Innovation and Change

Innovation and Change

A company lifespan in the highly competitive marketplace of today will depend upon the velocity of innovation that the company is capable of. History has shown that a direct correlation with innovation and the capacity to achieve market superiority. For example, Henry Ford abandoned the views of traditional management when he created the assembly line, offered massive wage increases and created the standard eight hour workday. Ford’s innovation strategy in this instance led to significant increases in production and employee morale. Ford motor company also moved away from leadership “X” philosophy to a leadership “Y” philosophy, this move allowed for production associates to participate in creative invention and charged an entrepreneurial spirit grass roots movement Consequently, Ford Motor Company was able to produce a quality automobile at price the average family could afford and the company then became the “go to” place for purchasing an automobile.

Reasons to Innovate

1. Survival – As mentioned in the introduction, company’s survival is interdependent with its respective velocity of innovation. Competitive firms produce and market products that consumers are wanting to purchase. The telecommunications industry is a perfect example of the constant need for innovations. For instance, we will assume company x sells telecommunications gadgets and the market is saturated, if company y comes along and produces a cheaper and better gadget then company x is doomed to fail. The options that company x would have is to either significantly improve their standing product or create a new highly desirable gadget through entrepreneurial invention.

2. Efficiency - Product/Service innovation usually increases efficiency. An example of this can be proved by merely looking at the impact of Ford’s assembly line on manufacturing processes. Before the assembly line process functions was predominantly completed in job shops. As compared to...