Technological Discontinuity and Corporate Alliances

A technological discontinuity might be defined as a breakthrough innovations that advances by an order of magnitude the technological state-of-art, which characterize an industry. Technological discontinuities are based on new technologies whose technical limits are inherently greater than those of the previous dominant technology along economically relevant dimensions of merit. Organizations are now being managed through a period of discontinuity because of revolutionary technological changes causing what they called “creative destruction”: where existing methods are changed in favor of new and better methods. Each technological discontinuity brings about a technological cycle. Some discontinuous innovations are competence destroying, while others are competence enhancing. Competence enhancing is when a breakthrough pushes forward a new state by building on an existing knowledge, while competence destroying totally obsoletes the old technology and knowledge and replaces them with new products and brings about new learning curve. Usually competency-destroying discontinuities require new skills, abilities, and knowledge Continue reading

Types of Innovation and Mapping the Innovation Space

There are different types of innovation. There are four broad categories of innovation. Following these categories are referred as the 4Ps of innovation: ‘product innovation’ — changes in the things (products/services) which an organization offers. ‘process innovation’ — changes in the ways in which they are created and delivered. ‘position innovation’ — changes in the context in which the products/services are introduced. ‘paradigm innovation’ — changes in the underlying mental models which frame what the organization does. For example, the new version of a car, a new bank account offer and a new home personnel computer are all examples of a product innovation. In comparison to a product innovation a change in the production process and machines used to manufacture the car or the home computer these examples are process innovations. Similar the example of the new bank account offer if this came up by changing procedures and sequencing in Continue reading

10 Important Types of Innovation with Examples

Innovation is a very diverse term. In general, innovation means exploiting new ideas or change existing ones for the betterment. Innovation focuses on being creative at work. It can be technological, which includes product innovation or process innovation. Also, it can be related to changing business model, exploiting new markets, and developing new processes. The main aim of innovation it so make the business more successful. This can be done by increasing market share of an existing product or introducing a new product or reducing the cost of production. Innovation is important for both employees and the owner of the business. For the owner of the business, innovation helps to keep up with the competition. With the fast growing pace of competition, the organizations have to be on toes to keep an eye on the work of their competitors. The new processes or technologies developed by the competitors can be Continue reading

Innovation – Definition and Types

Innovation is an important concept to understand as a manager and for an organisation as a whole. Used in the correct manner, innovation can give an organisation the competitive advantage they need to be a success in their market. Firstly, it is useful to look at innovation in general. Innovations are ideas that are developed into new products or processes. They result in changes that customers recognize as new. Put in even simpler terms, innovation is the process of making improvements by introducing something new. Therefore, the two words that sum innovation up are ‘process’ and ‘new’. Defining Innovation Innovation is doing things in new ways in order to achieve significant results and make a huge difference in performance compared to others. Innovation’s goal is to have a positive change, to make someone or something better. Testing and evaluation of ideas is critical in achieving this goal. The ideas that Continue reading

How Creativity Helps in Problem Solving Process?

The first step of problem solving is to define the problem. Although this may sound trivial, in many cases it is not. Many people and organisations rush in to tackle a problem by finding a solution, without previously knowing that the problem really is. So, to achieve a solution, one first has to fully understand the problem. Once the problems have been clearly defined, the most important factor in solving it is creativity. Creativity is required in order to create a ask the right questions about the problem and find the correct and appropriate answers to them, creativity is necessary in order to provide “out of the box” ideas and suggestions and creativity is what defines the process of finding a new way in doing things. Brainstorming is a very popular way to solve a problem and it is a characteristically creative method. It involves the rapid exchange of ideas, Continue reading

Strategic Entrepreneurship

Strategic Entrepreneurship is integration of two disciplines: Entrepreneurship (Identifying opportunities through Innovation) and Strategic Management (Manage the firm’s resources/innovation efforts). So we can define strategic entrepreneurship as a firm’s efforts to exploit its today’s competitive advantages while exploring for the innovations that will be the foundation of tomorrow’s competitive advantages. Identifying opportunities to exploit through innovation is entrepreneurship dimension of strategic entrepreneurship, while determining the best way to manage the firm’s innovation efforts is the strategic dimension. Entrepreneur is a word derived from French language which means: “One who undertakes” and entrepreneurial capabilities are conditions in which new good or services can be launched to satisfy a need in the market. These opportunities exist because of the competitive imperfections in markets and among the factors of production and to produce them and when information about these imperfections is distributed asymmetrically among individuals. As a process, entrepreneurship results in creative destruction Continue reading