BUSORG 1645-1120; Corporate Entrepreneurship with Paul Harper, Midterm

Product Innovation

Making beneficial changes to physical products.

Name the elements of design thinking.

1. Acceptance that constraints are part of design. 2. Seek the peaceful coexistence of desirability, feasibility, and viability. 3. Inspiration. 4. Proactivity. 5. Humility. 6. Flexibility. 7. Focus.

Name the reasons a company should pursue cultivating corporate entrepreneurship.

1. Increased global competition. 2. Continual downsizing of organizations seeking greater efficiency. 3. Dramatic changes, innovations, and improvements in the marketplace. 4. Perceived weakness in the traditional methods of organizational management. 5. The exodus of innovative -minded employees who are disenchanted with bureaucratic organizations.

Name the myths associated with innovators.

1. Individuals are born to innovate (not true). 2. Innovators must be inventors (not true). 3. Fitting the innovators profile (you don't have to). 4. Innovation is being lucky (not true). 5. Innovators are gamblers (not true). 6. Innovation and stress is inevitable (not true).

Components of turning an individual into an innovator (Transformative Innovation)

1. Innovation Mentorship: innovative behavior must be supported by upper management, and one way of providing this support is through mentorship. Employees benefit from having a coach or teacher who can guide them to developing the needed skills for innovation. 2. Incentives for the Innovative Employee: innovation should be rewarded, since rewards are signals as to what the senior managers value and support. 3. Innovative Behavior: deliberate practice and opportunity recognition. Deliberate practice is the use of regular, structured, and intense repetition of activities deemed important in becoming highly skilled at something. Opportunity recognition is the ability to find or create untapped sources of potential profit.

Name the 3 trajectories of innovation.

1. Radical Innovation: High-risk breakthroughs of inaugural products. Radical refers to the level of contribution made to the efficiency or revenue of an organization. (iPhone). 2. Incremental Innovation: the systematic evolution of a product. (iPhone 6s). 3. Disruptive Innovation: re-writes the rules of an industry; e.g. how a business makes money in a specific product market. (itunes).

What are the 4 sources of market opportunity?

1. Social Goals: customers pursue their vision of "the good life" by buying products and services that signal to others their values, rank, and preferred self-image. 2. Life Goals: shopping has become a pathway toward feeling full-filled. People shop for emotional and psychological reasons. Escapism also plays a major part, as people will shop to escape the feelings of lack of recognition or responsibilities. 3. Problems: a problem is a situation where there is a gap between where a person is now and where they want to be. For that reason, they will shop and find new goods which they think will bridge that gap. Customers will pay a lot of money to have a problem solved. 4. Fact-Finding: you must fact-find on an opportunity before you move forward on offering a solution to the customer. Become knowledgeable about the about the issues and the opportunity.

Keep finger on the pulse of the innovative projects (Managing innovative individuals)

Constructive monitoring and control of the developing opportunity.

Clear obstacles (Managing innovative individuals)

Creative tactics, political skills, and an ability to regroup, reorganize, and attack from different angles is invaluable to the advancement of an innovative project.

Define gravity (Managing innovative individuals)

Define what is accepted and what cannot be accepted, and see opportunities where others see barriers.

Creative thinking skills (Element of creativity)

Divergent and Convergent thinking. Divergent thinking is the process of generating many possible options and ideas around a topic of focus (brainstorming). Convergent thinking is taking all of those ideas and converging them into one central idea.

What are the three elements of creativity?

Domain skills Creative thinking skills Intrinsic motivation

Framing the Challenge (Managing innovative indivduals)

Have a clear definition of the specified challenge so that everyone involved with the project has the same understanding of the what the end product should look like. Helps the team to work in harmony.

What are the areas of creativity?

Idea Creativity: thinking up a new idea or concept, such as an idea for a new product or service or way to solve a problem. Material Creativity: inventing or finding new uses for materials for products, services, or processes. (Carbon fiber on skateboards). Organization Creativity: organizing people or projects and coming up with a new organizational form or approach to structuring things. Relationship Creativity: a creative approach to achieving collaboration, cooperation, and win-win relationships with others. Event Creativity: producing an event such as an awards ceremony, team outing, or annual meeting. Inner Creativity: changing one's inner self; achieving a change of heart or finding a new perspective or way to look at things that is a significant departure from how one has traditionally looked at them. Spontaneous Creativity: acting in a spontaneous or spur-of-the-moment manner such as coming up with a witty response, an off-the-cuff speech, or a creative appeal when trying to close a sale.

