LEADING INNOVATION AND CHANGE

LEADING INNOVATION AND CHANGE
SOME MORE THOUGHTS ON REVISION
Attendance at Unit Five Lecture One was limited. This is a pity because there is material in this unit of use with respect to both assignment options. You can look at the lecture slides on-line and of course there’s the notes in the module handbook but it might be helpful if I pointed people in the right direction.

The lecture pointed out that innovation in the Twenty First Century is a complex phenomenon. It’s spilling out over organisational boundaries and bringing enterprises together in complex network relationships. These generate synergy and opportunities and spark creativity. Enterprises – even competitors – can cooperate together in networks to develop and promote innovation. The Department of Business Innovation and Skills runs a kind of cross between a dating agency and Dragons’ Den called Innovation UK putting blue chip companies in touch with SMEs who are recognised as a rich source of innovation. It’s like buying in your innovation but both parties get something out of it – the SMEs can bring innovations to market and the companies can share in and possibly benefit from them also. The classic example of networking is the ‘Connect and Develop’ programme of Proctor and Gamble which involves networking across the globe to generate innovation opportunities, partners and relationships. The technical term is ‘open innovation’ but it’s really just networking writ large.
One particular manifestation of networks are regional clusters – heavy concentrations of similar enterprises surrounded by a ring of suppliers. Silicon Valley is the most obvious and famous example. Porter’s Diamond is a ‘tool’ – a way of thinking about how to ‘measure’ a country’s competiveness and ‘innovation potential’. Porter identifies a number of factors such as physical and intellectual capital (lots of resources and skills?); the nature of markets (are they demanding and informed?); are there related and supporting industries to support your major sectors and industries (good, their inputs stimulate innovation and competition) and the last category is ‘strategy, structure and rivalry’ (how companies are managed, matters as does the degree and intensity of competition in the different sectors). Policy-makers will seek to address all aspects of Porter’s Diamond. They seek to encourage skills and a supply of qualified labour (Point One). Not much they can do directly in Point 2 but Point 3 involves promoting networking in general and regional clusters in particular. Point 4 – we have legislation promoting competition and guarding against monopoly.
What can you extract from this for your assignment?
Assignment One: One of the hallmarks of an innovative organisation is an outward looking, proactive and ‘engaged’ culture which is open to new ideas wherever they come from – up, down or sideways. They don’t suffer from the ‘not invented here’ syndrome. You might want to say that one way to be ‘engaged’ and ‘outward looking’ is, where appropriate, to embrace partnerships, alliances, network relationships and to work with others in an ‘open innovation’ relationship.
It might also be useful to note that it’s a complex world out there. As we know there are things organisations can do to be innovative but they exist in an environment that constrains them, which shapes possibilities and opportunities. A major force is a country’s NIS. Then there is the national culture and the type of capitalism – all inter-related and all important from the point of view of ‘context’ (the culture shapes the Nis and the type of capuitalism is an aspect of the culture). From the point of view of Option One however, the point is simple – organisations are located in a complex environment and they are not totally masers of themselves.
Assignment Two: Lots of relevant material if you are doing this NIS assignment but the point can be made in a sentence. A NIS will include policies and practices and initiatives of the kind promoted in and through Porter’s Diamond (its provisions are widely and generally used as a basis for policy on competitiveness). Some of these policies are more prominent than others – the promotion of networking in general and regional ‘clustering’ in particular is one.
I will leave it to you to fish out of the last lecture next week (and the handbook) anything which might be useful for your assignment. Remember: it’s not over until the fat lady sings.