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Reply to MIGR 1

Innovation is the process of bringing to bear a new idea to improving existing products, workflows, or processes. MIT professor Bill Aulet describes innovation as the product of multiplying invention with commercialization. He states an invention is not innovation by itself but must be used to create value for customers to qualify as innovation (Aulet, 2014). Mr Aulet describes five types of innovation: technology, process, business models, position, and other. Technology innovation is probably the easiest to imagine as we think of technology advances that we can apply to our everyday life. Process innovation includes changing the way we get things done to include changing the steps of instructions to streamline steps that can be accomplished at the same time. Business model innovation includes changing the way the company charges for items such as using a subscription based model or a pay as you go model. Positioning innovation involves decisions such as whether to be the low-cost option for consumers or to occupy a niche market. He titles the last category as “other” to keep room for innovations that will be so new they don’t currently have a name.

5 Tenets to leading successful innovation in business

- Collaborate with others to extract new ideas (Llopis, 2014)

- Champion change efforts from the top.

- View failure as gaining valuable results from experimentation

- Choose a lab vs. factory mindset

- Be willing to take risks.

Leadership at Heinz created a company-wide innovation effort. They decided to create a lab mindset that resulted in creating two to five new products a year (Heinz, n.d.). They allowed their specialists to take risk on these untested products and continue working on them. This effort brought to market several products that the company new consumers enjoyed but they might not like cooking themselves. The leadership focus on creating an innovative culture resulted in a significant number of new products championed by employees across the hierarchy.

Starbucks is another company that has seen success due to championing innovation. The company creates platforms for collaboration to bring ideas up to leadership (Trefis, 2016). Social media sites have given employees the opportunity to spitball ideas even if they seem ludicrous at the time. The companies’ leadership has realized that an idea might start of bad, after many employees have commented on the idea, it goes through an evolution and improves over time. The investment of the company leaders into creating an ecosystem of collaboration has resulted in profitable innovations and many new drinks being offered such as pumpkin spice latte’s that have been hugely successful.

Reply to TAWO 1

Innovation has become a permanent fixture for the business atmosphere over the past decades. Innovation is the process of introducing a new idea, method or invention that creates value (Business Dictionary, 2017). There are three levels to innovation that represent this change (Dyer, 2013). Depending on what type of innovation represents a company the leader will adapt to it. Growth innovation simplifies the product or idea to increases access and affordability. Sustaining innovation develops products to replace their older versions. Efficiency innovation creates efficiency in the new products and services. In order for businesses to implement successful innovation there are principles that can be useful. Examples of these principles are leading with culture, involving every business layer, engaging and communicating, leading outside of the lines and assessing and then adapting (Aguirre, 2014).

A company that leads with culture keeps their employees and environment in mind when implementing change. Each employee works differently and a leader can draw energy from this and align their innovative ideas. The culture also helps to define how and why a company does what they do. Apple is an example of a company that leads with culture. The company’s initiative to make sure that customers enjoy their experience is shared by the entire company. A company that involves every layer takes into account the effects of the top, middle and bottom layer employees. By involving employees in the businesses strategy it engages them and creates long-term efficiency. IBM is an example of a company that involves their employees. This was done by opening up the opportunity to allow employees to voice comments, suggestions, and concerns for leaders to assess. A company that engages is one that has leadership that communicates efficiently. They also promote good communication skills like Coca-Cola does with their employees. Coca-Cola has created a program that prepares their employees to better communicate internally and externally. A company that leads outside the lines involves both formal and informal positions to influence change. These informal employees are identified and can be associated to build pride, trusted go-to people and communicators (Aguirre, 2014). Whatever it may be their characteristics are used to influence the innovation that is being implemented. A company that assesses and adapts takes the time to figure out and work through what is failing instead of moving on immediately. By doing this an organization can make changes where necessary in order to follow through with a process and determine long-term success.

Reply to EVHA 2

Although there are several automated virtual assistants like Siri, Alexa, and “Ok Google”, nothing beats having a “live” personal assistant to handle complex tasks such as waiting on hold to dispute a claim. A human virtual personal assistant service can solve these needs. This business will be client centered. It will use the business strategy of Need Seekers (Jaruzelski & Dehoff, 2010). Need seeker strategy is assessing the needs and desires of consumers and being able to develop the products or services before the competition (Jaruzelski & Dehoff, 2010). For this strategy to work, a good customer to business relationship must be established and maintained. In addition, the company must be able to hire and retain knowledgeable information technical support personnel.

Our readings reiterate, innovation starts at the top. As a 21st century leader, I need to hire individuals who share a passion to create and maintain services that assist our clients in resolving complex tasks. These individuals will also need to possess a teamwork mentality. We will also possess a strong customer focus to ensure our business strategy aligns with goals (Zenger & Folkman, 2014). The leaders of the company will also be effective communicators and establish genuine connections to the diverse employee pool. We will build a holacratic organization structure. A holacracy organization structure streamlines authority levels and improves decision making procedures (Martin, 2016). Martin (2016), explains that this type of structure supports innovation on all levels of the organization. This structure will enable the company to work as a team and be able to make business decisions faster than a traditional hierarchical structure (Martin, 2016). This type of structure also promotes transparency and openness which will reinforce the trust between team members (Conley, 2013).

The culture will be organic in the essence that we all contribute to making our work environment a balance of work and play. Since the essence of our company is to provide virtual personal assistants, many of our employees will have the ability to work non-traditional work schedules. To help combat negative emotions of not feeling like part of a team, the company will conduct all-hands quarterly meetings where we will recognize and reward employees for various accomplishments.

As a leader of a holacratic, organic company it is important that I continually self-assess to ensure that the company is moving in a forward motion. It is also vital that our company requests feedback both internally and externally so that we can continue to innovate and meet our clients’ expectations both current and future.

Reply to JEVI 2

This may be a little superficial and less practical, and I am not sure if this may already exist, but I used to dream of an idea to establish a unique shopping experience for customers. By creating software in which a person can take pictures of themselves in different angles or a full 360 degree snapshot, provide additional specific information (e.g. height, weight, measurements) and all of this would be uploaded into a software program for an online retailer(s). When the customer would like to shop and browse for clothing purchases, they can get a more accurate preview of what each piece would look like on themselves virtually. This would change the online shopping experience, by making it more pleasurable (I dislike shopping online myself and have a hard enough time at the store trying on clothes to see if they fit/feel just right). In turn, this would also cause a huge reduction in returns and displeased customers. Currently, we shop online by viewing what clothing looks like draped on mannequins, laid out individually or on models that may not match our different body types.

The company I would have would be a team comprised of IT professionals that can create this software capability, work out the kinks, provide security, have it work on various platforms and constantly improve it to make it as life-like as possible. I would also have fashion and design teams to not only help keep our website interesting, but stock our company with in-demand styles of all sizes, shapes and colors. Sales and customer service reps would be on hand to assist with keeping the customer happy while shopping and continue on after purchases. A culture of trust would exist within the organization, ensuring this is reciprocated between team members and management (Zenger and Folkman, 2014). I would want to provide the tools employees need to adapt and overcome challenges (Llopis, 2014) such as training, development and I would listen to their ideas to improve operations. This would further be strengthened by having a flat organizational structure where employees interact and work together towards providing a realistic shopping experience to the world.