Domain Skills (Element of creativity)

Immersing yourself into the domain (area of study) externally and internally. Immerse yourself externally by surrounding yourself with experts in the field. Immerse yourself internally by spending time studying and applying your learned knowledge. It takes 10,000 hours (roughly 10 years) to become an expert in a field (domain).

The Innovation "Equation"

Innovation = Creativity + Exploitation

Name the 5 roles of an innovation team (I-Team).

Innovator: the person who has made the major technical innovation. Venture Manager: the internal entrepreneur responsible for the overall progress of the project. Champion: any individual who makes a decisive contribution to the project by promoting its progress through the critical early stages. Innovative CEO: the individual who is in charge of the venture and controls the allocation of resources. Sponsor: the high level person in the parent company who acts as buffer, protector, and modifier of rules and policies and who helps the venture obtain the needed resources.

What are the sources of stress?

Insulation: long hours at work with limited social interaction. Addiction to the Innovation: when an innovator becomes so married to their idea, that they spend all their time on it with little time away from it. Perfectionist Syndrome: when an innovator has an image in their head of how they want the project done, and the other employees are not living up to that standard. Achievement Orientation: when the innovator is not satisfied with his or her work no matter how well it is done.

Absorb the Uncertainty (Managing innovative individuals)

Make uncertainty less daunting. Create self-confidence within the innovators so that they may act in times of uncertainty with confidence and not feel like they need the managers permission.

Service Innovation

Making beneficial changes to services that customers uses.

Process Innovation

Making beneficial changes to the processes that produce products or services.

What are some major misconceptions of innovation?

Misconception #1: Innovation is planned and predictable. (Everyone can innovate). Misconception #2: Technical specifications must be prepared. (Over planning is slow, test early). Misconception #3: Bigger is better. (Creativity is better done in a small group context). Misconception #4: Technology is the driving force. (Technology is one source, but certainly is not the only source. The customer and the market is major source).

How can innovators manage their stress?

Network: relieves them of insulation by networking with other innovators and can therapeutically listen to others' triumphs and failures. Refresh Yourself: Take a holiday, refresh your energy and your will-power. The Personal Touch: Company wide outings, flexible hours, and congratulatory celebrations all make dedicating time to an innovation project much easier. Gain New Perspectives: Step away from the innovation and lose the achievement orientation by learning more about life itself or other aspects of life you are interested in. Delegate: Delegate tasks, so that one better manages their time. This may be delegating to other employees, or giving yourself daily time limits on time spent on a project. This will help the innovator alleviate stress. Exercise: Excellent method of reducing stress. Work performance has been proven to go up with exercise.

What is Open Innovation?

Open innovation means extending the search for and commercialization of new ideas beyond the boundaries of the organization and even maybe beyond the boundaries of the industry. - Collaboration - Being "plugged in" - Give and take

The "I-Challenge"

The "I-Challenge" is the global innovation challenge that affects all organizations in this twenty-first century. The key descriptive words used about this new "innovation challenge" are: Dreaming, Creating, Exploring, Inventing, Pioneering, and Imagining.

What are the benefits of corporate innovative philosophy and culture?

The benefits include: 1. Leads to the development of new products & services. 2. Helps the organization expand and grow. 3. Creates a competitive workforce. 4. Creates a climate conducive to high achievement.

What is Closed Innovation?

The closed approach to innovation is an attempt to to generate new business breakthroughs through the utilization of the people, knowledge, and technology within the company's boundaries. Closed innovation relies entirely on the inner organization, and does not seek any external help in the innovation process. Closed innovation is the more common form of corporate innovation.

Neophobia

The dread of anything new or novel, fear of the unknown; sense of embarrassment or humiliation that accompanies the admission that existing products or procedures are inferior to new proposals.

What are the phases of the creative process?

1. Background or knowledge accumulation: successful ideas typically come from investigation or information gathering. This usually involves reading, networking, sharing, surveys, workshops, and a general absorption of information to get your mind thinking. 2. The Incubation Process: After we acquire knowledge, it is often good to step away from it for a while. It's best to let the subconscious mind mull over the tremendous amount of information that has just been gathered. (The Computational Theory of Mind). You should engage in routine "mindless" activities, exercise regularly, play games, think about the project before falling asleep, meditate, and just relax. 3. The Idea Experience: When the subconscious has made a connection that seems to solve the problem, then conscious action should be taken. This subconscious realization is called the "eureka moment" and triggers a strong emotional reaction that can be almost addictive. Ways to speed up The Idea Experience are: 1) daydream about the project, 2) practice your hobbies, 3) work in a leisurely environment, 4) put the problem on the back burner, 5) keep a notebook to record your ideas, 6) take breaks when working. 4. Evaluation and Implementation: This is the phase where the idea is actually implemented. The individual cannot give up when challenges arise, since they will often fail several times before they develop their best ideas. When in this phase one should: 1) daydream and fantasize about the project, 2) educate yourself on the innovation process, 3) test your ideas with experts in the field, 4) take notice of your intuition, 5) try and persuade others on your idea, 6) examine organizational policies on bringing the idea to market, 7) seek advice from others, 8) view the problems you encounter while implementing your idea.

