowledge and is shaped by knowledge. One of the most famous philosophers, Aristotle, notes in his "Metaphysics": "By its very nature all humankind desires to know." Some theorists state that innovation is the ability to see old things in a new way, the ability to move from the existing to the preferred. The others consider innovation as a matter of a physical survival. It is worth noting here the individual intuition, creativity, persist­ence and very lucky guess. That is intuition that leads to discoveries and ideas, which are floating around. There is a tremendous number of things that are being discov­ered and invented in business in accordance with a commercial motive for innova­tions.

Really, most firms often have troubles with innovation: it isn't easy to foresee, which road leads to success. The barrier to innovation comes from the lack of under­standing it, from the lack of investment required to it, from the lack of clear picture of the situation. Many inventions are simply waiting to be discovered, but they don't fall out of the sky and don't grow on trees; any invention has to be something not yet known and not yet available.

Nevertheless, some companies understand innovation as a great waste of money and time, whereas the others note that innovation is the great process and tool for a company strategy development and a source to create a sustainable competitive advantage: such companies are successful; they have the new management model and policy of discovery with high level of competitiveness.

In general, most people see the same things as everybody else, but some of them see them differently. The common things are always something new for them due to freedom of thought, they are never the same. So, Bill Gates gave the world the best operating system. Thanks to Bill Gates and his free spirit, with just a couple of mouse clicks we discover a new world of information. He continually states that innovation arouses envy, and so leads to competition. Innovations are of great importance for the future, but not every company has a system of innovation that satisfies today's market. is a big gap between the aspiration to innovation and its implementation. It isn't easy to achieve the promising land of strategic innovation.

There must be a close connection between strategic thinking and innovation, the latter gives the answer to the big set of strategic questions. Companies should have new sense of the scope of innovation, new vision of it, new set of possibilities and new ways of doing things and delighting customers.

The point is: innovations are based on "three whales": idea, talent and capital.

One of the reasons of the great success of Silicon Valley is that all these 'whales' came together one day. The title of Silicon Valley is EiR, which means "entrepreneur in-residence". "Tell us what you invent and, if your idea is in our area of interest, we will give you money to start your own business," so says the Silicon Valley's slogan.

Innovation

Getting ideas across

Michael Skapinker

Why can't companies produce_ more innovative ideas. "Because the structure of large organisa­tions is against innovation, and they are too conservative. New ideas also often threaten the profits of existing products and services.

Now, two books* have examined the problems of innovation in large organisations and what companies can do to develop their employees' ideas. There are some depressing stories. Being innovative can damage your career. Of the leaders of 12 innovation projects studied, four resigned from their companies, two threatened to resign and two were dismissed.

Several innovators felt they would be poorly rewarded if they succeeded and criticised if they failed. The origin of a successful breakthrough project is often for­gotten,' one innovator warned, 'but a research and development effort that fails is never forgotten.'

Many innovators are technically minded and find it difficult to explain their ideas in business terms.Many do not even see the business benefits of their ideas until these are pointed out to them.

From the Financial Times

*Richard Leifer et al.: Radical Innovation, Harvard Business School Press, 2001 Michael Schrage: Serious Play, Harvard Business School Press, 1999

 

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