Innovative Practices Become Key Ingredients of Success - Essay Example

The article ‘Connect and Develop’ has raised the important issue of innovation that is necessary for firms to maintain their niche market position. In the contemporary times of competitive global business environment, various mechanisms that promote innovative practices become key ingredients of success. ‘Connect and Develop’ is a highly successful process, evolved by Proctor & Gambles, that is networking-driven and exploits ideas generated from external sources to produce innovative products.   P&G has successfully tested ideas from external agencies to identify changing customers’ requirements, identify adjacencies that may complement its existing products, and in general, develop new products that anticipate customers’ needs. The networked solution generates a pool of creative ideas that are tested for their relevance and undergo comprehensive R&D, marketing research, marketing, and other functions before they are launched. It has given P&G a significant competitive advantage in the market.

            ‘Tapping the World’s Innovation Hot Spots’ informs one about the different ways firms innovate to meet their strategic goals. The authors have broadly identified five major models of innovations that are used by firms: focused factory; brute force; Hollywood; large-scale ecosystem; and system integration. The focused factory model concentrates on a few tasks or fields using a talent pool to innovate. Brute Force utilizes a large number of ideas to develop highly useful and creative products. Firms forge alliances with universities and academia to tap new ideas. Hollywood model helps create a special place like Silicon Valley where smart entrepreneurs gather and thrash out new ideas for innovation.