Essay On Too Much Innovation Is A Bad Thing

Mankind has been developing for thousands years. Bow and wheel were one of the first creative inventions of Homo sapiens. The mechanisms became more and more complicated. The period of increasing progress was titled the Industrial revolution. This time is characterized with transition from hand and half-automatic production to new methods of manufacturing, which included common usage of machines. It was the middle of 18th to the middle of 19th century. People needed only 250 years to learn to build skyscrapers, to leap from wire telephone sets to transparent mobile phones, from cinematography to augmented reality. Nowadays, daily life is full of technological advancements. Most of Europeans and Americans cannot imagine their lives without gadgets. Housekeeping is easier than ever before because you can buy for microwave oven or cook it with the help of modern technologies.
The industrial revolution led to another process which modern scientist call information revolution. In this case the role of information is extremely increasing in all of spheres of life, especially in economy, sociological processes and technology. Information becomes the main product for business. Such representatives as Google Company and Facebook are good examples of enterprises, which took advantage of this revolution. But is more important is that information is supported by new ideas. Lots of companies hire special staff. Their task is to be creative as much as possible because without innovation you cannot be successful. It is not enough to make good shoes or qualitative food to earn money. Business should be innovative to become justifiable let alone profitable. But innovation is not only the cure for business, it is its curse. Definitely, innovation is an engine of economic growth. Only creation of new products and services can bring profit and welfare. Yet, companies are at risk of too much innovation.
First risk for overly innovative enterprise is to become overpositioned. Surplus of good ideas can lead to the unique place in the market. People start to believe that the products and service are overpriced or too luxurious for them. For, example iPhone or MacBook is considered to be innovative. Owner of such products are respected in society. The brand is known of its good quality and uniqueness. But not many people can afford update models. The company could probably earn more in case of low-end models line.
Furthermore, plenty of ideas require plenty of funding. Every idea makes a long way till its approving. It should be picked up, filtered and then developed. It takes not only money but also time and human resources. Personnel needs to do extra work and is less productive with their daily routine. Besides, it can simply lead to underfunding of other branches or departments of the company.
Thirdly, over-innovation may lead company off the track. In case company develops new ideas in supporting areas it may keep it from the core competence. For example, Eastman Kodak Company paid lots of attention to the quality of the film and liquid and other supplementary materials for making and printing photos. Nevertheless, directions did not take into account the customers’ opinions regarding design and integration with technologies and so on. As a result, the company is experiencing financial problems, which are hardly to be solved. Creative minds of Kodak need to think of another good idea to remain afloat.
Finally, innovations tempt company to move in different directions, to try something it is not experienced in. On the one hand, it might lead to the success because competitors did not think of such a brilliant idea. On the other hand, being pioneer is always a risk. Besides, such practice can drift company from the strategy. Of course, strategy of the company should be flexible and adaptive to changes in market. But it should be straight enough otherwise it would bring profit to the company.
All in all, people always seek the possibility to improve things. Desire of innovation is the part of human nature. Yet, such desire should be really necessary to become productive and profitable. Companies should not ask whether they can do it or invent it or produce it, they should ask whether they should do this. The need of innovation should be on the first place. Otherwise it is a bad thing.