Management Innovation and New Technology - Essay Example

? Product innovation Innovation for a number of years has been an area that has drawn divergent views. This claim can be attributed to the fact that technological innovation has been perceived differently in the society (Wield & Rhode, 82). Every individual in the society often have his/her view of innovation. There has been a strong myth that portrays innovation as dependant on the ideas of the inventors. It is unfortunate that this myth has continued to influence the views of diverse people in the society ranging from policy makers, practitioners and observers. However, modern theories are moving away from this inventor mythology to more holistic approaches that are often based on complete processes and this has led to successful commercialization of new products and processes. An individual can confidently state that product innovation is a complex process rather than a one-day event. This means that there is a lot that is involved in product innovation. A number of insights are evident in the product innovation complexity. To begin with innovation starts and ends with invention (Wield & Rhode, 82). Invention refers to the discovery of new and intelligent ideas and artefacts. Despite the fact, that creating new idea is the baseline of innovation, it is noteworthy that the idea must be sorted out as to whether it is workable and or applicable into the societal context. In other words, innovation takes into consideration adapting the newly found ideas into practical productive application in particular work processes or product markets of a particular firm. The applications should not only be to specific firms but also to the entire economy and into the society. This proposition can be justified by the fact that despite Spencer Silvers discovering the Post-it brand adhesive before 1970 this noble invention was only commercialised in 1978 after the company (3M) had ignored for that long owing to lack of practical applicability (Ketteringham & Nayak 427). Silver’s moment of discovering the Post-it brand adhesive began in 3M’s Central Research Laboratories under program dubbed “Polymers for Adhesives” in 1964. It is unfortunate that despite the fact that silver came up with unique form of adhesive his new idea could not be taken seriously by the management because Silver could not find a problem to apply this great idea. It was until Arthur Fry a 3M chemist, a choir director and an amateur mechanic found a problem to Silver’s idea when he came up with the paper to paper application of the adhesive. According to Wield & Rhode (84), the complexity of product innovation can be understood by withdrawing the assumption that innovation takes a “linear flow”. It is noteworthy that successful innovation has no straight line considering that it does not spring from scientific invention all the way to develop a competitive edge. The nature of the link between a scientific invention and the technological development is in itself very complex and because of this reason, the link has often been confusing. Individuals need to understand that scientific invention benefits a lot from technological development in a number of ways that include but not limited to transfer of knowledge, network of profession, skills and instruments. In the case of 3M, it is evident that the company boasts of a poll of skilled scientists that range from chemists and engineers who worked tirelessly in 3M’s Central Research Laboratories to come up with new inventions. The idea that led into development of one of the best selling product of 3M named Post-it Note Pad resulted from a series of technological developments that took approximately 10 years (Ketteringham & Nayak 425). Successful product innovation is also a matter of interaction between a number of factors within and outside the organization (Wield & Rhode, 84). Studies indicate that those factors that key determinant to the commercial success of a product are found outside the areas which are commonly associated with the with the innovation process. Key among them is the users of the technological product. Several companies have come up with good technological products but have failed to secure significant commercial gain owing to their failure to respond to the factors affecting innovation. One of the most significant determinants of successful product innovation involves access to complementary resources such as an effective distribution, marketing and after sale services. It is unfortunate that the marketing department, which had earlier engaged in the introduction of a half a dozen new products that clearly identified with a particular niche market, did not give a high priority to Post-it Note despite the fact that this was another great product. In other words, Silver’s idea was not given much need confidence to make it shine in the markets. In fact the marketing department felt that they could only sell new product by giving it away for free as they felt that nobody would spend his/her dollar on a scratch paper (Ketteringham & Nayak , 431). A successful product innovation also requires support from within the organization especially from the top management. Lack of internal support for new inventions can certainly kill the product even before it is manufactured. Silvers the idea of Put it adhesive took so long before it was produced by 3M for commercialization owing to lack of internal support from different division in the organization. In most cases, Silver and his workmate and friend Oliveira were the ones who kept on working on the idea of adhesive in solitude and in defiance of the company’s implicit desires. It is the tradition of “Internal Selling” in 3M that forced Silver’s adhesive to last for almost a half a decade of cold shoulders as an individual with any new idea was expected to shop around the organization’s many divisions for developmental support. However, it is the same tradition of “Internal Selling” that helped Silver realise his dream of commercializing his adhesive idea when Geoff Nicholson leader of the Commercial Tape Division laboratory and later Joe Ramney, a Division vice president and General Sales manager of the commercial tape division. In fact, Ramney and Nicholson undertook an initiative to conduct face-to-face marketing of post –it Notes on of the market test cities of Richmond, Virginia to demonstrate support for the product (Ketteringham & Nayak 431). There have been questions about the mother of product inventions. The question revolves around whether innovation occurs due to technology push or a market pull. Most people imagine that innovation takes place a result of technology push as most of developed companies are renowned for operating advent of specialised research and development (R &D) departments (Harris & McLoughlin, 2). 3M is one of such big organizations that operate specialised R &D departments and most of its products are as a result of consistent research. Technologies have also been portrayed in some context as naturally political. This claim is based on the notion that in order to come with a particular technical system then a specific set of social conditions as the operating environment of that system needs to be created and maintained. It is noteworthy that different kind of technical system are deeply intertwined in the conditions of modern politics (Winner, 1). This means that at the end of the day what will matter to various stakeholder will be the economic or social system in which the technical system is embedded rather than the system itself. References Harris, M & McLoughlin, I. Introduction: Understanding innovation, organizational change, and technology. Pp 1-14 Ketteringham, J & Nayak, P. 3M’s Post-it Notes: A managed or Accidental Innovation. Pp 425-435 Wield, D & Rhode, E Technology Innovation Theory and the Implementation Process. Pp 78-94. Winner, L Do artifacts have politics? Pp 1-7 Read More