Without change, there is no innovation, creativity, or
incentive for improvement. Those who initiate change will have a better
opportunity to manage the change that is inevitable.”-William Pollard
As the good old saying “#Necessity is the mother of all
#inventions” and #uncertainty is a catalyst for innovation. In today’s world of
high #technology and uncertainty, you need to be #imaginative, #thinking
#out-of-the-box and an #innovator to be a market leader. The #global #market is
quite #turbulent as there is ever-increasing uncertainty in #social-economic,
politics, and technology environments. Therefore, we need innovations and
#creativity to evolve #cost-efficient #products/services for #sustainability and
#growth of any business. Indeed, #lateral-thinking, #ideation, #experimenting
and #implementing are the processes to innovate and stay ahead. Creativity
and innovations are not limited to engineering, #manufacturing or product
#design. Innovation is equally applicable to #marketing, #advertising,
#teaching, #artwork, #music, #dancing, #sports and #painting, #weaving,
#smithy, #pottery, #journalism, #photography, #fashion design or #cooking.
Innovation could be just an #improvement of a business process. It is
very important that the innovation you develop must provide a new #experience
and greater #satisfaction to the #customers. Once your product is successfully
launched, you should get it #patented under the #Intellectual #Property #Act of
the country. This will prevent others from copying your idea/ design and misuse
for their benefit.
To make your name and outshine your organization, you have to be
innovative, doing something #different or doing the same thing but differently.
Innovation must have a good look and feel and is more cost-efficient.
Carrying on with good old processes, products or services will make your
workforce less productive and slow down the progress of your organization.
Therefore, you should stay #committed to thinking ahead and innovating.
If you are committed to the organization, customers, boss, team members and the
project at hand, your creativity will propel you to innovate and excel in your
#performance.
Vision. Remember, the vision of an
organization is a future picture of its business. It should be captivating
and inspire investors, employees, consumers and innovators. Basic guidelines
for formulating an inspiring vision are:
• Be
specific and non-ambiguous
• Be concise
but precise and use fewer words
• Be
consistent on website, advertisements, portals presentations and marketing
material.
What is Innovation? As per Watts Humphrey, “Innovation is the
process of turning ideas into manufacture-able and marketable form”. Innovation
is not long drawn discovery or invention but a short and quick development of a
product/service to give a better look and feel as well as better value for
money to the customer. It could relate to anything which eliminates customers’
pain points like difficulty in operating, repair and maintaining, dismantling
/reassembly and cumbersome to carry due to its weight, size or shape. Customer
concern may relate to endurance, reliability, look and feel, space and comfort.
Important Terminologies.
•
Think
Differently. Follow
your passion and listen to your heart. Leave logical/ traditional solutions in
the background and think fresh away from classroom teaching and lab
experiments.
•
Lateral-thinking
(LT). It is a process of critically examining and questioning why you
can’t do it another way around. It could be just a wild thought and that
may produce a most cost-efficient product. Once you have an actionable idea,
you must do an experiment on it to validate its suitability.
•
Creative Thinking. Creativity is the ability to associate/connect
unrelated problems, questions, and ideas from outside the office and
evolve a cost-efficient solution. The innovator should be questioning the
status quo and asking what, and why to seek clarity but not delay.
Purpose of Innovation.
•
Enhance
visibility in the market and improve business alliances
•
Enhance
productivity. quality and customer satisfaction
•
Enhance
sustainability, profitability and growth of the organization
•
Optimize
business processes to save on time, cost and effort (Manpower).
•
To convert
the material into resources, which is more likeable and more efficient for the
users or combine/ integrate existing resources to produce a more cost-efficient
and user-friendly product/ service.
•
To create
new and different values, new and different experiences, new and different
looks and feel and different levels of satisfaction for the customers/ users.
•
To gain a
cutting edge and capture a bigger share of the market
Importance of Innovation. Innovation is the master key and most potent tool for an
entrepreneurial economy. While innovation provides a boost to production
and business growth and it also creates new job opportunities for many.
