Today as we all know, have been given a really interesting assignment on creating our own blog, which to be honest I have no clue how these things has been working out. That being said, here is my first blog entry; in my first entry I’d like to pursue the topic of innovation’s itself because first of all I’d like to give deeper insight to the concept of innovation to make it more understandable. To do so, I will try to aim at summarizing the most respectful ideas in this research area that are already extant in the world literature.

Innovation can be viewed as a way of reaching sustainable growth, and Van der Meer (2007, 192) introduces the idea that the essential question is not why to innovate, but how to innovate. And he suggests two approaches of how to enable innovation – ‘the cultural approach towards enabling innovation entails creating an innovative climate; the structural approach towards enabling innovation concerns the organized use of enabling innovation mechanisms’ such as champions, task forces, venture teams, skunk works, spin-offs, enabling acquisitions, spin-ins, venture capital, licensing, innovative budgets, partnering, listening posts etc. Kirschbaum (2005, 24) says ‘Innovation is a culture not a process’ and ‘successful, profitable innovation depends upon teamwork and an entrepreneurial culture’ by ‘combining internal and external competencies and knowledge, both in R&D and marketing’. Many companies on the market today are recognizing that ’not all good ideas come from internal sources and not all good ideas can be successfully marketed internally’ (Chesbrough and Crowther 2006, 229). Lichenthaler (2007, 67) develops this when he states that ‘product marketing and licensing are a complement to the firm rather than a substitute in technology exploitation’.

Sawhney et al (2007) argue that if all firms in an industry are seeking opportunities in the same places, they tend to come up with the same innovations. Thus, viewing innovation too narrowly blinds companies to same opportunities and leaves them vulnerable to competitors with broader perspectives. They define business innovation as the creation of substantial new value for customers and the firm by creatively changing one or more dimensions of the business system.

It is becoming more and more important for companies to keep up with the innovation competition to get a sustainable growth and to respond effectively and rapidly on the market today. It is therefore important for the companies to broaden their views and look for alternative ways of getting innovative information and ideas then the traditionally way or past models.

To get a well-functioning organisation it is important to manage to have the right managers on the right position. I think that it is important to be very open as a manager and be open for new ideas and rapid changes. It is also important to give out clear directions to research end development employees so ideas really happen and do not stop a good idea in the company. It is also important that managers are open and supportive for spin off projects. Spin off projects will spin in to the company with new ideas if internally ties were successfully made in the past. This enables the company to gain more innovative ideas that can result in sustainable growth.

References

• Chesbrough H., Crowther A.K. (2006) “Beyond high tech: early adopters of open innovation in their industries”, R & D Management, vol 36, no 3, pp 229.
• Kirschbaum R. (2005) ‘Open innovation in practice’, Research Technology Management, vol. 48, no. 4, pp 24-28.
• Lichenthaler U. (2007) “The Drives of Technology Licensing: An Industry Comparison”, California Management Review, vol 49, no 4, pp 67.
• Sawhney M., Wolcott R.C. and Arroniz I. (2007) “The 12 Different Ways for Companies to Innovate”, vol 47, no 3, pp 75-81
• Van Der Meer H. (2007) “The Dutch Treat: Challenges in thinking in business models”, Creativity and Innovation Management, vol 16, no 2, pp 192.