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Q1. Write a reply for this article (Stacy)
There is a lot of great information about innovation management and project management in this video from Rutgers. One thing that really stood out to me was the diagram she showed with a brick wall between the “innovation” department and the rest of the company. Keeping your innovation or new product/project management separate from the rest of the company is detrimental to innovation success. The innovative process can take much longer without support from key personnel from several areas of the company. Innovation management involves engaging everyone in the association as part of the innovation process. Success comes when all parts of the organization are working together towards innovative solutions that will benefit customers and the company.
Companies who have achieved success as innovators include Amazon and Netflix. Both of these organizations realized that “shifts in processes, products, and perspective” are essential for continued business success. Innovation management is defined as “the process of taking in innovative ideas from their inception to implementation.” According to the article from Stanford there are 4 steps involved in innovation management: encourage employees to think creatively and collaborate with one another, record and share innovative ideas, evaluate innovative ideas, and organize and implement innovative ideas. Several advantages of innovation management include: a well-working streamlined process to work out new products, services or initiatives; an improvement to a creative team’s work environment that generates more creative ideas; and a forward looking company that is better to handle new industry trends. Successful innovation management requires a future-oriented view, flexible management strategies, and a willingness to try again when ideas fail.
Interestingly, because innovation is crucial to business success in our world today, Stanford offers a program of study in Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Ultimately companies that truly embrace innovation may reap the benefits of higher profits, better employees, and better customer service.
Source: Stanford. A Guide to Innovation Management. https://online.stanford.edu/guide-innovation-management
Q.2 Write a reply for this article (Amy)
This video described how there is not just one part of the organization that can feed innovation for a company. To be successful it is everyone's job to be innovative, the associates making new products, creating new capabilities, designing strategies and developing business. It is best for the company to collaborate as a united front. It is a challenge to get 100-1000 or more to work together and exhibit what they know or what they can do, The new business development teams should focus on long term and not just short term development. As stated in the site below - “Innovation” is a popular buzzword in the business world, but it’s far from meaningless. In fact, innovation is key to building a successful organization. According to the article sited below: Innovation stems from a company allowing freedom of thoughts, access to resources, creative nourishment, allowing failure, accommodating leadership styles, and acknowledging contributions. An innovative culture fosters creative thinking that enables your workers to think beyond the regular hurdles of their work and come up with something new and unique. In a lot ways this video reminds me of the group project we are working on together in this course by pulling together everyone's strengths to one collaborative paper.
https://www.zippia.com/employer/workplace-innovation/By Abby McCain Links to an external site. - Nov. 6, 2022
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Q.3 Write a reply for this article (Luis)
A company that has utilized innovation well that I know of is Disney. I worked for Disney a very long time ago and in a time well before FastPass was ever even a dream. I worked in TomorrowLand at the Magic Kingdom for 7 years. One of the things I will always remember was working at Space Mountain. Our interior queue line was 7 turns deep, then inside the building itself, then it went outside. The longest line I ever witnessed went all the way out the Hub in the middle of the park.
In case you have never been to Walt Disney World or been to the Magic Kingdom let me explain a bit. At the very heart of Magic Kingdom stands the castle in all it's splendour. Just in front of the castle is the hub. From here, you can get to all of the different lands in Magic Kingdom. The hub is literally at the center of the park itself and the park is massive. Space Mountain is the farthest point away from the hub in TomorrowLand. It is far. Having the line reach all the way out to there made the wait-time 5 hours long! We would have to stand out there explaining to the guests that the people who were seemingly standing in a random line, were actually waiting for Space Mountain.
Things like this are why Disney created the FastPass system. Rather than guests standing in a 5 hour line and losing most of their day, they could get a FastPass and get a return time with a minimal wait instead. This allowed them to go on other attractions, meet characters, go eat, or do just about anything else rather than standing in line for several hours and not getting to enjoy the rest of the park.