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Differences between Innovation and Invention
Invention and innovation have different meanings and definitions. An invention is the creation of a new product or rather the introduction of a process for the first time. On the other hand, innovation could be defined as a contribution to an existing product. Also, improving someone’s process represents innovation. An invention is a unique idea or product that does not exist. An invention could occur in study different fields, particularly in science and engineering. The whole process of the invention begins with a unique idea and then the idea should lead to an action. The idea and the steps involved complete the entire process of conception (Eric, 2005).
Innovation, on the other hand, could mean the development of an idea, product or service. Making an existing product better could give meaning to the word innovation. Innovation could also mean a more efficient, improved, and sufficient process. The difference between innovation and invention is that an invention should be a unique while, in innovation, the process should be an improved version of an existing process (Deschamps, 2013). In business and economics, innovation involves the actions taken for growth. Innovations provide the platform from which companies and enterprises compete to provide better products. Innovation could act as the bridge connecting a shop to its desired future (factory or supermarket).
The primary role of innovation is to create more efficient processes, products, ideas, technology, services, and devices that exist in the market. The innovation could involve the gradual development of inventions In order to have better goods and services. Implementing change could pose many challenges to an organization or business (Annanchino, 2003). Therefore, the process of change could be problematic during the development phase of a business.
According to Glau, Schere, and Zagst (2013), industries must relentlessly transform their economic structure in order to implement change. Transformation of the economic structure will ensure that the organizations will innovate better and come up with more efficient products or services. Also, innovation will ensure that entrepreneurs continuously satisfy customers’ needs. Therefore, innovation means a positive change in productivity, efficiency, quality, and competitiveness.
Even though change could prove hard to implement, an organization should put down a strategy or plan to embrace successful innovation. Many industries need to invent new ideas, products, and services so that they can withstand the pressure of the change in customers’ demands. The trends in the world economy have further created the need for a business to embrace innovation and invention.
Research and Development (RD) ensures that companies and businesses create new and unique ideas for the betterment of their growth, productivity, marketing, and value-creation. The introduction of technology in the business world has made innovation a compulsory step for business growth and development. However, collaborative management could help companies and enterprises to come up with new ideas, innovate them, and ensure that the ideas actually help the organization to grow and develop. Collaborative idea management will help the team to identify and empower innovative employees. Creative employees play a significant role in the growth and development of a particular organization. Also, a more collaborative organization promotes and stimulates an open, innovative culture that will motivate creative thinking among the employees (Grose, 1987).
Many organizations miss the opportunity to come up with new ideas that could help improve or encourage its growth and development. Most of the under-performing companies do not provide an environment that employees could interact with the authorities and share their ideas. With such an environment, the creators of a concept keep it to themselves for the fear that speaking it out will negatively affect their jobs.
There are different ways to implement the innovation process in an organization. The most important thing to do so as to implement change successfully is to create a relationship with employees. Finding things and programs that will empower the employees marks the beginning of an innovation strategy (Hakan, 2013). The two primary cultural drivers are local quality supervision and the degree of local empowerment. Employees would make it easier for an organization to implement change if these two cultural drivers were incorporated into the management system.
Most ideas started with an individual, then later passed or shared among other team members. However, the idea needs continuous support from the management team so that the organization could source better results from the new idea. Most of the organizations come across their new ideas through first-line supervision and administration. The attitude of the society towards a new idea could reflect the response the creator or the employee received for his or her innovation.
Another way to successfully implement innovation process is the use of empowerment. Empowerment is the freedom and encouragement to take responsibilities, speak up, and freely share new ideas with the authorities. Practicing a culture of empowerment helps the employees to understand that innovation is part of the company’s strategy and that it is their duty to act on its delivery. Empowerment will help employees to contribute creative ideas and also motivate them to try new methods of performing daily tasks. Therefore, empowerment plays a significant role in the implementation of innovation (Baker, 2011).