Accordingly, it brings a shift in economic policy, tax and duty policy, trade
policy, labour policy, business partnerships and business practices. Innovation
is a “future maker” and not just a “present problem solver”. It does not deal
with “how-to”, instead, it deals with W4, “What, Why, When and
Where.”. Innovations are not only for Small to Medium level
Entrepreneurs (SMEs) Innovations are not limited to SMEs or manufacturing, design
and technical areas, like computers, communication and imaging devices. Innovation
is equally applicable to industry leaders like IBM, Microsoft, General
Electric, Google, Amazon, Accenture and areas like Healthcare, Office
Automation, Manufacturing, Safety Gears, Packaging, Shipping, Pharmaceutical,
Bio-Technology, Implements for Agriculture, Entertainment, Robotics, Drones,
Fabric design, Furniture and Household Appliances, Sports Gears, Clothing and
Foot-wears.
Types of Innovations. Most innovations are smaller, gradual improvements on existing
products, processes and services while some innovations can be game-changers,
technological advancements or business process improvements that transform the
functioning of many organizations. The most popular types of innovations are
briefly given below:
•
Incremental
innovation. Most innovations are
incremental, gradual and continuous improvements in the existing processes,
products or services. These innovations are progressive improvements over the
previous versions of the product or service. Such improvement could be in look
and feel, size, efficiency, power consumption, or ease of carrying and
operations. Likewise, services can be made more efficient and cheaper
through constant improvement. It is also easy to sell these innovations as customers are already
familiar with the key features of the product or service.
• Systematic Innovation.
It takes more time for collecting information, analysis, plan, design,
prototyping and production. However, it is more profitable as it
thoroughly examines the following aspects:
•
Has the arrival
of newer technologies made any shift in business practices?
•
Is there a
change in organizational structure or in market structure/ trends?
•
Is there
any demographic change due to population growth/migration?
•
Is there a
change in public perception, mood and meaning?
•
What are
the pain points of the customers/ users?
•
Is there a
change in the market expectations related to what is an existing product and
what it should be?
•
Is there
any new restriction on the import/export policy of the government?
•
What
process is being followed and can it be optimized/ replaced?
• Frugal Innovation (FI). Frugal
Innovation is also referred as Frugal Engineering (FE). FI/FE is the
process of reducing the complexity, customer’s pain-points and cost in the
production of the product. It also relates to removing nonessential features
from a durable good, such as a car, household appliances, and packaging.
Indeed, FI provides
functional solutions through limited available resources. FI is a
design innovation process in which the customer’s pain points are urgent and
considered on priority, for developing a new product. It is kept in mind
that a new product must delight the customers with its good look and
feel, being user friendly and affordable for emerging markets. FI has also
social importance in addressing poverty, unemployment, pollution control and
health issues by focusing on inclusive growth.
• Disruptive
innovation. As the name suggests, disruptive innovation creates
a new value for the existing customers or by creating a completely new market.
Initially, disruptive innovations may have lower performance, and high risks
but if it succeeds in the market, there will be big growth. Tesla's
electric car is a good example. Likewise, Netflix had a few hiccups initially
for mail-in movie subscription service, but as Netflix disrupted itself from
its DVD mail service to web streaming, it has become very popular with movie
lovers. Some industries, such as manufacturing, financial services, logistics,
and healthcare are more likely to be affected. However, no industry will
be completely safe.
• Sustaining
innovation. Sustaining innovation is the opposite of disruptive
innovation as instead of creating new value, it improves and grows by removing
the pain points of existing products/services. It provides new satisfaction/
experience for the existing customers. The product performance is made better
through each iteration. The new improved version of the product may be more
expensive demanding, high-end customers, who are ready to pay more for better
performance.
• Radical
innovation. Radical innovation is rare as it has similar
characteristics to disruptive innovation but is different in the way that it
aims at path-breaking (revolutionary) technology and with a new business model.
Technological innovations, such as personal computers and the internet
are examples of radical innovations that have transformed the way the entire
world functions and communicates. The experts say that Robotics, Artificial
intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), Blockchain, technology will be
equally path-breaking.
Indian Juggad. Juggad is a (Hindi) word, quite popular in rural
India for quickly fabricating a contraption with local effort and resources to
tide over the immediate problem. It implies a quick-fix solution to any
problem. It could also refer to an innovative fix or a simple workaround
solution. It could be just a contraption built by the end-user of a car/van/
truck driver or a farmer using a tractor and related implements or could be a
water sprinkler or a potter or carpenter or even a weaver. The
normal approach to innovation takes lots of time and resources while
Juggad is a faster solution, at a low cost and, using indigenous resources. The
western world follows a structured approach which does ot help to innovate
faster, Juggad is definitely better and cheaper since the western innovators
seek to cope with complexity, scarcity, diversity, inter-connectivity, and
cut-throat globalization.
