Global Perspectives on Innovation and Creativity - Term Paper Example

GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES ON INNOVATION AND CREATIVITY Table of contents Introduction 3 2. Setting 4 3. Framework 6 4. Analysis and Recommendations 8 5. Conclusion 10 References 11 Appendix 12 1. Introduction The strategic choices of organizations can be influenced by various factors. Most commonly, the targets that a firm has set in regard to its profits and its culture are used as the basis for the development of its strategy. However, the implementation of organizational strategies can be a quite difficult task. Failures in various organizational sectors can lead to severe damages on a firm’s reputation destroying, at the same time, the relationship between stakeholders. In the case under examination, CVS is a firm that operates in the US Pharmacy industry for quite a long. Since its first establishment, in 1963, the firm has managed to keep its customer services at high level. According to the case study, by 2002 the firm had under its control about 4,000 stores (case study, p.2). However, the growth of the firm revealed its weaknesses: a series of failures in customer services, especially during the process and the delivery of transcriptions, had led to numerous complaints by customers. The firm’s position in its industry is depended on its ability to improve its processes so that failures and delays are eliminated. The review of the case study has led to the assumption that there are two, key, questions that need to be answered in order for organizational efficiency to be secured: a) In which ways could the organization’s existing Innovation Teams be updated and re-structured? And b) Which techniques of the Business Process Management, as applied in this case, should be improved/ updated so that failures and delays in daily business operations are eliminated? In other words, the key concepts that need to be explored in this paper are: a) Innovation, especially in regard to Innovation Teams, and b) Business Process Management; the particular concept will be examined critically in combination with another important concept: Open Innovation. The two questions presented above are of high interest for the following reason: Innovation is a concept employed by most organizations worldwide; presenting the advantages and drawbacks of this concept would help firms to identify strategies that would allow them to promote innovation without being exposed to high risks. For Business Process Management a similar assumption could be developed, even if the specific concept is less popular than Innovation. In general, different techniques and theories are available in the literature for addressing the questions presented above. Among the existing theories those that are most appropriate for addressing the needs of the particular organization have been chosen and are analytically presented in the sections that follow. 2. Setting In CVS the involvement of Innovation and of Business Process Management as means for supporting daily operations can be identified in the following organizational activities: a) the Data Entry Process; during this process an employee ‘enter the data of customers/ patients in the firm’s IT system’ (case study, p.4); however, because of the system’s structure a high percentage of prescriptions are characterized by the system as invalid; then, employees need to check the prescription’s credibility by contacting the doctor who had signed the prescription; this process leads to severe delays, a fact that also affects the process of the prescription that follows at the next level; b) the Drug Utilization Review (DUR); the specific process has a unique function: in every new prescription that a patient brings to CVS the system makes, automatically, a comparison among all prescribed drugs, those included in the patient’s personal file, so that to ensure that ‘there will be no harmful drug-drug interaction’ (case study, p.5). This process can be considered as a reflection of the firm’s effort to promote Innovation. However, the particular process had resulted to an important problem: the percentage of prescriptions for which the system gives a notification to stop, as a result of the identification of harmful interaction between drugs, is high (case study, p.5). It should be noted that the particular failures of the organization’s processes can be related to the malfunction of the organization’s teams, i.e. the team of employees who are responsible for monitoring/ managing the specific processes. Failures in regard to the cooperation/ performance of the firm’s teams have been also reported in other business processes, especially the Pickup process (case study, p.8). The transformation of the firm’s teams to Innovative teams could lead to the elimination of failures in regard to the specific business processes. The introduction of Innovative teams, as part of the Innovation concept, would help the organization to maximize its performance in regard to the promotion of innovation. At the same time, the structure and quality of the business processes can be characterized as too simplified and quite inefficient. Delays exist almost in all processes of the organization while bad communication with insurance companies leads to the cancellation of many prescriptions. Moreover, many of the prescriptions are characterized as re-fill and are not approved by the system (case study, p.8). In this context, the firm’s plan for processing the prescriptions (case study, p. 5) should be reviewed using an appropriate theory, such as the Open Innovation theory, as explained below. 