All necessary levels and departments within an organization should focus on innovation so as to drive and direct their future growth and development (G&D). Also, the team should concentrate on creating an environment that nurtures innovation and employees’ motivation. Most of the time, organizations do not know what to do so as to create the process, environment, programs, and the structures necessary for sustainable or successful growth through innovation. According to Watson (2011), there are three ways that organizations should handle the case of innovation and growth of the company. The three ways were identified as understanding the meaning of change to the organization, understanding the organizational level of innovation, and identifying the elements needed for innovation culture.
In the organizational context, innovation is the implementation of ideas or processes that provide profits and financial benefits to a particular organization. There are other types of definitions, but they share the same concept of implementing ideas and methods to come up with results that will help the team. Besides, the group should create a clear and shared understanding of innovation with respect to their markets, customers, business, and their industry.
It is often a significant challenge to share and create a clear understanding of change within an organization. Managers and team leaders find it difficult to achieve alignment around strategic issues. Understanding what change means to a business or organization will enable all workers and employees to concentrate their efforts and ideas on the meaning innovation shared in the group.
Secondly, the team should understand its level of innovation ambition. All industry sectors wholly depend on new ideas and products to achieve growth.The change will ensure that a business or company has a competitive advantage over other firms in the market. Other companies indulge in a more evolutionary approach to improving and developing existing services, products, and processes. Organizations should consider the following factors before implementing any innovation. First, the company should analyze and state the level or magnitude of risk it is willing to take or accept. Implementing changes could come with risks and challenges for the enterprise.
Also, the organization should consider the criteria for selecting a new idea or a new development. Considering the way of selecting these ideas could help identify quality innovations that could significantly improve and benefit the organization financially. The process of selecting a plan could involve supporting systems, processes, programs, and structures. A reliable way of selecting new ideas and innovations could help filter relevant ideas from irrelevant ones. This way, the company stands a chance to maximize the benefits of change (Grose, 1987).
Before implementation, an organization should consider the factor of the investment scale. The investment level will help gauge the relevance of an innovation in the market before implementing it. However, the business or enterprise could take a more evolutionary or revolutionary approach to responding to market and financial conditions. Understanding this level of innovation ambition and innovation culture is essential in helping companies manage the implementation process.
Finally, the organization should gather and use the elements used for innovation culture. There are six key elements needed for innovation culture, and these factors include structure, the environment, metrics, customers, process, and market. The group as a whole plays a significant role in creating an innovation culture. The role of organization in innovation implementation can be viewed as how it supports innovation. An innovation could be backed by managers, operational procedures, leaders, and reward schemes.
Also, the type of environment significantly affects the process of change. An excellent working environment should provide a conducive atmosphere for innovative thinking, challenges, and the freedom to share new ideas. It should also provide shared opportunities for innovation and idea creation. An organization should create an environment that gives answers to these questions. The environment of an employee clearly influences his or her thinking capacity. When an employee works in a challenging environment, the chances of exploiting his or her creativity are higher. According to Watson (2011), creativity is the key to innovation.
Another element of innovating culture is the market or business created by the change. Adapting the innovation culture is important because it should respond or fit in the market a company operates. Certain questions could be asked so as to analyze the business or market created by a particular innovation. Does the innovation culture adapt or respond to the market targeted? Is the culture highly competitive? Does the innovation culture interrupt any business model? Getting the answers to these questions could give a clear picture of the impact of these new ideas to the growth of the enterprise (Magretta, 2010).
The Different Models of Innovation
There exist different types of innovation. From the discussion above, we can demonstrate the Towers Watson’s model of change. However, this model tightly focuses on the creation of innovation culture. According to Watson’s model of changes, there are three key contributors: individuals, teams, and the organization. The foundation of Watson’s business model primarily consists of the efforts of an individual that is later shared with the team and the entire organization. The model is divided into six segments: process, structure, environment, market, metrics, and customers. All these parts contribute to the innovation process (Chesbrough, 2006).