What are some ways that organizations can seize opportunities?

1. Commodities and Materials: New compounds and combinations. I.E. A lighter but more durable carbon fiber. 2. Products: Create a unique product that is not being offered today but would be in great demand if it was on the market. You can also extend an already existing product into a new market (new-old) or adapt an already existing with new features (new-new). 3. Services: Performing tasks for customers in an innovative manner, or giving customers expert counsel on matters they don't understand. With services, there is more personal engagement between customer and organization than with product innovation. 4. Experiences and Transformations: occurs when a company intentionally uses services as the stage and goods as props to engage an individual. Disney Parks are a prime example of this.

What are the critical elements of Corporate Entrepreneurship?

1. Create the Vision: share the vision of innovation that the corporate leaders wish to achieve. The vision must be clearly articulated by the organization's leaders; however, the specific objectives are then developed by the managers and employees. 2. Encourage Innovative Thinking: innovation is a numbers game; the more ideas a company has the better chances for a successful innovation. Don't just tolerate failure, but learn from it. 3. Establish an innovative environment: a corporation must have a commitment to invest in innovative activities that allow new ideas to flourish. This includes rewards, sponsors, and innovative climate. 4. Develop Innovative Managers: develop innovative managers through the "Corporate Innovation Program" so that managers can be a resource to innovators. 5. Commit to Innovation Teams: encourage the creation and use of "innovation teams" as they hold the potential for producing innovative results and productivity breakthroughs. Innovation Teams lead to accumulated knowledge.

What are the misconceptions of creativity?

1. Creativity comes totally from the unconscious (False): While the unconscious does play a role in various stages of creative activity, conscious awareness and focused effort are also important. Scientists have actually discovered that creativity is mostly conscious, hard work. 2. Children are more creative than adults (False): Spontaneity does not equal creativity. Experience and knowledge are important to creative thinking since in order to generate new ideas a person needs a collection of concepts in their brain to reassemble new combinations. 3. Creativity is spontaneous inspiration (False): Like the prior myth, structure and focus are important to the creative thinking process. 4. Creative works go unrecognized and are discovered later (False): Creative output of high quality will find an audience in society. If the output is interesting or needed to a market it will find an audience. 5. Everyone is creative (False): Potentiality does not equal actuality. Everyone has the potential to be creative, but not everyone takes the necessary steps to shape an idea into a creative, accepted reality.

What are the most common characteristics of an innovative mindset?

1. Determination and Perseverance. 2. Achievement Drive. 3. Goal Orientation. 4. Belief that the success of the innovation is in their control. 5. Tolerance for Ambiguity. 6. Calculated Risk Taking. 7. Tolerance for Failure. 8. High Energy Level. 9. Creativity. 10. Vision.

How can managers manage innovative individuals?

1. Framing the challenge. 2. Absorb the uncertainty. 3. Define gravity. 4. Clear obstacles. 5. Keep finger on the pulse of innovative products.

What principles is closed innovation built upon?

1. Hire the best and brightest people, so that they work for you and not against you. 2. Make discoveries and development yourself, so that your company brings new products and services to market. 3. Discover something first so that you're the first to market it. 4. Invest in great amounts of R&D, in order to insure that your company generates the best ideas and stays ahead of competition. 5. Control intellectual property, in order to ensure that your company profits from it and not your competitors.

Name the 4 methods of innovation.

1. Invention: the creation of a new product, service, or process considered to be "revolutionary". 2. Extension: expansion of a product, service, or process already in existence (different application). 3. Duplication: replication of an existing product, service, or process adding the entrepreneur's own creativity to enhance or improve it. 4. Synthesis: combination of existing concepts and factors into a new formulation (new applications of already invented items).

Name the 5 antecedents to middle managers' innovative behavior.

