Types Of Innovation And Ways To Encourage Innovation In Teams

Innovation can be defined as the process of generating new ideas or invention which will in turn create some value and for these the customers will pay. To call an idea, “Innovation” it should specifically meet some requirements what the customers ask for. Innovation involves delivering greater or different values in limited resources which can be used to generate useful products.

The four major types of innovation are:

1. Incremental Innovation: The incremental innovation deals with the shift in the strategy and products with the continuous improvement in the existing products. The small changes in the products helps in improv the functionality and appealing new customers and expanding the customer base. The incremental innovation helps in reducing the production cost and empower the employees.

2. Sustainable Innovation: The sustainable innovation helps in defining the problems and evaluating the solution for improving the problem. Sustainable innovation process aims at sustaining and improving the existing solutions. The sustainable innovation procedure is a critical method for practically implementing the development and innovation in the existing products. The sustainable innovation helps in maintaining and reviewing the existing technology and products that are already being used. The sustainable innovation is used for making the products more suitable for the current new demands.

3. Disruptive Innovation: The disruptive innovation is often utilized for any device, systems and software. In the case of disruptive innovation, the existing product or system are replaced with the new technology for meeting the current trends and market demands. The application of the disruptive innovation helps in creating new value network and new market for achieving the market lead and competition.  

4. Breakthrough Innovation: Breakthrough innovation is often defined as a revolutionary science as this innovation represents and deals with the shifting of the paradigm of the product. The breakthrough innovations are often characterized by the advanced technology and new product category that relies in alteration of the market consumption pattern.  The breakthrough innovation is discontinuous, disruptive and radical in nature. Further, the breakthrough innovation usually aims at making a typical product with cost  efficient and effective process. The breakthrough innovation comes with the significant risks of failure to capture the market through the new products.

1.

Profit margin increases: With new ideas, a company can generate its productivity much higher than its competitors. It will help them to make an impression and the main target for any company is to make sure the cost is less and the revenue is high.

2.

Product diversification: With innovation, new products can be launched which were never been introduced earlier which will help the company to make its own mark. Giving innovative ideas will help them to diversify their products with others so that users buy their product only.

3.

Satisfying customer needs: With new innovation, organizations should also find new ways to keep in touch with their employees in order to make them feel special so that they come again and again. They should also try to give some reward point so that they come and shop from their only.

External

1.

Industry Related External Factors: in these factors, Political, Cultural, Economical, Ecological and Technological can affect the working of the employees.

2.

Firm Specific: These factors are influenced by the Size, Partner, Customer and Competitor based on which innovation of a team depends.

Internal

3.

Core Process: In this factor, the value of innovation is added in the team so that the productivity increases.

4.

Creditworthiness: In this, the employees get credits for their innovative ideas which boost them to give more innovative ideas.      

1.

Give employees a reason to care: If the company officials are not feeling connected to the company, there’s incentive to be innovative will be minimized. Employees who are involved in this process for a long time will be happy to see their work completed and with more active participation, new innovative ideas will come. Company should make sure that every employee are taking active part in the activities and sometimes company should make arrangements for some innovative work.

2.

Rethink competition: Setting up some challenging tasks will keep the individuals more focused on the work in order to achieve the targets. Giving rewards to the employees also help them to get the innovative ideas. Encouraging open communication and team dedication should be there. In this way, they are able to share their ideas more and by communicating they can know the market more.

3.

Empowering employees to make decisions and taking own action: Employees should be encouraged to make their own decisions so that in this way they can be aware of the challenges and take any task by themselves. Even if there is any mistake, they should be made understood of the problem so that they can increase their potential. Making some innovative work, employees will get that confidence were there can make their own decision and in this way, they do not have to rely on others for any work.

1.

Organizational / Team background

“Excel technology Solutions Private Limited” is an IT based organization. The Excel technology deals with development and implementation of various software ranging from antecedence tracking software to accounting software based on the client’s requirements. The products developed by Excel solutions are independent on the operating system, application type and the size of the client’s company.

The significant function of the team working in the organization includes collaboration, accountability, conflict resolution, clear goals, communication and decision making process. These following functionalities are followed by the team members for completion of any task allocated by the organization. The efficiency in conducting the task provided is considered as the significant goal of the team members working for the Excel Technology Solutions. The team should work with a collaborating approach with the sharing of ideas for completion of the provided project within the provided deadline.

2.

