Innovation - the Key for Competitive Edge

Ideas with the power to transform companies often come from the most unlikely sources. It is not just whacky technologists who make quantum leaps, but over-enthusiastic fans, disenchanted employees and informal contacts. The challenge for managers is to channel ail these creative impulses and to deliver enduring breakthroughs in value. Whether or not they turn ideas into reality depends on three core characteristics, as argued in the new book from Kogan Page, Innovation: Harnessing Creativity for Business Growth. This work was produced in partnership with the Design Council, the Patent Office, Cap Gemini, Lloyds TSB and the DTI's Innovation Unit. Put simply, innovative organisations must inspire, create and connect.InspireInnovation cannot be fostered in an organisation without strategic commitment. There must be a genuine commitment to a creative process. Having the word innovation as a core value is not enough. Leaders must give their organisations and teams the strategic focus for the desired creativity and innovation.When, for example, the chairman of JCB, Sir Anthony Bamford, decided to expand from diggers into forklifts, strategy and reality appeared to be at odds. Forklifts is a fiercely competitive market with 40 manufacturers in Europe alone. There was no way a metoo product could be profitable. Product innovation was essential.JCB rose to the challenge. The company has a culture in which new ideas flourish. Sir Anthony provides top-level support for creativity and sees sensible risk-taking in a positive light. Though initial projections suggested that the proposal for a new forklift, the Teletruk, would not be in profit for several years, he took the view that, " If the strategy is right we will find a way to get the numbers right."Teletruk was out on schedule and went on to win various industry awards. Early sales not only met targets, but within the first month of production, Sir Anthony sent the team back to work on planning how volumes could be increased to allow expansion into new markets. JCB continues to innovate from the front.CreateTo innovate effectively, organisations also have to be flexible and creative enough to abandon old ways of working. For all its technical brilliance, Cambridge-based TWI found it hard to make breakthroughs. It is a world leader in welding and joining technology and produces a stream of sophisticated refinements to existing technigues and processes.The danger for a large research organisation, according to the company's principal research engineer, Wayne Thomas, is that technologists are so busy producing modifications and adaptations, they never take a step back. Says Wayne, "It is difficult to innovate here. The phone's ringing all the time, or there's some interruption. "TWI recognised its shortcomings in fostering guantum leaps as opposed to incremental solutions. Creativity sessions were set up to encourage flashes of inspiration, and two researchers were taken off day-to-day project work to drive forward the innovation process in TWI. As Wayne observes, "There are a lot of highly specialised people here, but the perennial challenge is being able to see the wood from the trees. …