Managing Innovation and Continuous Improvement - Innovations Holy Grail by Prahalad and Mashelkar - Article Example

TAFE SA DIPLOMA OF MANAGEMENT Manage innovation and continuous improvement Unit code BSBMGGT608BA Individual Assessment Lecturer’s Name: D.JAMES Due Date: 27th September 2012 Introduction Innovation’s Holy Grail is an article which was written by C.K Prahalad in collaboration with R.A Mashelkar for Harvard business review and it was published in July 2010. The article is all about most famous Indian pioneers which found easier and better ways of doing more with less resource and for a greater number of people. Authorization This report has been commissioned in the process of diploma of management under an individual report for the unit coded BSBMGT608BA and named manage and continuous improvement. Contents TAFE SA 1 DIPLOMA OF MANAGEMENT 1 Manage innovation and continuous improvement 1 Unit code BSBMGGT608BA 1 Individual Assessment 1 Lecturer’s Name: D.JAMES 1 Due Date: 27th September 2012 1 Introduction 2 Innovation’s Holy Grail is an article which was written by C.K Prahalad in collaboration with R.A Mashelkar for Harvard business review and it was published in July 2010. The article is all about most famous Indian pioneers which found easier and better ways of doing more with less resource and for a greater number of people. 2 Authorization 2 This report has been commissioned in the process of diploma of management under an individual report for the unit coded BSBMGT608BA and named manage and continuous improvement. 2 Contents 3 Type of innovation and extent to which they relate to the organization 5 Recommendations to the senior management 7 Conclusion 8 Bibliography 10 Main learning points for a student in human resource management Innovation means something new in a business, which is substantially different. This change should add some value to both the products value, the customer’s value, and the producer’s value. According to C.K Prahalad and R.A Mashelkar in their article Innovation’s Holy Grail innovation is a process built on the assumption of affluence and abundance. As they put it, both the rich and the poor in developing and developed countries looking for alternative ways by applying innovation in order to reduce prices of the basic commodities (Gupta, 2007, pp. 78-150). This is achieved by demanding for environmental friendly products and services. They insist that innovation today should be based on affordability and sustainability but not on the premium pricing and abundance. Innovation calls for companies to manufacture more using the minimum available resources and cost and sell the products at a lower price for more people to afford. This will call for the need to employ more talent since it will lead to a more complex knowledge network. As a human resource management student, the innovation issue is of paramount importance since it requires trained individuals to introduce new and unique ideas to the market. Innovative ideas will also help in organizational performance which is one of the duties of a HR manager (Govindarajan & Trimble 2010. Pp. 99- 146) One of the ideas is to use the clinical and qualitative data to develop the aim plans that will pass the pre-clinical and clinical research test. In the resource management the important goal is to develop innovation ideas that will go beyond expectation of the innovator. This can be achieved by using the alternative means, with the same end result but the cost are cheaper which will reflect a relief to the customers and the company at large. Another idea is to diversify the innovation criteria, whereby the innovator has to use a wide range of innovation skills like the technology and creating a room for allowing new ideas. This idea calls for the need to use all means necessary to reduce the cost of production using new research and technology. The need for small size, low prices and big ambition is another idea for innovators and has also called for big and different managerial skills. The manager of a company should seek for innovator who will implement the three criteria. One, the innovator should produce items that are small in size which will consequently reduce the price of the commodity, and big ambitions in the future of the company that will help the management to make good returns. As a HR manager, my goal is to develop abroad commitment to inclusive growth which will force innovators to think of un-served customers (Gupta, 2007, pp. 234-300). By so doing, the innovators will come up with ideas that will solve the problems at hand. The innovator should always accept that constraints will always exist and creativity operates within them. They should therefore come up with ideas that are beyond the resources and the capability of the company at least to give the company a challenge that will keep them going. Type of innovation and extent to which they relate to the organization Innovation is commonly termed as to be among the major issues confronting most businesses. The success of innovation is attained by having a clear and concise knowledge of the process, it consequences and management of both so as to gain the best out of it. There is a need to connect innovation with development and fiscal metrics (Hauser, Tellis and Griffin 2006, P. 45-47). Innovation strategy assists companies and industries in three ways that is exciting customers, outperforming competitors and building of a new product portfolio. The three innovations strategies to some extent relate to the organizations and industries. Innovation strategy sets put to offer differentiated products and services as compared to the competitors. Innovation strategies aim at exciting the customers. Exciting customer oriented innovation is solely based on a clear and deep consideration of both the expressed and unstated needs of current and probable customers. A number of organizations are creating products and services based on the consumer’s preferences. Most organizations have scarce consideration of the customer behavior, awareness and needs. Consumer insight leverages imminent into the behaviors, awareness and wants of the consumers, this is done by an active involvement in the innovation development. Most customers are not involved in the development of the corporate strategy. A high level of opportunity exits for those organizations who will involve the consumers, stakeholders and suppliers in the innovation process. Introduction of new products in the market place is one of the major aspects that the management team gives priority. An undoubtedly articulated product innovation strategy is fundamental to the success of the new product to be developed. Every year there is usually new product development but a large number of the fail. The development of a new product within the organizations is termed as the demonstration of the organizations innovative strategy as well as the marketing strategy. The management of a new product development should involve the development and management of a portfolio of unambiguous projects. The