Innovation is a term commonly touted in millions of vision statements, corporate strategies and marketing brochures. A majority of companies claim to be innovative; yet when it comes to reality there is a significant gap between aspirations and tangible results. Innovation Management provides a framework by which a firm not only cultivates value-focused creativity, but also harnesses and implements innovation in the production and delivery of its products or services.
What components are essential to Innovation Management and are there practical steps that can be taken to facilitate innovative behavior? Is it simply done by only gathering clever people around a table? Is innovative behavior only encouraged within specific organizational units (e.g. a Research & Development department)?
Innovation should be encouraged and harvested from every level, literally from any 'corner' of an organization utilizing the creative power, the know-how and the experience of all available resources. It does not end with submitting an extraordinary idea or a ground-breaking new concept.
Successful Innovation Management funnels creative ideas through a process that results in tangible applications to products or services, leading to enhanced competitive advantage, as reflected in elevated consumer benefits, increased market share and improved efficiency in the manufacturing process.
Innovation only provides a temporary advantage however, given responses by competitors and a constantly changing business environment. Innovation Management, therefore, must be an institutionalized discipline; continuously facilitating innovation across all organizational units in order to meet stakeholders’ expectations.
