Critical Success Factors For Innovation Management Research Paper

Critical Success Factors For Innovation Management - Research Paper Example Innovation is important for all organisations to improve and develop, as innovation creates a unique positioning and differentiation opportunity that can give a business more market presence. What is an innovation? Innovations are unique business practices, exclusive product offerings, or any other activity that is ground-breaking or pioneering in an industry. If an organisation does not innovate, it will not have longevity as more innovative competitors will begin to outperform a business that is complacent by doing business as usual without creating inventive strategies. This report highlights the critical success factors for innovation management. Innovation management practices Sebell and Terwilliger (2011, pp.1-3), managing partners at Creative Realities, Inc., believe there are nine distinct success factors for innovation management. These include: 1. Having a compelling case for innovation. 2. An inspired and shared vision for the future 3. A fully aligned strategic agenda for the innovation. 4. More visibility of senior management in the innovation process and operations 5. A decision-making model that builds teamwork 6. A fully sourced, multi-functional team dedicated to meeting strategic goals 7. Open-minded exploration of the marketplace drivers of innovation 8. Have a willingness to take risks and see value in absurdity. 9. A well defined, yet flexible execution process.... In this case, the business must have a case to justify sweeping product changes and determine a new market entry strategy to provide a product that brings revenue gains unique from competition. A business case is critical to coming up with a strategic plan for new innovation offerings. Having an inspired and shared vision of the future is highly important in innovation management. Fairholm (2009) describes the importance of having transformational leaders in the organisation, those who constantly iterate mission and vision, using relationship development techniques in the social environment to gain commitment and loyalty in teams. A new innovation, whether product-based or human capital-based, will often mean the business is now taking on a new direction in its market. Innovation management, in this case, means developing an organisational culture that is focused, united and dedicated to team philosophy. This often means that senior management officials must be more visible, as was i dentified by Sebell and Terwilliger (2011). In many organisational models, there is a recognition that change resistance often occurs that stems from differing principles, values or work ethics of different employees in a diverse organisation. In order to get the innovation planned, produced and ultimately launched, team philosophy is critical and this could require decentralising the organisation or creating a more socially-bonded environment for group working. In the case where an innovation is product-based, the organisation must understand the drivers of marketplace competition. For instance, a technology company that has revolutionised telephony communications would need