One can look at innovation as being one of two kinds, DISRUPTIVE and SUSTAINING.
Sustaining Innovation is most frequently the kind of small step by step gradual change made on a day to day basis. Examples include incremental business process changes, product improvements, pricing plans etc. These are the kind of changes which keep a company or organization in front of their customers, maintaining or increasing sales volumes and margins. A little further down the page we have provided a roadmap for maintaining your organizations sales growth and profits through Sustaining Innovation.
Disruptive Innovation generally makes fundamental changes to a product, business, industry, culture or even the world. Examples of disruptive products might be digital photography or inkjet printers. Disruptive innovations allow entrepreneurs to meet market needs that are simply not being met with current products and services. They frequently lead to the creation of completely new businesses. Ford for example made a fundamental change to the way automobile is manufactured, and this lead to not only explosive growth in the business, but the methodology was applied to many other manufacturing businessesl. In the case of the internet, whole new businesses have been created. Certainly eBay and Amazon are new businesses that have been enabled by the internet. Another example of business transformation through disruptive innovation has been the displacement of institutional care of sick or disabled people through home care. Instead of the patient going to the facility, the experts and infrastructure go to the patient. The result is service which really meets the needs of more people as less cost. Business owners need to pay close attention to Disruptive Innovations as they can put strong solvent enterprises into bankruptcy in short order.
Recently, academics, business leaders and business people have begun to focus on innovation in a bid to understand it better and use innovation to improve their success in the marketplace. As a result, there has been a growing base of knowledge and understanding of how to deliberately innovate to maintain competitive edge, improve quality of life through innovation,
αlpha recommends that organization leaders adopt innovation as a unique and important management discipline with specific methodologies for successful and consistent results. αlpha consultants can assist you in assessing your situation and making sustainable innovation a successful part of your organization's culture, management skill set and approach to continuing success. Contact us now!
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The reality of conducting business today, be it in
the public or private sectors, stakeholders are insisting on change.
Partners need new relationships, customers need customized services and
products, voters need more open, responsive and transparent government. Sustainable innovation requires that culture is a of the community. The size and complexity of the endeavor is not relevant. Consider for example the agricultural community. There is no business which has been as consistently innovative.. There has been innovation in this sector since man scattered the first seeds in the grasslands. Today we see innovation in agriculture world wide at the level of the small individual producer, all the way to modern agribusinesses creating new breeds of plants to better feed the world. In both cases without continuous innovation, these enterprises would quickly disappear as others leapt past them. The point is that innovation is part of the culture and is a practice of both individual farmers, and giant multi-national corporations.
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History is replete with disruptive innovations.
Innovation has meant progress, be it as profound and simple as the wheel,
or as elegant and complex as six sigma approach to business process
management. While most innovations are modest and easily implemented,
disruptive innovation is a little more difficult to successfully achieve.
There are many excellent ideas which never make it into the organization, or into the marketplace as new products, and processes. There are many reasons for failure, or lessons to be learned. Disruptive innovations, while being high risk, can often lead to outstanding results and profits. By understanding how an innovation might be implemented, by knowing that your competitors are not already there and using an innovation; and through disciplined implementation; it is possible to consistently win. The professionals at αlpha have been involved in innovation projects for many years. We have developed innovation models and processes which take much of the mystery out of understanding what makes some innovative ideas and projects work, and others fail. |
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αlpha's team of professional business consultants has developed a complete sustainable innovation life cycle process to assist organizations large and small, in their ongoing campaign for success and bottom line results. αlpha brings you a simple recipe which will assist you in achieving repeatable and successful results. The figures below illustrate the basic principles involved:
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