Challenges in the field of Innovation Management beyond gadgets and gizmos

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Challenges in the field of Innovation
Managementbeyond gadgets and gizmos

• Professor Rodney McAdam

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Top technological innovations since 1800

• Bicycle 59.4
• Transistor 7.8
• Electro magnetic induction ring 7.8
• Computer 6.3
• Germ theory of infection 4.6
• Radio 4.5
• Internet 4.0
• Internal combustion engine 3.4
• Nuclear power 1.1
• Communications satellite 1.1

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Bicycle

• Invented in 1818 by Karl de Drais
• Increased transport
• Womens emancipation
• Gene pool

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John McAdam (1756-1836)

• Great great ad infinitum Grandad
• Innovation of mcadimisation of road surfaces
• Revolutionary improvement for traveling
• Enemies from turn-pike owners who lost their
  businesses                      

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The Innovation Management discourse

• What is it all about?
• A Sinclair C5?
• Government White Papers?
• Pursuit of novelty?
• An oxymoron?

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The Innovation Management discourse
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Definitions

• Our mental models include the view that
  innovation is all about science and technology -
  the 'technology push' model
• A totally marketing led approach to innovation
  may miss out- the Sony Walkman family of products
  took place despite marketing showing no demand
• The organizational structures and procedures to
  manage innovation reflect our mental models
• If we believe innovation is the province of
  scientists and engineers, then we will neglect
  the majority of people in our organisations with
  the creative ideas

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Innovation is the process of taking new ideas
effectively and profitably through to satisfied
customers It is a process of continuous renewal
involving the whole organisation and is an
essential part of business strategy and every day
practice (DTI, CBI, 2004)
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In its broadest sense the term comes from the
Latin innovare meaning to make something
new. Innovation is a process of turning
opportunity into new ideas and of putting these
into widely practice. Innovation as the core
process within an organisation associated with
renewal (Tidd et al, 2004)
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Types of innovation (Tidd et al, 2001)

• Novelty
• Competence shifting
• Complexity
• Robust design
• Continuous incremental innovation

• Offering something
• no one else can
• Rewriting the rules of the competitive game
• (Digital cameras)
• Technology learning keeps entry barriers high
  (Formula 1)
• Stretching lifecycle of basic product or process
  (Boeing 747)
• move cost performance frontier (Tesco)

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Innovation management

• the renewal and enlargement of a range of
  products and services and markets
• the establishment of new methods of production,
  supply and distribution
• the introduction of changes in management, work
  organisation, and the working conditions and
  skills of the workforce
• (European Commission, 1995)

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Innovation management

• people
• product
• process
• technology

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Creativity Definitions
Synthesis of new ideas and concepts by the
radical restructuring and re-association of
existing ones, whereas innovation is the
implementation of the results of
creativity (Heap, 1989) Generation of ideas
whereas innovation is about putting these into
action (Gurteen, 1998)
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Creativity Definitions
Innovation is assumed to be a process indistinct
and recursive stages stretching from idea
generation to implementation Creativity is
assumed to be the idea generation stage in the
innovation process
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Innovation adoption and implementation

• Innovation adoption- regarding decision to use
  innovation
• Innovation implementation - how effectively
  innovation is applied and measured
• Both relate to an organisations absorptive
  capacity for innovation

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Why Innovation management?

• Innovation represents the core renewal process in
  any organization
• Only 1 firm out of the Dow Jones index survived
  from the 20th century
• Whole industries can disappear as a result of
  radical innovation which rewrites rules of the
  game
• Innovations which destroy the existing order
  originate from newcomers and outsiders
• Few of the original players survive such
  transformations (Digital)

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Why Innovation Management?

• May be positive as in better health care
• or negative, as, for example, in increasing the
  availability of sophisticated weapons to
  terrorists
• (e.g. Internet)
• Either way we cannot ignore the central role
  innovations play - how do we manage innovation?

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Why Innovation Management?

• innovation is a survival imperative
• organizations must change what they offer and how
  they create and deliver that offering
• simply accumulating a large knowledge base may
  not be sufficient - as the cases of
  well-established firms e.g. Rolls Royce, IBM, GM,
  Kodak
• Innovation management involves constantly
  re-inventing for solutions to threats and
  opportunities

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Why Innovation Management?

• small firms may be preoccupied with fire-fighting
  and fail to see strategic signals until it is too
  late.
• large firms may become insulated from recognizing
  the value of new ideas
• Established players can do badly when
  discontinuous change takes place due to slow
  reactions
• not invented here effect

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Why Innovation Management?

• University of Ulster Science Park Incubators
  (USIs)
• Multi-campus USIs
• Multidiscipline innovation based research
• Commitment to improving the technology base of
  the NI economy
• Major focus on new and emerging technologies
• Postgraduate teaching in Innovation Management
• Focus on Innovation Management in the region- NI
  Plc.
• Innovation is a core value of the University of
  Ulster

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Why Innovation Management?