Team make-up & rules

The new members of the team comprise of project manager, business analyst, software engineer, tester and quality assurance engineer. The current project Excel Technology Solution is currently operating in is with the development of accounting application for client. The development of the accounting software required the evaluation of the financial process being followed at the organization of client. The team members selected for the project has the expertise in application development, coding and testing. The selected team members have the potential of understanding the client’s requirements and develop the project with required standard while ensuring client satisfaction.

The three significant ground rules established for ensuing the efficient operation within the team are as follows:

All the team members should follow effective communication channel and work in a collaboration manner. 

All team members should validate the information from the project manager before working on the particular part within the project;

The team members should share the sensitive data and information about the project with each other;

3.

Innovation

for improvement

For providing innovation in the team, the improvement in the documents sharing process has been identified. Currently, the documents are made manually and are saved in hard copies. In addition to that, the information relevant to the application are stored in the database of the Excel Solutions that is only accessed within the organization. For providing innovation for improvement, a cloud system needs to be implemented for storing the relevant documents and files. Implementing the cloud storage facility will provide the team members with enhanced collaboration and efficiency in working through the availability of all the relevant information in one place.

The existing process of information sharing process followed in the Excel Technology Solutions has limited the team members in working with the project in efficient manner. In addition to that, the implementation of the cloud storage solution will help the team members in assessing the files in real time with the limitation of time and place. This will result in the increased efficacy and team work by providing easy sharing of information through reliable channel.

4

Implementation Action Plan

[Template Below]

5.

Reflection

Before implementing the change for bringing innovation within the team, a proposal has been submitted to higher authorities showcasing the various advances and impact on the team efficiency upon implementation. The implementation of the innovation changes was implemented after obtaining the approval from the higher authorities of “Excel Technology Solutions”. In addition to that, before implementing the cloud sharing process, feedback was taken from all the members working within the project. During the implementation of the innovation for sharing and storing the sensitive documents related to project, various challenges have been faced. The significant problem that I have faced was resistance to change among the team members for using the advanced file and document sharing methods. After utilizing the cloud sharing process, user feedback was taken from the members for evaluating the impact on the work efficiency and performance.

In order to implement the innovative improvement within the project team, the team members were briefed about the advantages and impact of the cloud storage could bring upon the performance and efficiency of the team work. Since, the implementation of the innovation ideas requires the involvement and collaboration of all the team members, I have communicated with the members for their co-corporation for accepting the change.

Activity

Responsible Person

Due data

1. developing a plan for implementing the innovative strategy within Excel Technology Solutions;

Project Manager

15^th March 2017

2. Obtaining approval from the higher authorities for implementing the innovative solution;

Project Manager, Authorities of “Excel Technology Solution”.

20^th March 2017

3. Communicate with the team member and briefing about the change;

Team Members, Project Manager

21^st March 2017

4. Implementing the process for sharing and storage of report and documents in cloud;

Software Engineer and Project Manager

24^th march 2017

5. Reviewing the implemented innovative solution;

Team Members, Project Manager

31^st March 2017

1

Organizational and Team background

“Excel Technology Solutions” deals with the development of software applications for their clients.

2

Organization and team Goals

The “Excel Technology Solutions” aims to deliver quality and standard services to the customer while meeting the client’s requirements.

The aim of the team members to provide the technology solution with efficiency and collaboration work.

3

Innovation for improvement

The three identified innovation for improvement in the project tea has been identified as follows:

Encouraging Brainstorming The process of brainstorming allows the team members in involving their time for thinking of the possible solutions for a particular problem. Brainstorming helps in enhancing the efficacy of the team involvement.

Training: Conducting training session with the members helps leaning new skills and techniques for conducting a task.

Encourage communication and collaboration: Encouraging collaboration and communication with the team members helps in increasing the productivity and efficiency of work.

4

Recommendations

Encouraging the communication and collaboration within the workplace has been selected as an appropriate innovation for increasing the efficiency and collaboration work within the workplace. The innovation of implementation the cloud storage for record and documents will help in enhancing the efficiency and promote collaborative work.

5

Implementation

The stages involved for introducing the innovation:

1. developing a plan for implementing the innovative strategy within Excel Technology Solutions;

2. Obtaining approval from the higher authorities for implementing the innovative solution;

3. Communicate with the team member and briefing about the change;

4. Implementing the process for sharing and storage of report and documents in cloud;

5. Reviewing the implemented innovative solution;

6

Action Plan

[Template Above]

7

Monitoring/ Evaluating

For monitoring and evaluate the impact of the implemented innovation within the “Excel Technology Solution”, the review and feedback from the team members were taken.