Managing Innovation

Innovation is developing or creating new ideas (a new device or process) resulting from study, research or experience. Innovation management is the discipline of managing processes in innovation. In an organization, many employees may provide their new ideas. They may be very innovative. The management must have the open mind and accept these ideas. In this way, the employees will also be motivated to perform better and will create in them more interest to work. They will feel important and appreciated.  The success of a business is not just becoming comfortable. In today’s industry there are many competitors and those who innovate best will be the "number one" company.  To remain competitive, companies should not only produce products but also provide offers, add features, improve performance and lower costs. Those who are responsible for the application of innovations are called pioneers in the field. Innovation is often confused with invention. This has to be clearly explained in the organization to the employees. For innovation to occur, something more that just idea generation should be processed. There are several sources of innovation.

The following are a few steps for managing innovation effectively.     

• Expose the innovation process
• Facilitate the process
• Recognize step by step process
• Start talking
• Build bridges
• Remove barriers
• Sponsor

Innovation requires action. The innovation process in many cases is a maze. To start, the company needs to create opportunities for people to exchange ideas, and knowledge across the organization like social gatherings, joint training programs, interdisciplinary teams etc. It’s amazing how people spend only little time in good conversations. Sometimes, the coffee machine becomes the source of inspiration. Get the employees to start giving ideas about your position in the industry, competitors, internal forces and various other factors. Innovators should be awarded for having advanced their project. Make sure the company has differences about the success of the innovation and success of the project. In addition, many innovators need to develop some competencies. Innovation also has some budgets to be planned and developed.

Review Questions:

• What is innovation? 
• How can you manage innovation effectively?