In its initial stages, Jugad may not conform to safety
standards. Some manufacturing companies in India are adapting Juggad and incorporating required safety
standards as per Indian Nation Standards. This initiative based on common
sense and on-the-job training helps to reduce
research time and design cost. The main benefit is its easy adoption by the
market since Jugaad is an innovation by the people and for the people (end
users). Basic principles for Jugaad are briefly given below:
•
Opportunity. Seek opportunity in adversity and apply your
creative potential to grab every opportunity.
•
Stay
Positive. Always be positive in
thinking and think that the “glass is half full” and not “half empty”.
•
Resourceful. Do more with less effort, material and
tools. Remember scarcity is the mother on innovation. Be resourceful in
reusing, recombining, and canalizing available resources.
•
Networking. Do not hold your design closer to your
chest. Instead, exploit the power of networking. Share design and draw synergy
and partnership. You will save time and effort.
•
Flexibility. Think and act flexibly. Do not be rigid. Any
workable solution is a good solution. if it meets the functional requirements
of the end-user.
•
Simple. Keep it simple in design which helps with ease
of operation and maintenance.
•
Safety
Margins. Have scope for minor
deviation but ensure your product performs correctly and safely.
•
Passion. Be passionate about your new design and follow
your heart. Do not get disheartened by initial setback/failure. Just keep
going,
•
Customer
Centered. Remember the
customer is more than a king who can make or mar your business.
Always think of customers / end-users and give better satisfaction and maximum
value for their money
•
Survivability. Ensure better look and efficiency to stay in
demand and survive
•
Speed. Slow and steady do not win the race but
faster always wins over slower. Show speed and agility in thinking, designing
and production to beat time to market.
Improvisation.
It is similar to jugaad and is used intuitively for the immediate and temporary
fixing of a problem. It is lateral thinking and taking quick local action by
using resources readily available at the site. It could relate to the
sudden breakdown of a vehicle or machine or any equipment or instrument. This
can keep things going till the proper workforce and resources are received to
fix the problem fully. It requires common sense, creative thinking and fast
reflexes to gather essential resources locally.
Time to Innovate. If the business environment has changed or new technologies have
come into the market, do not wait, instead, organize your innovation team and
go ahead. Some common signs which indicate that your
business is at risk and you need to innovate a new product/ process are given
below:
•
Arrival of many new players
offering similar products and services at a lower price.
•
Drop-in business partners/alliances
and difficult to get new alliances.
•
Negative feedback from
customers and drop in repeat orders
•
Drop in production due to an
increase in the frequency of machine breakdowns.
•
Rise in time and cost for
maintenance and repair
•
Difficult to draw good
professionals to join
•
Difficult to retain old good
workforce who want to exit and work with new technologies and new processes in
upcoming organizations.
•
Government restrictions on
import of raw material
Some Tips for innovation by
Steve Jobs. In his famous book “Innovation Secrets”,
Steve has suggested us to unlock our creative potential by thinking
differently and staying customer-centred. He has advised us to learn
to rethink our brand, our product design and revitalize our vision. He has said
that traditional knowledge is good as a base but we must apply it creatively in
a newer way. The main points of his guidance are given below:
• Thinking
Differently. Make it a way
of your life and consider it a new innovation tool
• Passion. You
may get some points from others but follow your passion and do what you love
and what your heart says.
• Make a Name. One
must outshine oneself in the team, and in the organization and make a
big mark by doing extraordinary things. Innovation is no good if there are
no takers. Remember, you are innovating for the market to earn better
revenue and not just a hobby or please yourself or your friends.
• Brain Training. Innovation does not come without creativity. Have
multi-disciplinary skills with the ability to integrate parts and processes.
Start thinking more creatively and differently.
• Customer centred. Think that your consumers are intelligent people with great hope,
dream and expectations. Therefore, you must fulfil their hopes.
• Learn to say NO. Don’t follow others' views blindly. Do not be a yes
person to gain cheap popularity. Instead, have the courage to say no and take
the good decisions yourself, as per your critical thinking.
• Alternate Skills. Keep interested in something different from your job, you may find
that another job is better than your present job.
