Innovation - How important is it?
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Labels:
Innovation
0
comments
Innovation, let us first see what my Word Web has to say about this word:
1. A creation (a new device or process) resulting from study and experimentation
2. The creation of something in the mind
3. The act of starting something for the first time; introducing something new
isn't it very straight forward? Innovation literally means creating something new , but beware ladies and gentlemen, it does not stop with an idea in practice.
According to me innovation is more than what it literally means. Innovation is having "a mind set or state of the mind, where we really look out for a positive change, try to look at the problem in a whole new light and conceptualize our imagination to take it to the next level".
The importance of innovation was never appreciated like this before. In this information era, with a global market to capture and slew of competitors to tackle, all the companies understand the importance to innovate to be the market leader. At any point of time, only innovative people succeed in a competitive market by gaining an edge over others. This was like never before, before the invention of World Wide Web, it wasn't easy for companies to get a market share of their own in a foreign place. It was mainly because of the lack of a medium to get access to customers globally and market their products. With World Wide Web, there came a new facet to every business and every business now compete for their market share in the virtual space provided by the World Wide Web.
You need not worry about innovation if you do not care about your market share or your competitors or if you're doing business for charity [You need not innovate, if you think you are a monopoly in your business which I suppose is very rare now-a-days]. If you want to be successful in your business [whatever it may be], gain the market edge over your competitors and gain satisfied customer, you have to understand the importance of innovation and should do your best to get the message clear to all levels of employees in your organization.
Innovation was always considered as a separate stream of work altogether and companies had separate group of people who were designated to innovate. Research and development wing of the companies acted as though they own the copy right for the word innovation. Employees were expected to do their work, importantly, do it as they were taught to do it. Majority of the companies considered most of their employees as labors and they never utilized their employees potential fully.
The information era has bought a lot many transformation across various industries. It has introduced a whole lot of new ways to do things and provided a powerful medium to reach majority of the world population to market their products. Also, it has taken the competition in every sector to a new level and customers are valued the most now than ever. With increased competition and with variety of customers from different geographical locations to satisfy, every global and local company is trying its best to keep its market edge.
Now, the management has realized that good idea can come from any walk of the life. They understand the importance of involving their employees more closely in the growth of the company by giving them more space, freedom of speech, more importantly they are allowed to use their brain whereas the middle management and upper management are trained to take valuable opinions from anyone.
What it means? Those who were considered as labors are now given more responsibility by giving more freedom and ownership. This obviously helps the company to create a all new kind of bond with their employees - the employees feel they belong to the organization rather than just being an employee, or to be more rude, a labor.
The climate of innovation creates a healthy competition among the employees and it actually challenges them in every way. But innovation is like a religion, anybody can speak about it but it takes a lot to follow it and execute it properly.
In my next post we'll talk about what does innovation mean for an individual.
1. A creation (a new device or process) resulting from study and experimentation
2. The creation of something in the mind
3. The act of starting something for the first time; introducing something new
isn't it very straight forward? Innovation literally means creating something new , but beware ladies and gentlemen, it does not stop with an idea in practice.
According to me innovation is more than what it literally means. Innovation is having "a mind set or state of the mind, where we really look out for a positive change, try to look at the problem in a whole new light and conceptualize our imagination to take it to the next level".
The importance of innovation was never appreciated like this before. In this information era, with a global market to capture and slew of competitors to tackle, all the companies understand the importance to innovate to be the market leader. At any point of time, only innovative people succeed in a competitive market by gaining an edge over others. This was like never before, before the invention of World Wide Web, it wasn't easy for companies to get a market share of their own in a foreign place. It was mainly because of the lack of a medium to get access to customers globally and market their products. With World Wide Web, there came a new facet to every business and every business now compete for their market share in the virtual space provided by the World Wide Web.
You need not worry about innovation if you do not care about your market share or your competitors or if you're doing business for charity [You need not innovate, if you think you are a monopoly in your business which I suppose is very rare now-a-days]. If you want to be successful in your business [whatever it may be], gain the market edge over your competitors and gain satisfied customer, you have to understand the importance of innovation and should do your best to get the message clear to all levels of employees in your organization.
Innovation was always considered as a separate stream of work altogether and companies had separate group of people who were designated to innovate. Research and development wing of the companies acted as though they own the copy right for the word innovation. Employees were expected to do their work, importantly, do it as they were taught to do it. Majority of the companies considered most of their employees as labors and they never utilized their employees potential fully.
The information era has bought a lot many transformation across various industries. It has introduced a whole lot of new ways to do things and provided a powerful medium to reach majority of the world population to market their products. Also, it has taken the competition in every sector to a new level and customers are valued the most now than ever. With increased competition and with variety of customers from different geographical locations to satisfy, every global and local company is trying its best to keep its market edge.
Now, the management has realized that good idea can come from any walk of the life. They understand the importance of involving their employees more closely in the growth of the company by giving them more space, freedom of speech, more importantly they are allowed to use their brain whereas the middle management and upper management are trained to take valuable opinions from anyone.
What it means? Those who were considered as labors are now given more responsibility by giving more freedom and ownership. This obviously helps the company to create a all new kind of bond with their employees - the employees feel they belong to the organization rather than just being an employee, or to be more rude, a labor.
The climate of innovation creates a healthy competition among the employees and it actually challenges them in every way. But innovation is like a religion, anybody can speak about it but it takes a lot to follow it and execute it properly.
In my next post we'll talk about what does innovation mean for an individual.
0 comments: to “ Innovation - How important is it? ” so far...
Post a Comment