3. Theory Innovation is the framework on which the re-structuring of the firm’s processes will be based. In the literature, innovation has been defined as ‘adopted behaviours new to a group of organizations that share the same goals and technology’ (Daft and Becker 1978, in Mumford 2011, p.487). Through a different approach, innovation has been described as ‘the process of developing and implementing the invention’ (White and Bruton 2010, p.19). Two different concepts related to Innovation will be employed for addressing the problems identifying in the particular organization: a) the Innovative teams concept could be used for transforming the firm’s teams so that they become more effective in completing the tasks assigned to their members and b) the Open Innovation concept will be used for improving the firm’s processes. In regard to the specific organizational need another concept, the Business Process Management, could be also used. Innovation, as a framework, and the other concepts required for increasing the organization’s efficiency are described below. Innovative Team is a concept used for showing the following activity: certain employees of the organization form a group/ team and focus on the identification of innovative business practices (Bossink 2013). These practices need to be aligned with the organizational environment, meaning that they have to be feasible, in regard to the resources required, and appropriate in terms of the organizational culture and objectives (Bossink 2013). According to Midgley (2010) an Innovative Team should be able to initiate change, i.e. to secure the support of all employees to the introduction in the organization of innovative business practices; such initiatives could result to resistance since in most organizations change is faced, at least initially, with skepticism (Midgley 2010). Another aspect of Innovative Teams, as related to Innovation, is the following: Innovative Teams can be a quite successful means for promoting innovation within an organization because of the following reason: Innovative teams are based within the organization, being able to communicate continuously with all employees and to check all business activities (Mumford 2011). From a similar point of view, White and Bruton (2010) explained that in each organization the role and the powers of Innovation Teams need to be aligned ‘with the organization’s vision’ (p.354); otherwise, an Innovation Team could not support the promotion of Innovation in the particular organization. In regard to the second concept used in this paper, the Business Process Management (BPM), there are certain issues that need to be explained: a) BPM is, necessarily, related to change; in fact, most BPM techniques involved changes at average or at high level (Jeston and Nelis 2014, p.479); b) a BMP is based on certain actors, meaning especially the individuals, the physical assets and the non-physical assets of the organization involved in the organizational processes (Dumas et al. 2013, p.4); c) the success of a BMP is depended on certain factors; these can be categorized as follows: c1) these are the factors that ‘already exist in an organization when a BMP is introduced’ (Wasana et al. 2009, p.517) and those that appear afterwards (Wasana et al. 2009, p.517); culture is an example of the factors included in the first category. D) Moreover, the implementation of BMP can be a challenging task, due to the number of the processes/ phases involved (Figure 1, Appendix). It is implied that when having to introduce a BMP the expected responses of employees/ customers to the attempted change and the resources available for supporting the relevant project should be carefully checked in advance. In the context of the improvement of the processes of CVS another concept could be employed, in combination with BMP: Open Innovation. As a concept, Open Innovation introduces a unique strategy: instead of focusing in the empowerment of its internal environment, based only on its own sources, in Open Innovation a firm offers to an extended number of persons the chance to participate in the update of the firm’s processes and the promotion of innovation across the organization (Gould 2012). In businesses highly based on the quality of their processes, a ‘process-based Open Innovation model’ (Gould 2012, p.4) should be preferred. Such model is presented in Figure 2, Appendix. In order to be successfully implemented Open Innovation, as a business process, the following requirement should be met: ‘the inflows/ outflows of information from the internal organizational environment are fully allowed; in fact, these inflows and outflows can help the firm to develop a competitive advantage, such as a unique/ innovative practice. 4. Analysis and Recommendations The first concept used for enhancing the performance of CVS is the ‘Innovative Teams’. In CVS Innovative Teams could be successfully implemented in the following way: individuals among existing employees in each organizational department would be asked to participate in a group, under the name ‘Innovative Team’; the employees participating in this group would not leave their current position; they would try to promote innovation in their department by searching for innovative ideas, innovative materials used in the production process, innovative ways for delivering the final product/ drug to customer and so on. The members of the Team would participate in a monthly meeting for exchanging their views in regard to the issues they had to face in their department and for deciding on their plan of action in the future. In other words, in CVS the Innovative Team should not include a group of external consultants, but, rather by employees; in this way, the members of the Group could promote cooperation and communication, a target also achieved by the ‘interest based stakeholder management’, as analyzed below: A BMP technique that could help the organization to improve its processes can be the ‘interest-based stakeholder management’ (Jeston and Nelis 2014, p.483). This