• Continuous Learning. Every year pick up something
new, a book, a short course, some seminars which are away from your
job premises.
• Determination.
Don’t give up halfway. Let there be a failure. In fact, failure is an integral
component of the innovation process. Definitely, you will succeed ultimately.
• Love your job. Do
not pick up a job just for the pay package. Instead, love your job and care for
it, and enjoy innovation
• Knowledge Sharing/gaining. Send your team members to conferences
and seminars, where they can network, share and gain more knowledge
• Showcase Innovations. Hold innovation/tech festivals, exhibitions and
competitions for best innovation,
• Change job for betterment. Do not stay stuck up in a company which does not
respect new skills/ initiative. Look for a job and switch to where you can
prove your talent.
• Risk Taking.
Allow your team to take risks and accept failure gracefully and encourage
people to try again,
• Respect Loyalty. People who like/love their job, will stay committed and put in their
extra bit. They stay loyal to the organization and will not leave you, even if
there is another lucrative job.
Ideas Generation. Anyone with the
required qualifications, an open mind and the ability to think out of the box
can innovate. Innovation could be in the field of Health care, Transport,
Construction, Automobile, Design, Farming, Irrigation, Household Appliances or
any Artwork. Think beyond the existing or formal design specifications
of a product and practice lateral thinking. You need to stop the way of
traditional or logical thinking or proven algorithms. Keep a small
notebook in your pocket to note down ideas as these may occur to you, anytime
and anywhere, while walking, cycling, boating, travelling in a train/
bus/aircraft. Don’t worry about cost or failure at this stage. Do
weekly/monthly sorting of recorded innovative ideas to find a doable and
something out of the ordinary. Getting a new idea is part of creative thinking.
Innovation idea need not be yours and it may be of any team member and it must
be appreciated. Every idea may not be successful but you must be determined to
make it work.
Applications of Innovation. These are not limited to engineering,
product design or manufacturing. Instead, there are many areas for innovation:
•
Automotive
design and manufacturing – Cars,
scooters, motorcycles, trucks, trailers, motorboats.
•
Product
design. Furniture,
decorative products, safety gears etc.
•
Fashion
Technology. Garments,
jewellery, shoes etc.
•
Cinematography
and photography. Creativity,
animation and image processing/blending etc.
•
Mass
Communications and
Journalism. Creative storytelling and taking compelling video clips or
pictures of scenes.
•
Book
Authoring and content
design. Introduce creativity and imagination while developing a true story
or fiction. The readers need something new, imaginative, exciting and thrilling
experience.
•
Teaching. To introduce creative thinking using word
problems and narrative-based assignment work. Use innovative and effective
teaching aids. Demonstrate steps for innovation and introduce incentives for
innovations.
•
Coaching
in sports. Modification of
gadgets, equipment or variation in posture and body action.
•
Sports
Vehicles and Gears. Sports
cars, motorboats, motorcycles, high-pressure swimsuits, cricket /baseball bats,
helmets, skis, sledges etc.
•
Agriculture. Various implements for ploughing, trenching,
plainer, sowing, water sprinklers, harvesting, crushers.
•
Arts. The artist can have new costumes and
posture/ limb movements to make dancing more absorbing and enjoyable for the
audience. Likewise, a painter can provide depth to the landscape/portrait with
the creative use of brush and colours.
•
Music. With digital technology available for
recording and mixing facilities, musical instruments can produce very
innovative tunes to delight the audience.
•
Cooking. There is a flood of recipes available on the
internet and many books have been published on the subject. There are many live
shows like “Master Chef "competitions. This has given a lot of momentum to
innovative cooking and serving in restaurants and hotels. There are many
institutes offering various courses on various cosines in various countries.
•
Packaging. Good packaging should be light, compact,
secure, less costly, attractive and safe for delivery of the product.
•
Household
gadgets. This includes a
complete range like a washing machine, dishwasher, oven, microwave,
refrigerator, gas burner, bread toaster, water purifier, air conditioner,
pedestal/wall-mounted fan, iron press, furniture etc.
•
Safety
equipment. It relates to safety
belts, helmets, goggles, hand gloves, and fire-fighting equipment.
•
Food
packing and bottling. Shape,
size, material, ease of carrying and disposal.
