Innovation in Practice

Organisational culture is refer to the organisations general cultures in terms of the company own values, traditions, beliefs and norms. Although management styles are different in different organisational such as the non profit organisation or charity; however culture with good decision making would in turn influences employee motivation and engagement

The Organisational culture of the company Google is very different with other organisation, it had  created an innovative working  environment for its employees so evidence suggest it motivates the employees further  so therefore an  increase in productivity for individuals and benefits the organisation as a whole 

Innovation Strategy

Organisations have different strategies in order to achieve innovation, these include:

n       Product-market focused strategies

n       Re-positioning

n       Diversification

n       Supply Chain

n      Cost Reduction

n       Differentiation

n       Niche Markets

The above determine when and where innovation is required to meet the aims of the organisation.

By creating an innovation strategy that details, clear targets and tactics. The clear targets will help the innovator know what their aim and objectives are, this leads to the improvement in the innovative process.

Figure 3.2  Questions driving innovation strategy

Source: Adapted from Liedtka and Rosenblum, 1996

The above diagram shows the different types of strategy questions which an organisation might encounter upon operation, it comprised with new innovative thoughts in order for the organisation’s to achieve long term success:

-Industry threats and opportunities

-Organisational competencies

-Values of key corporate members?

-Social responsibilities?

Each innovation strategy requires innovation for these strategies to work successfully, a combination of strategies must be thought upon;  however the innovation will occur in different areas and each innovation strategy can be risky in reality. Even if the firm perceives it as being low risk but overall accepting that failure is part of success when developing strategies

Creativity and Innovation

In innovation, creativity is a very important issue in producing the better and more efficient products, processes or services. Creativity is the ability to produce lots of new ideas, which includes looking at issues such as resolving long term complaints and cost reduction in the production process in relation with the quality of the product. However other contributing processes include the  examining and the ability to rethink an old idea, this is very important towards thinking up a new application for an existing technology. 

Figure 2.3  The three domains for creative action

Source: Gundry et al., 1994

The Formation of a creative organisation is consisted of a mixture of Education, environment and application. In education, through creative thinking, members of the organisation should come up with a new process in solving problems. Through environment, by understanding the logic and principle of the current climate this could lead to the creation of a more innovative processes and ideas. The main key factor for this model to work is it needs all the three key sectors to  instigate with the organisation. 


Due to the recent global recession, organisations are less keen in risk taking. This results in a fall of  creative thinking and creation of new ideas, as the potential financial benefits may not outweigh the initial risk involved. 

Housing development

Innovation is a process where new creation of an ideas are being developed in terms of more effective products, processes and technology 

From the houses built in the tudors period to houses built in the modern times, many aspects had changed due to the fact that better technology/factiles are being fitted into the new houses where it’s overall objective is to minimize cost. 

Benefits of the new eco houses

• Over twice the levels of insulation required under current regulations.
• Solar water heating.
• Water recycling for toilet flushing, washing machine and garden use
• High-performance timber framed windows positioned to maximise solar gain
• Full-house mechanical heat recovery and ventilation system
• Cellulose (recycled newspaper) roof insulation
• Low-energy light fittings

Although new eco houses are proven affective towards environmental issues such as postponing climate change and cost saving factors, this could only happen in the long term which rate of return would take up to 25 or more years to happen, so would it be better to purchase a cheap non-eco friendly house where you will be saving money in the short term or a house where overall beneficial in the long term. 

What Is innovation ??

Innovation is often described as introducing something new; it is useful only to the inventor unless it is offered to the public. Such invention can improve some products, process or services by turning creative ideas in to practice 

With innovation, organisations can gain a competitive advantage through the ideas they have and by producing a product that is innavative, this innovation will result in an added value to the organisation which consequently result in a competitive advantage. 
There are three different approaches that influence innovation: Continuous Innovation, Disruptive Innovation and Business Innovation; For continuous innovation, it is all about minor changes towards existing products or services, although this innovation process is frequently and often on-going, this is in order to be able to make better products via research and development. On the other hand disruptive innovation can be much more risky compare with continues innovation due to the fact that employees must embrace a radically different approach towards the product, this include introduction of new technologies, products or services so overall promote changes and gain advantage over the competition .

Innovation is the creation of the new or the re-arranging of the old in a new way – Michael Vance.