1. Management Support: the willingness of top level managers to facilitate and promote innovative behavior by providing resources and championing innovative behavior. 2. Work discretion/autonomy: top level managers commitment to tolerate failure, freedom from oversight, and delegate authority/responsibility to middle level managers. 3. Rewards/reinforcement: developing and using systems that reward based on performance, highlighting significant achievements, and encouraging pursuit of challenging work. 4. Time Availability: ensuring that individuals and groups have adequate time to pursue innovations. 5. Organizational Boundaries: precise explanations of outcomes expected from organizational work and development of mechanisms for evaluating, selecting, and using innovations.

Name the obstacles to corporate entrepreneurship.

1. No Time: Due to the need to constantly keep up with the wealth of innovation, there isn't a lot of time in an employee's workday to engage in innovation. 2. Poor Rewards: Corporations do not do a good job of rewarding employees for being innovative (financially or otherwise), so there's limited motivation for employees to be innovative. 3. Underfunded: Without financing, a corporate innovator's idea will remain only a vision. Executives will not invest in an innovation unless the innovator can prove the potential for large return. 4. Job Domain: Frequently, the innovator will run into "power plays" or battles for control over decision making between vice presidents and/or their respective areas. An innovator should try to avoid these power plays and be willing to work beyond the traditional boundaries of a particular job. 5. No Allies: Allies are extremely important to an innovative project. An ally is a higher up who acts as a "sponsor" to the innovation, and deals with all of the politics that may arise during the innovative process. But it may be difficult to get an ally.

What are the misconceptions about design?

1. Only artists, engineers, and architects use design (False). 2. Research and Development departments are where companies should do their design (False). 3. Design is too complex to be used by the average manager in the company (False). 4. Design would cut into a manager's daily schedule and only lead to frustration (False). 5. Design will slow down the innovation process (False). 6. Design is too fuzzy and will take the manager away from the realities of business (False). 7. Design is just another business fad (False). 8. Design is the same thing as innovation (False). 9. Design is too quirky for a business environment (False).

Name the design guidelines.

1. Paraphrase and Frame. 2. Avoid premature judgements. 3. Gather information from diverse sources. 4. Adapt ideas to specific contexts. 5. Create different kinds of prototypes. 6. Consciously select solution paths. 7. Get feedback from a diversity of perspectives.

What are the 3 iterations?

1. Play: a 2. Display 3. Watch the replay.

Components of the Corporate Innovation Program (Developing Innovative Managers)

1. The Innovative Experience: participants are challenged to think innovatively with an emphasis on the need for innovation. 2. Innovative Thinking: The process of thinking innovatively is foreign to most managers, they can engage in exercises to change that. 3. Idea Acceleration Process: Managers generate a set of specific ideas on which they would like to work. Managers also determine resources needed to accomplish their projects. 4. Barriers and Facilitators to Innovative Thinking: Discussing and reviewing the most common barriers to innovation. 5. Sustaining Innovative Teams: Managers work together to form teams based on the ideas that have been circulating among the entire group. 6. The Innovation Plan: After discussing and reviewing the barriers, the teams should then complete a plan. This plan should include goal setting, assessing the current conditions, and developing step-by-step timetable for project completion and evaluation. 7. Assessing the Innovative Culture: A survey instrument can be used to assess the level of innovative culture in the organization. Areas for improvement are then addressed.

Name the drivers of innovation.

1. Trends 2. Unexpected occurrences 3. Incongruities 4. Process needs 5. Industry and market changes 6. Demographic change 7. Perceptual change 8. Knowledge-based concepts

What is Design?

A process of shaping an idea into an artifact which is something we can observe and manipulate. (An artifact is not the final product). When we design we bring an idea into the world for others to comprehend. Design can be a product, service, or business model (process). Design is just a part of the innovation process, as innovation is the overarching process and includes the artifact being brought to a larger audience. Without entrepreneurial behavior, the idea would die.

Intrinsic motivation (Element of creativity)

AKA Passion. It is most important to be passion about what you are working on. Creative breakthroughs require a lot of work to bring them into reality, and without the firm belief and commitment to an idea, it is much harder to see it through to completion. You need to have a spark (a fire of curiosity and passion) when working on a creative project. A good mentor is a pinpoint for igniting a spark within an individual working on a creative project. A good mentor can guide you and make the process easier. It's easy to wander aimlessly for knowledge when working on our own which can diminish our spark for the project.

What does it mean when a manager is "plugged in"?

Being "plugged in" means that the information networks allows a firm to be alert to new opportunities in its environment. This ties into the "give and take" idea which is managers managing their information networks strategically. The more a manager is connected to others, both internally and externally from the firm, the better their chance to obtain superior information about opportunities in the environment.

Quote about the design process's impact on the innovation process

Being more creative and proactive leads to better design, better design leads to more innovation, and more innovation leads to increased entrepreneurial activity.