• New and emergent technology
• Erosion of traditional markets e.g. textiles
• Societal changes e.g. home working
• Quality, cost and cycle time pressures
• Major investment in time and resources in
  innovation
• Strategic imperative at Government level e.g.
  HEFCE , DETI, INI strategy
• Need for research and practice at firm level

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Innovation as a core business process

• Every organisation faces the same need to
  organize and manage this generic process
• the task of managing innovation is about creating
  firm specific routines repeated, reinforced
  patterns of behaviour which define its
  particular approach
• Innovation routines become internalized to the
  point of being unconscious or autonomous.
• They become part of the way we do things round
  here

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Innovation as a core business process

• Some implementation factors have to do with the
  core process of converting creative ideas into
  successful reality.
• But others have to do with creating the
  conditions under which such activity can flourish
  e.g. an organisation in which people contribute
  their ideas
• Good innovation management is less like a single
  event, such as the 100m sprint, and more like the
  pentathlon, in which there is a need for
  development of capabilities across a broad front
• The challenge here is one of learning
  increasingly through good practice routines for
  innovation management

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The process of Innovation Management

• Interfaces with almost all processes in the
  organisation
• Consists of systems or complex interaction of
  processes
• The process of new product/service development is
  a subset of the process of innovation

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The process of Innovation Management- dynamic and
complex

• Shocks trigger innovation
• Ideas proliferate
• Setbacks arise- over-optimism, mistakes
• Restructuring
• Commitment of top management
• Innovation involves learning plus events

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The process of innovation - dynamic and complex-
context variables

• Sector - Different priorities and
  characteristics- e.g. scale-intensive, science
  intensive, service based.
• Size - Small firms have less resources, more
  flexibility, so less formal and more linkages
• National systems of innovation - different
  supportive contexts in different countries and
  areas

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The process of innovation - dynamic and complex-
context variables

• Life cycle (of technology, industry, etc) -
  different stages in life cycle emphasis different
  aspects of innovation- e.g. new technology
  industries vs mature established firms

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The process of innovation - dynamic and complex -
uncertainty

• Uncertainty about ends i.e. what the output from
  the activity is likely to result in
• Uncertainty about means or approaches, i.e. how
  such an endpoint is likely to be arrived at
• Evaluation of uncertainty can result in
  accelerating, decelerating or stopping the
  programme

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Signal Processing Environment scanning collect fi
lter etc.
Strategy Analysis, choice Link to
core knowledge Assess costs risks,
benefits select priorities
Resourcing RD procure solutions to strategic
choices technology transfer
Implementation develop to maturity process
development people dev. launch commission
after sales support
Learning and re-innovation
Routines underlying the Innovation Process
(Bessant, 2003)
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Innovation - discontinuous

• There are points at which the rules change e.g.
  scientific progress creating new possibilities,
  or it may be a result of dramatic (shift from
  valve electronics in the period up to 1947 to the
  era of solid state and integrated circuits and
  the transistor).
• The challenge here is to develop what some
  writers have called 'the ambidextrous
  organisation'

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The process of innovation - problems with partial
views, innovation is only

• RD- unacceptable technology
• Specialist- lack of involvement/perspectives
• Meeting customer needs- lack of technical
  progression and future needs knowledge
• Technology advances- market misfits
• For large firms only- weak small firms,
  overdependance on few large customers

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The process of innovation - problems with partial
views, innovation only

• Only breakthrough changes- neglect inc.
  innovation ratchet, lack of holding gains
• Only key individuals- failure to use creativity
  of the workforce
• Only internally generated- outside ideas
  resisted, not invented here syndrome
• Only externally generated- shopping list
  mentality, little internal learning

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Creativity Innovation
A process approach to creativity and innovation
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High scoring group

• Used Quality in the context of their innovation
  programmes
• Quality improvement teams seen as enabling
  innovation to be applied
• Relatively informal approaches to Quality
• Clear understanding of the differences and
  synergies between Quality and innovation

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• Strong correlation between Quality and innovation
  in SMEs
• Quality acts as a foundation and an ongoing
  catalyst for innovation
• The high scoring group clearly understood the
  respective roles of Quality and innovation

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Innovation- policy

• Measurement of Innovation Management
• Tailoring of advice and support interventions to
  increase innovation capability development
• Research issues here focus on defining more
  clearly the particular development needs of
  particular groups of organisations, and on
  configuring flexible and diverse support
  mechanisms rather than assuming that one size
  fits all

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Research - measurement

• A central theme is the development of a coherent
  measurement framework for innovation.
• Although a variety of measures exist for inputs,
  outputs and the core process activities in
  innovation there is a need to link these into a
  coherent and integrated framework
• Organisations need a robust set of innovation
  measures to help them monitor their innovative
  activities

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Conclusions

• The market never stands still
• Innovation Management should be a core business
  process for all types of organisation
• There is a need for understanding in the
  organisational context

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Challenges in the field of Innovation
Managementbeyond gadgets and gizmos

• Professor Rodney McAdam