•
Glassware
design and blowing. There
can be a lot of imagination in innovating various shapes and blend of glassware
for decoration.
•
Toys and
entertainment electronics. This
industry requires a lot of creativity and continuous improvement to attract
kids. It includes drones and robots.
Innovation Process. Innovation is an iterative process
by taking an existing design or planning a new design as per market
demands and evolve a new design considering factors like weight, size,
dimensions, look and feel, cost, durability, ease of handling and maintenance
and customer pain points. The steps required for innovation are
shown as a flowchart in Fig 16.1
Ø START. Idea generation -> Idea selection through a Brainstorming session
with Brain sketching for refining design of chosen idea
----
Ø Develop the team to finalize an actionable
idea ----
Ø a prototype /simulation model ---
Ø Verify with design specifications ----
Ø Seek customer validation -> Seek
feedback--- > Redesign and optimize --
Ø Develop new version -> Seek customer’s
approval -----
Ø Keep refining till it meets the customer’s
expectations -----
Ø Start production -> Launch the product in
the market ----
Ø Complete documentation . STOP
Fig 16.1. A typical
Innovation Process Flow Chart
Experiment with ideas and validate data. To find something new and innovative, you must
develop a habit of lateral thinking and questioning why not another way around.
Once you have an actionable idea, you must do an experiment on it to validate
its suitability/acceptability by the customer/market. A successful experiment
will establish that your idea is workable and its product will be usable, safe,
durable and cost-effective.
Integration. As a manager, one of your prime roles is to integrate
efforts and subsystems to evolve a cost-efficient solution. It requires proper
interfacing and readjusting for any incompatibility. Do not permit your team to
discard any available and reusable work done by predecessors and don’t
re-invent the wheel. Days are gone of having the old concept of “all under one
roof.” Instead, today so many things are available as
Commercially-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) and you can also outsource certain parts. You
should be an efficient integrator to evolve a cost-efficient solution. A fully
integrated team makes use of everybody's innovative ideas and exceeds
expectations. That is what delights the customer or the employer and has
sustained growth in market leadership.
Protect your
Innovation. Once your design is final
and your new product/ service has been successfully launched in the market, you
should apply to get it Patented. Your innovation is the intellectual property
of your organization and it must be protected under the prevailing IP Act of the
country. This is necessary to prevent others from copying your design and
misuse to their advantage.
Growth through Innovation. Innovation provides you with a lead in the market and
sustainability of the business. The market always needs the latest product/service
of good quality and at an affordable cost. Therefore, your employer/seniors are
always looking for new ideas/innovations to progress their business and that is
the pathway to your career success. Your market demand will grow and career
will get a quantum jump. Your Company can stay as a market leader
only if you and your team and other teams keep thinking of new ideas, related
to customer needs and emerging technologies.
Promote Innovation. As a team manager or CEO/ president of an organization/institution,
you should encourage innovation and be happy to bear the development cost.
Allow team members to experiment with their new ideas and show creativity. Give
a good incentive, even if it is a small idea. Depending upon the size of
an organization/institution, you may set up an inter-disciplinary innovation
center /club or Centre of Excellence (COE), where people of all disciplines can
interact and experiment with their new ideas. The senior management should
organize bi-annual/annual Technology Exhibitions/ Technology Festivals
(Tech-Fest), where insiders as well as outsiders (invited participants) could
showcase their innovations and win prizes/incentives.
Summary. In today’s world, where the technological wave is sweeping rapidly
giving a boost to the Industrial Revolution (IR4.0), you need to be imaginative
and think out-of-the-box, to stay a market leader. Therefore, you and your team
need to use all initiatives and creative potential to evolve sustainable and
cost-efficient products/services. You need to make a name in the world through
a creative and innovative approach, significant contribution to your
organization/business and help in establishing future business alliances. In
various attributes of innovation, quality assurance and cost-effectiveness
are most important. To develop your appetite for Lateral Thinking, you may
refer to the following websites and practice simple exercises.
https://creativecorporateculture.com/creativity-exercises-improve-lateral-thinking/ & https://www.creativeboom.com/
If you possess skills of
creative thinking and innovation, you will always be in demand. Be it in any
engineering field or in biotechnology, or pharmaceutical field, you need to do
research/experimentation and publish your research work. This way you share
your innovative ideas with other innovators/research scholars and your
knowledge and job potential grows further.
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