determination of the NPD portfolio establishes a firm’s policy for the intermediate term future and is the higher management responsibility (Copper et al. 2001, P. 112-117). The portfolio choice is comprised of two premeditated components that are development strategy and market entry strategy. Outperforming competitors seems to be a most common innovation strategy been applied by most originations today. Outperforming the competitors is mostly done by a company introducing or inventing new products, services or technologies that may ultimately led to an augmented market share in instance when an organization is trying to tackle or minimize a slump in demand. Outperforming of the competitors is also done by the customization of the products and services so as to meet specific customer needs. High quality innovative solutions are vital to outperforming ones competitors. Innovation is consequently necessary in the development of innovative solutions and also on the creation and exploration of the niche market to be served. Organization innovativeness is critical in the growth of new products and improves the processes which in turn lead to diminish in time required to deliver the product to the market. Recommendations to the senior management The senior management should focus in improving, promoting or supporting innovative practices in an organization. The HR management bears the most of this concern. Usually, the human resource department values human being as resources and not as individuals. However, it is mostly determined in yielding the maximum out of all available resources, human beings included. It is advocated that the management should value employees as personalities rather than as resources (Sistare et al, 2008. pg 125). Consequently, employees will be motivated to produce the best of their services. In relation to the promotion of innovative practices, the human efforts should therefore not be forgotten or neglected. The management should take and value any innovative practice from the employees despite the level of assignment. This means that all employees from the junior most to the senior most should be considered in the promotion of innovative practices. For this reason, any aspect of innovativeness from any employee should be valued before the HR department considers an employee redundant (Sistare et al, 2008. pg 89). This is in regard to new beneficial products, new ways to produce or new businesses or markets. Employees should therefore be considered in forums to discuss an organization’s objectives and improvement in ways to attain them. To promote and support innovative practices in an organization, senior managers should yearn to acquire entrepreneurial skills. In conjunction to valuing human efforts and ideas, the senior management should acquire the skill which is apparently considered as a factor of production (Singh, et al 2011. pg 94). The reason behind this is that entrepreneurship is involved in the conversion of new ideas or inventions into successful innovations. With such skills, senior managers will be able to distinguish between unique or novelty ideas hence promoting the organization’s innovative practices. In addition, senior managers should design a model of selecting promising innovators but encourage unexpected surprises (Schuler & Psy, 2002. pp 5). Consequently, the managers should provide extra resources that would be useful for the idea production. On the other hand, they should encourage unexpected surprises from the rest in an event of a unique invention. For that reason, senior managers should continue to promote the innovative practices by rewarding individuals or groups who come up with unique beneficial innovations. This would be used as an encouragement for ideas generation. The senior management should be committed to drive through the best ideas. Implementation of presented innovations is an important point in the promotion of the innovative practices (Schuler & Psy 2002. pp 5). Innovators would get much discouraged in occasions where their innovations in an organization are not implemented by the senior management. For instance, the senior management should involve the other employees in the occasion of sales promotion or introduction of a new product in the market or else in a research for a new market for the current production (Singh, et al 2011. pg 95). All this tend to be linked up together in terms of involvement of workers, implementation of the innovations and a reward for the most unique and beneficial innovation. In promotion and support of innovative practices, the senior managers should organize seminars, open forums and other training programs that will hold all employees or departmental leaders. In combination of these recommendations, the organization will be able to excite customers, outperform competitors and will be able to present a new product or acquire a new market. Conclusion In conclusion then, innovators should improve and diversify their way of innovating in the process of innovation in their companies. They are supposed to understand that innovation is a long process since innovation is not a onetime process but a day-to-day activity. So, they should keep on checking on the performance of every department, make the necessary changes if there is any and forge forward. It would be critical to note that the innovations made are directed to enhancing the products manufactured and the services rendered. The manager also should make the necessary changes in the manner they conduct their daily service to promote a peaceful coexistence among all the stakeholders. The managers should also encourage and hire young task, which is more energetic and more knowledgeable, since they understand well the new technology which is fatal driver of innovation. It is in the managers’ mandate to make sure that the marketing strategies meets the legal requirements and that they are adhered to. They should therefore make sure that even if the changes (innovation) are made, they are not in any way compromising on the legality of the products and the services rendered. Bibliography Cooper, R., Edgett, J. and Kleinschmidt, J., 2001. Portfolio Management for New Products. 2nd ed. Cambridge, Mass: Perseus Books. Govindarajan, V & Trimble C., 2010. The Other Side of Innovation: Solving the Execution Challenge.USA: Harvard Business Review Press Gupta, P., 2007 Business Innovation in the 21st Century. Amazon: Book Surge Publishing Hauser, J., Tellis, G., and Griffin, A., 2005. “Research on Innovation: A Review and Agenda for Marketing Science,” MSI Special Report No. 05-200. Schuler, A. J, Psy. D. 2002. Business Creativity and Innovation:  How to Build an Innovative Culture. Virginia. Schuler Solutions, Inc. Singh, Y. Charu, A. & Bhatnagar, A. 2011. Changing face of entrepreneurship in India through innovation. India. Shriram Institute of Management and Technology. Sistare. H, Howze. M & Buss. T. 2008. Innovations in Human Resource Management: Getting the Public's Work Done in the 21st Century. New York. M.E. Sharpe. Read More