Simple Short Essays

100 word response to each post: Do not just agree. Add to the posts etc…

1st post:

There are several leaders in innovative products and goods in the marketplace. Those innovators who leave their mark in the marketplace as the best and biggest are the ones that succeed and continue to grow. Apple, one of the largest leading companies with mp3 players made the innovative strive some years ago combining the phone and the mp3 player allowing users to have the best of both worlds in one small device. Consumers jumped at the opportunity to get their hands on these products when the original iPhone came out. Now, the company is on their 6th version of the original mp3/ phone combo and has several options to choose from when purchasing these cell phones. Other phone creators have come out with some things that are similar to those that Apple creates on their phones like the swipe on the screen to answer the phone. Android companies added this feature to several of their phones and quickly had to remove it once Apple pattoned the feature. Apple has several other lines of electronics that are known as the best in the business.

An innovative company certainly does not have to be the best. Some of the best innovative companies are the ones that are not known for what services or goods they have out on the market but are still innovative. In this case, Apple is one well known company that has innovated the way from CD players and walkmans and has provided a way to keep the 100 CD’s that used to be at risk for damaged and put it in a small device. These devices you can get in a variety of colors, storage space sizes, and some can even store videos that you can keep and watch on something as big as your hand. Whether it is the iPhone, iPod, iPad, or Mac book, Apple is continuing to surprise the consumers and I personally can’t wait to see what they come out with next. 

2nd post:

As we have already learned, “innovation is driven by the ability to see connections, to spot opportunities, and to take advantage of them” (Tidd & Bessant, 2013, pg. 4). Two topics or ideas that are new to us this week are innovation leadership and innovation followership. Innovation leadership is defined by a firm’s ability to be first to market and is based on technological leadership. In order for for firms to identify with innovation leadership there must be “a strong corporate commitment to creativity and risk taking, with closed linkages both to major sources of relevant new knowledge, and to the needs and responses of customers” (Tidd & Bessant, 2013, pg. 179).

On the other hand, innovation followership is described as being late to market and “arriving” after the technological leaders. As opposed to innovation leadership, innovation followership requires “A strong commitment to competitor analysis and intelligence, to reverse engineering, and to cost cutting and learning in manufacturing” (Tidd & Bessant, 2013, pg. 179). Overall the major differences between innovation leadership and followership are in a firm’s arrival to market. Innovation leadership takes its chances of failure when entering a new market, while innovation followership notices a firm’s success in a market an attempts to enter and reap the rewards.

A prime example of innovation leadership includes fitness trackers. As fitness and health become a crucial component of a person’s life, fitness trackers began gaining popularity. Although I was not able to determine which brand first released a fitness tracker, it is evident that once different brands and companies saw the success and interest in maintaining a healthy lifestyle, they wanted part in the rewards. Another example includes phone companies who tried to incorporate phone operations into fitness trackers. The original company that attempted this was Samsung. Although they would fall under the innovation followership category because they took an existing product, they could also fall into the innovation leadership because they added to it.

Samsung took the public’s desire to live a healthy lifestyle and added the ability to connect with others using phone operations. For example, the Samsung Gear Fitness Monitor allows users to keep track of steps and other activities. With the success of this gadget, Apple has now introduced its Apple Watch, which can essentially similar functions. In this case, Samsung would be the innovation leader and Apple would be the innovation follower.

References

Tidd, J., & Bessant, J. (2013). Managing innovation: Integrating technological, market and organizational change (5.th ed.). Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley.