Emerging Technology and Innovation - Coursework Example

INVENTION By and Introduction Innovation is one of the major basic factors that stand as a measure for gauging entrepreneurs from non-entrepreneur. Creating a company that capitalizes and unleashes on innovation in a constant manner is qui te a difficult task. Many companies are left with no other choice other than to innovate owing to the hypercompetitive global economy. The element of innovation cannot be overstated as it is risky and complex at the same time. Companies that embrace risk taking and true innovation will always flourish. This is quite evident as many innovations will always fail numerous times before they are adopted by the top level management. This formulates the foundation of this paper which seeks to provide useful insights on the evaluation of the methods and reasons that motivate companies to innovate, a case of EE Limited. Literature Review True and game changing innovations are quite a hard nut to crack for many companies. As Bhatt (2001) argues, “knowledge management process can be categorized into knowledge creation, knowledge validation, knowledge presentation, knowledge distribution, and knowledge application activities (pp 68-75). It is core for any company to capitalize on knowledge and be able to juggle between knowledge management activities. This goes further into aspects of changing of the culture, techniques and technology of the organization in order to motivate innovation. When a company focuses its energies on technology, technique and people, it is relatively implied that knowledge can be managed. Other scholars however argue that much focus on people, technology, and techniques do not automatically lead to knowledge management. What is needed most is the interaction between these aspects thus ensuring effectiveness of the management. Bhatt argues that “by creating a nurturing and “learning‐by‐doing” kind of environment, an organization can sustain its competitive advantages (2001, pp 68-75).” This therefore implies that many companies employ balance between aspects of knowledge management as not only a method but a reason to motivate innovation to realize competitiveness in the hypercompetitive market. Creating an environment for open innovation is another aspect that touches on the methods and reasons companies employ to motivate innovation. There is a lot of courage that is buried in the word encourage. In order to ensure that a company’s innovation flourishes, it takes much of courage to encourage. It is significant to note that companies are focusing on Open Innovation which is an avenue of enhancing their innovation. In-house research department alone in company setups have proved not enough in conveying innovation in a much complex and hypercompetitive global markets. According to Antikainen (2010), “open innovation is a process designed to accelerate innovation through collaboration (pp 440-456).” This means that under this approach, companies are forced to cooperate with external entities on new ideas in an attempt to engender business opportunities. The Institute for Manufacturing Briefing, Cambridge (2009) argues that the reasons for adopting this approach is as according to the research conducted by IfM’s Centre for Technology Management which looked at 36 companies who came up with 36 Cambridge Open Innovation Network. “The study found more than one motivation for moving towards a more open approach to innovation (IfM’s Briefing 2009, para. 5).” Among the reasons, short time to market, finding new ideas, access to additional competence, cost reduction, and new markets are the major reasons for adopting Open Innovation. On the same vein, it is equally critical to note that companies tend to understand the types of motivators for their members thus boosting their motivation to innovate. This is in a bid to attract and enhance commitment of the uses’ to engage in the online open innovation. According to Antikainen (2010), “both monetary and non-monetary rewards can be used for motivating participation (pp 440-456).” This is according to the study he conducted which focuses on studying the role of rewarding in online open innovation intermediaries. The survey data was collected from interviews with the community maintainers of three open innovation intermediaries. This was also enhanced by web surveys on the communities maintained by them. Findings from his research indicate that in the studied communities, respondents from the web survey saw monetary rewarding as significant, as well as non-monetary rewarding based on the quality of ideas (Antikainen 2010, pp. 440-456). Recognition of innovation in every part of the company is still the work of companies. This calls for nurturing cultures of creativity, agility and innovation. Motivators to members of a company call for a great deal of collaboration and support. When people in a company are surrounded by encouragement and communication, it becomes easy to identify monetary rewarding that is specific to each member. Exploiting the linkages between innovation and competitiveness is very core in motivating innovation in a company. It is important to also note that there is so much creativity and innovation at the disposal of managers of companies from the members of their companies. Technology has completely democratized innovation hence it is key to exploit this key linkage. McAdam and McClelland (2002, pp. 86-97) point out that customer-driven innovation is important for companies. Human value management is a concept of great value as it examines the relationship that exists between competitiveness, advancements and innovation. This also goes further into comparing these aspects with knowledge management which also brings on board an array of considerations regarding how these relationships affect strategic management and the formulation of competitive strategies. This basically trickles to considerations of how knowledge management is related to personal development and personal characteristics which provide the link between innovation and competitiveness. This is an aspect used to motivate innovation and is used by companies to motivate motivation. It is paramount to understand that by putting innovation at the heart of strategy, innovation is motivated. Fostering collaboration and communication across company structures is a culture to foster innovation. This concept embraces systematic and intuitive methods for new idea conception. According to Monge, Cozzens & Contractor (1992) reports on their research indicate that communication variables caused organizational innovation. This was a research designed to test a dynamic model of the causes of organizational innovation. The level of information and group communication are variables of communication and motivational variables (Monge, Cozzens & Contractor 1992). It is through these variables that prediction of the number of innovation which was being contributed by members of the organizations was deduced. “Weekly data were collected for over a year from five firms and were analyzed with multivariate time series techniques. Across the five firms, the variance explained by the model ranged from a low of 30 percent to a high of 78 percent. In four of the five firms, the forecast accuracy for the amount of individual innovation ranged from a low of 77 percent to a high of 85 percent (Monge, Cozzens & Contractor 1992, p. 72)”. Abilities to foster collaborative and communication in company hierarchy in the context of innovation describe the knowledge that is used by company members to generate new ideas. Technology and its Role in EE’s Operation Mobile telecommunication is an industry that is technological dependent and intensive industry. EE being a company that owns and operates mobile networks and internet service provision tends to use technology in all its operation. Everything Everywhere has embraces new technologies as evident by provision of 4G LTE services which has profound impact on the mobile operators. This is so because mobile operators use more internet data due to advanced features and high speed. The fact that the company provides its network to 29 MVNOs, including Virgin Mobile and ASDA Mobile is a clear indication that the company is involved in intensive use of technology and innovation. Everything Everywhere boasts of capitalizing on technological advances to deliver new ways of working and increasing efficiency and effectiveness for business people in the global market. Everything Everywhere has used technology in doing away with artificial restrictions by developing device technology to use and integrate core system and applications for businesses to enable business activities (EE 2014). Through the new M2M technology, Everything Everywhere has been able to come up with a management platform which is self-servicing in nature and provides its customers with a quick and sure way of accessing and managing their account information. This is a SIM technology which provides their customers with the ability to use their SIM accounts. This technology goes further on to aspects of tariffs, connection profiles, SIM ordering facilities and call detail records. This technological trend has seen the company intend to come up with a new technology to complement the M2M platform that will see its customers integrate M2M operations into existing CRM systems and other applications that has to do with business. Incubation of new M2M technology will encourage innovation and will see new ideas generated hence it will see more products and services available to the market (EE 2013). Innovations at EE Innovation is fostered at Everything Everywhere for its business services owing to a number of areas of focus that the company has developed. Machine to machine (M2M) is one of the innovations by Everything Everywhere that has seen numerous operations automated which are currently manual. This is a technological innovation that is expected to initiate a shift in business especially in transport, supply chain and retail businesses. On the same vein, mobile solutions for healthcare are intended to create new markets for the company. This technology innovation was developed in a bid to reduce costs of health services and increase productivity of health care providers and institutions. Everything Everywhere is not short of innovation as it has ensures information is everywhere. This has been made so by the company coming up with technological innovations aimed at eliminating artificial restrictions. This is through devices which integrate and use core systems and business applications in channels and devices to enhance business everywhere (Andrew 2012). The company too seeks to develop and enhance telephony with improved abilities in crystal clear mobile calls. This is a technology that will reduce background noise hence opening up new applications for the mobile technology which will see the use of the device in noisy environments, broadcasting hence providing the best environment for communications in business transactions. Partnerships between Everything Everwhere and M2M technology is a nut cracker for helping the company penetrate its global market. It is through this technology that GPS tracking in devices will be installed in anywhere and help in fleet management, recover stolen vehicles and smart insurance among others. Devices for the connections of homes and workplace are underway as part of interventions to providing wellbeing solutions to its customers. Services of expert partners are being sought by the company around the world to ensure that the company offers unique and innovative solutions to the global markets (Everything Everywhere 2013). Advantages of Innovation at EE One of the advantages of innovation at EE is the largest coverage the company enjoys due to its creativity and innovation. This includes the bigger 3G networks that cover a larger part of the United Kingdom. This is also enhanced by the fact that 4G network systems and technology are underway which will help the company penetrate new markets more easily and efficiently. This 