News
Innovation and Change
21-07-14
Change is something we do when we leave our safe circle around us. There are all the things we do, got used to do and are familiarised to them inside the circle. Therefore we naturally do not like to leave our circle. There can be positive and negative changes. Beerel says “Good change aligns us with new realities; bad change does not. Good change keeps us relevant, bad change does not.”
When the need for new technologies, approaches to the work occurred the term of innovation has become used. The term of innovation comes from “innovātus”, past participle of innovāre, a Latin word. “in” means into, “-novā ( re ) ” means to renew and “-tus”is past participle suffix (Dictionary Reference). Therefore “innovātus” means to start to use new methods in cultural, managerial and social environments.
Goffin quoted that “The importance of understanding innovation was first recognized by the Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter in the 1930s. Schumpeter considered five different aspects of innovation and, although developed over 70 years ago, his definition is comprehensive”. (Goffin, 2010)
Innovation definitions are varies according to researches.
1. The introduction of a good (product), which is new to consumers or one of increased quality than was available in the past;
2. Methods of production, which are new to a particular branch of industry. These are not necessarily based on new scientific discoveries and may have, for example, already been used in other industrial sectors,
3. The opening of new markets;
4. The use of new sources of supply;
5. New forms of competition, which lead to the re-structuring of an industry, (Schumpeter, 1934)
The definitions of innovation from the Oslo Manual of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) differ according to types of innovation: product innovation, process innovation, marketing innovation and organisational innovation.
Product innovation is a good or service that is new or significantly improved. This includes significant improvements in technical specifications, components and materials, software in the product, user friendliness or other functional characteristics.
Process innovation is a new or significantly improved production or delivery method. This includes significant changes in techniques, equipment and/or software.
Marketing innovation is a new marketing method involving significant changes in product design or packaging, product placement, product promotion or pricing.
Organisational innovation is a new organisational method in business practices, workplace organisation or external relations. (OECD, 1981)
From the beginning until now the definitions of innovation are getting more detailed and complicated. However generalised descriptions are still emphasizing some important points of innovation. An example of this is ‘the successful exploitation of new ideas’ (Porter and Ketels, 2003) is cited in summary report of Leadership for Innovation (Dr. Natasha Munshi, 2005).
New things always need changes in ways, thoughts, tools, vs. That is why understanding all the aspects of change is very important as well as innovation.