technique is based on the following view: emphasizing on the cooperation between its stakeholders could help an organization to promote innovation in regard to all its activities (Jeston and Nelis 2014, p.483). In the context of this technique the stakeholders of an organization can cooperate for identifying innovative practices so that organizational growth is secured. The implementation of the above BMP technique in CVS could be possibly based in a plan similar to that presenting in Graph 1, Appendix. It should be noted that the implementation and performance of BMP, as a concept, can be affected by ‘employee commitment’ (Ringim et al. 2012, p.83). Of course, other factors, such as ‘the investment on IT systems or the level of capital’ (Ringim et al. 2012, p.83), can also affect a BMP. In the specific case the reason that employee commitment is highlighted, as a factor related to BMP is the following: in CVS the use of Innovative Teams for promoting innovation has been decided. Using the view of Ringim et al. (2012) it could be derived that the success of these Teams would be low if their members would not be committed towards the organization. It has been noted above that CVS could enhance its efficiency by investing on Open Innovation. According to the above the answer to the two questions on which the study is based could be developed as follows: a) the firm’s existing teams should be improved; employees should be given the chance to participate in the promotion of organizational innovation by make their suggestions and by taking initiatives that can lead to the acquisition of a unique advantage; the identification of a unique production process is an example of this practice; the Innovative Team that would be established in the organization could have the power to control all business operations and services and to check for innovative practices so that their firm becomes innovative, either in the short term or in the long term. In regard to the second question of this study, the following explanation should be given: the firm’s processes could be improved by using the Business Process Management. This concept could be implemented in the Organization following a plan similar to that presenting in Figure 1 (Appendix). The interest-based stakeholder management’ model, a model of BPM, has been chosen (Jeston and Nelis 2014, p.483). The above theory could be combined with the theory of Open Innovation, at the level that Open Innovation requires commitment and participation of many people/ volunteers, as the interest-based stakeholder management theory. 5. Conclusion CVS, as a leading firm in the US Pharmacy Industry, has achieved a rapid growth, as a result of well-structured plans of organizational development. Still, the current pressures on economies worldwide are significant. Therefore, in order to secure its market position CVS has to identify innovative strategies; each of these strategies would have different requirements. The use of strategies that have been extensively tested in practice could secure the success of the attempted re-structuring of the organization. For example, the employment of concepts such as the Innovative Teams and BMP while trying to measure certain aspects of real life could significantly increase the firm’s performance in the promotion of innovation. In this way also, the firm could retrieve answers to the questions presented above, i.e. it could develop highly effective teams and could highly improve its processes. In any case, CVS has many prospects for resolving its critical operational problems. Still, this target could be achieved only if the organization would decide to define clearly its processes in all their aspects; up to now, the organization has not employed such approach probably for keeping its processes flexible, a practice though that led to an opposite outcome. References Bossink, B., 2013. Eco-Innovation and Sustainability Management. London: Routledge. Daft, R., 2009. Management. 9th ed. Belmont: Cengage Learning. Dumas, M., La Rosa, M., Mendling, J. and Reijers, H., 2013. Fundamentals of Business Process Management. London: Springer. Gould, R., 2012. “Open Innovation and Stakeholder Engagement.” Journal of Technology Management and Innovation. 7(3): 1-11 Jeston, J. and Nelis, J., 2014. Business Process Management. London: Routledge. Lehmann, C., 2012. Strategy and Business Process Management: Techniques for Improving Execution, Adaptability, and Consistency. Boca Raton: CRC Press. McAdam, R. and McCormack, D., 2001. “Integrating business processes for global alignment and supply chain management.” Business Process Management Journal, 7(2): 113-130. Midgley, D., 2010. The Innovation Manual: Integrated Strategies and Practical Tools for Bringing Value Innovation to the Market. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons. Mumford, M., 2011. Handbook of Organizational Creativity. London: Academic Press. Ravesteyn, P., Batenburg, R. 2010. “Surveying the critical success factors of BPM-systems implementation.” Business Process Management Journal, 16(3), 492-507 Ringim, K., Razalli, M., and Hasnan, N., 2012. “ Critical Success Factors for Business Process Management for Small and Medium Banks in Nigeria.” Business and Management Review, 2(1): 83 – 91 Wasana, B., Ahmad, A. and Aghdasi, M., 2009. “Means of achieving Business Process Management success factors.” In: Proceedings of the 4th Mediterranean Conference of Information Systems, 25-27 September 2009, Athens University of Economics and Business, Athens White, M., and Bruton, G., 2010. The Management of Technology and Innovation: A Strategic Approach. 2nd ed. Belmont: Cengage Learning. Appendix Figure 1 – The implementation process of BPM (source: Ravesteyn and Batenburg 2010, p.11) Figure 2 – A process-based Open Innovation Model (source: Gould 2012, p.4) Read More