ARTICLES
& REPORTS
Organizational
Innovation
- O r g a n i z a t i o n a l _ I n n o v a t i o n -
Competition, Innovation and Corporate Culture
by John Kutch
As simple as it sounds, competition is the key to short-term success, while innovation is the key to long-term success.
For companies to succeed in the future global marketplace, they must differentiate from the status quo by making products that are more innovative or by offering products that are more competitive in terms of quality, image or price.
Competition is an exceptional experiential and instructional tool. But competition increases the number of participants in any given endeavor, without increasing its profit potential. Of course, dividing potential means less profit for each competitor. Proactive competition, however, can lead to innovation, whereas reactive competition doesn’t lead, but follows.
Innovators and competitors are separated by how they respond to opportunity. Innovators create and exploit opportunities while competitors capitalize on emerging opportunities. Innovators will continually be in the best position to exploit opportunities, because they will have, in some way, created them.
At best, competitors will aggressively market their products in order to buy time, save money, and learn as much as possible, to eventually invest in their future. At worst, they will follow as leads are presented. Either way, they will be in dangerously safe territory. Dangerous, because unless competitors have a long-term strategy to become innovators, they are no way in control of their destinies. They have not invested profits in their future so they will be safe for the short-term.
Innovators and competitors can be further differentiated by two resources that define corporate standards: culture and creativity. Culture is a physical investment in human capital, and how human resources interact. Creativity is an intellectual investment in the development of that capital. To maximize the potential for innovation, both require long-term commitments.
The corporate culture of a company begins with recruitment, and extends to training and retaining employees, as well as building teams. It includes external influences: -working environment, architecture, interior design; transitional influences: office politics, dress codes, social events; and internal influences: equal opportunity, diversity and benefits.
The corporate creativity of a company begins with a thorough examination of existing ideation models, and extends to how they are implemented. Many companies are driven to be creative out of need in their initial developmental stage. However, these companies often aren’t aware that creative patterns are developing, because their pioneering stage is very disorderly. In the initial phase, what is taking place generally takes precedent over how and why it occurs, so models are not consciously engaged.
Later, when corporate culture is established and the company is operating with all departments in synch, any attempt to introduce creative elements to culture patterns and models is usually suppressed. This suppression takes place out of fear that new means change, and change will negatively, rather than positively, affect the operation as a whole.
Unfortunately, this pattern becomes a comfortable rut many companies never get past. A suggestion box is not the answer. An environment that stimulates innovation, however, is.
To execute a paradigm shift from competitor to innovator, a company must cultivate a creative corporate culture that transcends their ability to capitalize on emerging opportunities, and begins to create and exploit opportunities in the global marketplace. Ideas, after all, are the universal language.
To facilitate that objective, a number of performance-enhancing services are available. In concert, they can assess and address specific needs to substantially improve:
-Information management
-Productivity/Efficiency
-Product quality/life
-R&D, new product dev.
-Sales & marketing
-Public perception
The fundamental breakthrough to developing a creative corporate culture driven to innovate is the ability to isolate the specific dimensions of culture, that if improved, will demonstrate a direct correlation to enhanced creativity and ultimately, improved financial performance. The crucial next step is to get management to commit to pay more than lip service.
For more information: contact John Kutch, Founder of John Kutch Creative Services, at 214-891-8485 or e-mail: zen@airmail.net.