The process of innovation consists of idea generation that represents the first step of change. After generating the idea, then the creator should assess the approach to select and adopt relevant information. Development drives the process of assessment into launching. Launching should happen if the innovation satisfies the elements of organizational growth. The authorities will need to approve the new idea and invest money and time in it. Through investments, the organization benefits from the end results of the innovation.
After the process of change, the organization should provide management, innovation ambitions, rewards, and a multi-disciplinary team. Also, it is the responsibility of the group to create a conducive environment for the innovation process. The components of a conducive environment include shared spaces, creativity tools, physical space, and resource availability. The business or market segment stands for challenges that could be due to finance, resource, and other constraints that will make it difficult to implement an innovation. The business or the market involve competitors, barriers to entry, and technology advances.
The other segment that plays a significant role in the process of innovation is the metrics. In the metrics part, the Return on Investment largely contributes to the decision-making process. Return on Investment is the benefit gained by an investor through implementing the innovation. The return on investment can represent the investment gains with respect to the investment cost. Also, the return on investment is used to measure the efficiency of innovation or a new idea. An investor will use the ROI procedure to evaluate the relevance of the innovation (Culp, 2001).
The main purpose of the ROI metrics is to measure the trend, rate, and period in which return on money occurs. A reliable and relevant innovation could increase the rate of and decrease the period return. Under the metrics segment, there is innovation time and budget. Time is a significant factor in the process of change. With the help of time, the organization can estimate the level of risk involved in the process and the cost needed to invest in the new project.
Rewards and recognition fall under the metrics segment. Rewards and recognition can come in the form of employees’ bonuses, allowances, and other benefits. On the other hand, a promotion of job rank could act as a recognition or reward for hard work and creative innovations. The final segment of Towers Watson’s model of change is the customer segment. This segment consist of insight needs segmentation and adventurousness of the innovation. Also, the customer segment marks the final stage of the Towers Watson’s model of change.
The top management model of innovation exercises the general accountability for change. The top management model is a widely spread method of innovation governance. This kind of innovation model works effectively in a multidisciplinary or cross-functional organization (Cullis, 2007). Therefore, the innovation management starts from the top ranked members of the group. Each member of the management team should contribute his or her part in the innovation process.
The other model of innovation is the CEO or group management model. This method is the second most used model, particularly in multi-business corporations. In the CEO or group management model, the innovation process is controlled and commanded by direct founders of the organization. For example, the Apple Inc. Innovation processes and decisions were made by Steve Jobs, who was the founder of the company. When the CEO is in charge of the innovation process, the workers or employees get first-hand information regarding the organizational motives on a particular projects. The CEO or group management model ensures that change is prioritized because a large number of workers work towards a similar goal. The CEO’s job is to focus on the content issues and give directions throughout the process of innovation. The group management model ensures that the CEO maintains and emphasizes on the attitude of the employees.
The Role of Systematic Risk Management
Systematic risk management is useful in the implementation of innovation. Risk management is the essence of innovation. The process of making a product more useful and better entails creating risks that need careful management (Sutton, 2010). Without a plan in risk management, an innovator could find it hard to manage the idea and convert it into an invention. An organization that pursues innovation must come across possible likelihood of failure, losses, and other disappointments. However, managers should not consider risks as an antithesis of innovation, rather it should be an essence of change. The success of risk management in an organization defines its core competence in the market (Frenkel, Hommel, and Rudolf, 2005).
As suggested by Cameron and Raman (2005), systematic risk management acts as an accelerator on innovation but not as a brake on innovation. Risk management propels innovation. Besides, the management of risk will speed up the innovation process. On the other hand, systematic risk management introduces discipline in the process of change. The training in innovation could help the creator of a particular product work in a conducive environment. The presence of a conducive environment means a more relaxed and comfortable approach to the challenges and financials. For example, if an innovation fails, two things can happen. Either the project is prematurely stopped or more money is invested in the project. The two cases will test the discipline of the management. In the first case, the company or organization maintains the control. The patience in a failed project will reduce the magnitude of losing everything. Investing more money in a bad or slow project means that the project will wholly depend on the financing hence the chance of failing and losing money increases.
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