Simon Sinek (2010). The Golden Circle. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVnN4S52F3k.
Last checked January 19 2012.
http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/1805061/uk-government-launches-gbp125m-environmental-innovation-fund - Last Checked January 19 2012
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYF2_FBCvXw Interview with Michael Porter. Last Checked January 19 2012.
Romer, PM (2010). Innovation: The Five Disciplines for Creating What Customers Want . Stamford University: Curtis Ray Carlson, William W.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GtgSkmDnbQ interview with CIO of google. Last Check January 19 2012.
Apple: A textbook case of innovation, written by Dominic Basulto on the website http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/innovations/post/apple-a-textbook-case-of-innovation/2010/12/20/gIQA2IZHBQ_blog.html Last Checked January 19 2012.
http://www.fastcompany.com/most-innovative-companies/2011/profile/nissan.php Interview with the CEO of Nissan. Last Checked January 19 2012.
WWW.INNOVATION-POINT.COM, Palmer & Kaplan, Page 6, 2007. Last Checked January 19 2012
http://www.ingenia.org.uk/ingenia/issues/issue24/dyson.pdf Article on 'James Dyson on Innovation'.Last Checked January 19 2012.
Managing and Shaping Innovation, Conway, F. Steward, Oxford University Press, 2009, Page 291.
And now, the time is near, and so i face, the final curtain...
I have thoroughly enjoyed this unit. I have enjoyed developing my skills to ensure that when I leave University I can be innovative myself. I have really enjoyed looking into the innovative side of other companies and have enjoyed writing a blog. I definitely prefer writing a blog than doing assignments.
I feel that I have accomplished a lot within this unit, and I have grown a massive interest in the area of Innovation. I find it fascinating that people can develop new products so quickly and at such ease. One of the most inspirational people to me throughout this unit has been Steve Jobs. What a fantastic man. He was so focused on Innovation and he has come so far and done so well from being that focused. Although he was criticised for his behaviour behind closed doors in Apple, I aspire to be like him. Never say never. Nothing is impossible.
I hope you have enjoyed my blog. Thankyou for reading.
Ta ta for now!
£125m Environmental Innovation Fund
On the 26th January, 2010, the UK government formally launched what they called the UK Innovation Investment Fund (UKIIF). This fund is designed to encourage environmental innovation to improve and develop on the country we live in. To begin with, the fund will start investing in small growing businesses. By providing help to companies that are struggling in the current economic climate, the government have ensured that they can do their best to ensure we are not a broken country when the recession is over.
Do I believe this fund is beneficial to companies, and the environment we live in? I believe this fund will encourage innovation within struggling companies, and in turn will benefit our economy. There are so many talented, innovative people out there, who are just trying to break into the industry and show their talents. This fund will help to do that. Anything to encourage innovation is a good idea in my book. The world is changing, and we need to change with it.
Sorry for the short blog entry!
Porters 5 Forces
Recently I have discovered a model which is used to analyse how a business works. This model is called The Five Forces and was developed by Michael E. Porter in 1979. Porters Five Forces are as follows:
Competitive Rivalry within an Industry: All companies have competitors, and each company strives to be the best. There has to be some kind of competitive edge to this race to be number 1. A business has to ask themselves, how can we ensure our customers are more satisfied? How can we make our products better? How can we make the lives of our customers easier? How can we make the lives of our staff easier? Competition is not a bad thing, especially between companies.
Bargaining Power of Suppliers: The ability of the workforce and what is needed to create new products must be taken into account. If the products needs employees with specialist qualifications to complete it, or the materials that they are using will be scarce, then supplier power will be increased. This is called Supply and Demand.
Bargaining Power of Customers: Buyer Power must be taken account for. Buyer power can put a firm under pressure to complete new products quickly. This can also affect the customer’s sensitivity to price changes.
Threat of New Entrants: If one specific market is very profitable and is making lots of money, it is then going to attract more people to begin working in this field. This means there are more competitors to deal with. This could eventually decreased profit-making within the company.
Threat of Substitute Products: Will our customers switch to a different product? If we sell fairy washing up liquid, could our customers start to buy a different brand? A company must consider how many alternative products there are in their niche market and use innovation to try and come up with ideas on how to keep their customers interested in that one product.
Follow this link to find a YouTube video of an interview with Michael E Porter himself, talking about his model.