4G network was launched a long time enough before other service providers could develop it and penetrate the market. This has given the company an advantage of a 70% market share of the UK population thus making the company a leader in the market (BBC News 2014). The innovations experienced in the company have seen the company operate retail stores in largest amounts in different markets. This has seen the company penetrate new markets since it has given the population a reason to invest engage in their products and services. This has been the reason behind the growth of smartphone ownership hence increasing the usage of the same devices. Demand for smartphones is driven by the demand for mobile data service which has enabled the company increase its sales on 4G network service which provides the fastest mobile data services (EE 2014). Innovation Concerns and Issues at EE There are a number of significant innovation concerns and issues at Everything Everywhere that negatively affect its operations, profitability and brand image. According to Andrew (2012), the brand of the company is on the declining trends caused by its recent launch as is compared to established brands. There have been issues of concerns on technical errors hence giving the customers a problem in handling their devices. These problems include message delay. Signal failure and call failures (William, 2014). According to Dawinderpal (2014), EE has put much energy on targeting business segments that has had an effect on losing customers and revenue. This trend has negatively affected the company as it loses a lot of money trying to target other business entities in the hypercompetitive market (EE 2014). The future growth of 4G services which is faced with a lot of competition and a much innovative global market. There has also been a concern on the increased attacks on mobile devices that has discouraged customers who have opted out of using data functions. On the same vein, the introduction of VoIP and instant messenger as mobile phone applications has a severe threat to the use of EE voice services which has been seen as one of the greatest innovation (EE 2013). Conclusion As a mobile telecommunication company, EE has a great potential in being on the forefront in the market. After evaluating from a wide perspective aspects of innovation as discussed in this paper with specific relevance to EE, there a significant indication that the company is better placed at overcoming its innovation challenges and providing the best of mobile telecommunication devices. However, EE needs to communicate to the right potential customers through platforms especially the online community. The superfast 4G technology is more important as it will open the online capability of its customers and help them venture into new markets as well. References List Andrew (2012), EE, Orange and T-Mobiles Brand Crisis - Samsung Geeks,  http://samsunggeeks.com/2012/10/05/ee-orange-and-t-mobiles-brand- crisis/#.U2Ed_3f4J8E Antikainen, M. J., & Vaataja, H. K. (2010). Rewarding in open innovation communities–how to motivate members. International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management, 11(4), 440-456. Antikainen, M., Mäkipää, M., & Ahonen, M. (2010). Motivating and supporting collaboration in open innovation. European Journal of Innovation Management, 13(1), 100-119. Bhatt, G. D. (2001). Knowledge management in organizations: examining the interaction between technologies, techniques, and people. Journal of knowledge management, 5(1), 68-75. Andrew (2012), EE, Orange and T-Mobiles Brand Crisis - Samsung Geeks,  http://samsunggeeks.com/2012/10/05/ee-orange-and-t-mobiles-brand- crisis/#.U2Ed_3f4J8E BBC News, (2014).  Economy tracker: Unemployment. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10604117 BBC News, (2014). UK economic growth best since 2007. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-25926648 Beamish, K. and Ashford, R. (2005). Marketing planning. 1st ed. Oxford: Butterworth- Blythe, J. (2006). Essentials of marketing communications. 1st ed. New York: FT/Prentice Hall. Cant, M. (2006). Marketing management. 1st ed. Cape Town, South Africa: Juta. Doku. Doyle, C. (2011). A dictionary of marketing. 1st ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press. EE sees quarterly revenue drop but strong 4G subs growth » Telecoms.com. http://www.telecoms.com/252722/ee-sees-quarterly-revenue-drop-but-strong-4g-subs- growth/ EE, (2013). EE launches new strategy to target city-based businesses https://explore.ee.co.uk/our-company/newsroom/ee-launches-new-strategy-to-target-city- based-businesses EE, (2014). Deezer Mobile Offer, http://ee.co.uk/help/add-ons- benefits-and-plans/entertainment-add-ons/deezer/deezer- mobile-offer   Everything Everywhere (2013), EE LAUNCHES NEW STRATEGY TO TARGET CITY- BASED BUSINESSES, https://explore.ee.co.uk/our-company/newsroom/ee-launches-new-strategy-to-target-city- based-businesses EE, (2014). About EE. [online] Available at: http://ee.co.uk/our-company/about-ee Etno.eu, (2014). 2012 : European Telecommunications Network Operators Association. https://www.etno.eu/news/etno/2012 Hamel, G. (2006). The why, what, and how of management innovation. Harvard business review, 84(2), 72. IfM Briefing 2009, Creating an environment for open innovation, viewed 12 March 2015. http://www.ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk/books Khalfan, M. M., & McDermott, P. (2006). Innovating for supply chain integration within construction. Construction Innovation, 6(3), 143-157. McAdam, R., & McClelland, J. (2002). Individual and team-based idea generation within innovation management: organisational and research agendas. European Journal of Innovation Management, 5(2), 86-97. Monge, P. R., Cozzens, M. D., & Contractor, N. S. (1992). Communication and motivational predictors of the dynamics of organizational innovation. Organization Science, 3(2), 250- 274. Oke, A. (2004). Barriers to innovation management in service companies. Journal of Change Management, 4(1), 31-44. Read More