Innovation and Excellence | Leadership information

Innovation and Excellence

Creativity is essential for building up self - reliance and self- confidence. The creative man is not afraid to meet difficult situations, and to accept challenges. Problems become his daily bread and give him strength. he is constantly trying, testing, experimenting and innovating - making small changes all the time so that innovation becomes a habit. The successful companies are the ones who are creative. It is not the big grandiose plans and projects which make the difference. but the small improvements and changes which are implemented in the hundreds and thousands with speed and purpose by people who have mastered the skill of getting things done, who are not afraid, who stick their necks out, who learn and try, make mistakes, but don't give up.

The characteristics of innovation are as under;

• It involves more of management than engineering, since its focus is on value to the customer. It is more economic and social, rather than technical.
• It may not involve any great deal of technology, yet have far reaching effects.
• It is capable of being presented as a discipline, capable of being taught, learnt and practiced.
• Innovation flourishes in a democratic and decentralized environment.
• Innovations can be diffused by adoption in the market - place.
• Organizations can renew themselves by adoption of innovations which are new to them but not to the outside world; e.g. by imitation. Here consultants are useful by bringing into the organization ideas from the outside world.
• The innovator is the first, but he may not be the best, or the most successful. Others, through imitation, but with better management and strategies, may achieve greater success.
• The innovation should be differentiated from operations improvement as it has much greater strategic impact, disrupting the status quo, and affecting the balance of power and influence in the organization.

If an organization takes a new innovation based on new knowledge and technology, the management must keep in mind that very soon others will follows, the market will get crowded, the window will shut and the shake out will start. On the other hand, an organization can be also a user of knowledge-based innovation, using innovations as competitive weapons, and as means of enhancing productivity. Such organizations, by continued adoption and implementation, institutionalize innovation.