Golden Ring Theory
The golden circle theory is a theory that was created by Simon Sinek. The theory consists of three rings, which have the subheadings why, who and what. Simon Sinek stated that:
‘The most successful businesses work differently from the norm, they work from the inside out.’
The norm would be considered as how most businesses operate on a daily basis. Normally, the right decisions are made and this leads to success within the business. Business show what they sell, who they are going to sell it too and then display why a customer would want to buy this item.
According to this theory, businesses who work differently from the norm benefit more. This theory has been criticised saying that businesses have either a high level of innovation or no innovation whatsoever. This has been proven to be wrong, as all business have a small level of innovation built within them. This can explain why some companies can survive in such a harsh market. Innovation can be classed as changing something small within a business such as uniform, to create a positive effect within the workplace. Some companies use innovating to improve their products for their customers needs. Others who are doing well within the market, use innovation to improve the lfies of their employees etc.
Innovation can be used in many different ways, and we must ensure that we do not just assume innovation is used for 'inventing' new products. It can be used for motivating employees etc.
Process of Innovation
no need for new products = no innovation
There has to be a reason for innovation to take place. If there were no needs for new products, then there would be no need to develop new products or ideas.
There is a process that innovation has to take to flow smoothly. In this blog entry I will be delving into this process.
Identify the Problem: To begin with, there has to be a problem which needs fixing. If there is no problem, there is no need for innovative ideas. If there is a problem with any product/service, there is always the potential for innovation. There are many different problems that we as customers face on a daily basis. For example, train journeys being too long. East Midland Trains have the potential to innovate based on this problem and potentially come up with a solution. There must be a lot of time and effort put into innovation. One question I ask is, surely the process of innovation is time consuming? This is therefore a problem, so is there not an innovative way to improve the process of innovation? Confusing, I know.
Planning: Not all innovation is planned. Scientific innovation, yes. With business innovation, is is easy to create intentional innovation. Intentional innovation can have consequences that will not have been planned for. One problem with unplanned innovation is that it might not work.
Change: When innovating, you have to bring change to a bad situation. Even just improving this situation slightly, but not solving it at all is still an accomplishment. An innovator needs to ensure they have comprehensive knowledge of the problem and that they know how to solve this problem. They must ask themselves questions such as ‘How can this benefit the customers?’ and ‘Is this solution really feasible?’. If no change comes out of this ‘solution’, then the problem has not been solved, and therefore it will not be classed an innovative. Innovation would have been used when trying to come up with the solution, but it will not have been successful innovation.
Costs: How much will this solution cost to implement? If the innovation is worth the money, and will eventually bring back a return in the money invested in this idea, then it is credible. It is always a risk investing money into an innovative idea, as no one can ever be sure of the consequences.
Opportunity: There has to be an opportunity to innovate. If I were a manager, I would ensure that my work force were mentally stimulated to ensure the best development for the creativity. After all, innovation is the birth child of creativity.
Advantage: Does this innovative idea give me some sort of advantage over my competitors? If yes, all systems are go. If no, it’s a no show.
Innovation does not have to follow a set process. Understandably, people can look back and think of ideas as to how they could have innovated better etc. But instead of looking back and having regrets, people should analyse how they did and use this to help them in future innovative quests.
If anyone is interested, this video is a presentation by the CIO at Google, talking about Innovation. Actually pretty interesting, take a look!
Most innovative business to date?
It is not the sole responsibility of an innovator to come up with a new, exciting and different product, but also to identify the problems that customers are facing, what they would like to see in a new product and relate this product to these needs. A product that no-one needs is not going to be profitable.
It seems that once again Apple have cracked their way into another market. Apple have began to publish textbooks on their products. The 2 problems I have when purchasing textbooks is:
A) Price - They are far too expensive. Normally around £40-£45 each. Being a student, it is a known fact that I dont not have money coming out of my ears.
B) Size - They are big, bulky, maybe even 600 pages each. This means it takes so much more effort to carry them to and from lectures.
Once again, Apple have managed to solve this problem for me. With their new textbook publishing initivative, its is possible to buy textbooks and store them on my iPad. This way, they are lightweight, and when i am purchasing them for an average of about $14 each, they are also saving me money.
Apple have managed to crack a $10 billion market, and are going to do well.
Do I believe that Apple are the most innovative business to date? You can bet your iPad I do.
RIP STEVE JOBS
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