Sharpening Your Skills: Managing Innovation
So now the demand and need are clear, what about approaches, concepts and ideas.
Some are compiled by Harvard Business School’s Working Knowledge who have put together some classic articles on innovation (“Sharpening Your Skills: Managing Innovation“), among them articles on user innovation, and how to harness disruptive change:
Sharpening Your Skills dives into the HBS Working Knowledge archives to bring together articles on ways to improve your business skills. Questions to be answered:
– Can innovation and creativity be managed?
– Where do creative ideas come from?
– Can I take advantage of disruption?
– Where can I find innovative solutions?
Can innovation and creativity be managed?, see High Note: Managing the Medici String Quartet:
Many managers in business experience difficulty dealing with their best creative thinkers. So how does violinist Paul Robertson, who leads one of the great string quartets in the world, manage himself and 3 colleagues? One idea: Don’t make life too comfortable for them.
Where do creative ideas come from?, see How Kayak Users Built a New Industry:
Users have produced some of the most important innovations in industries ranging from oil refining to scientific instruments. But how do user innovations take place? How do they get to market? HBS professor Carliss Baldwin discusses her research on the rodeo kayak industry to understand the world of user innovation.
Can I take advantage of disruption?, see Jumpstarting Innovation: Using Disruption to Your Advantage (recommended):
Mature companies understand that to compete they need to innovate. But finding sources of innovation while still paying attention to the current business can be a struggle. The good news, says HBS professor Lynda Applegate, is that one of the forces that threatens established companies can also be a source of salvation: disruptive change.
[…]
Key concepts include:
– Jumpstarting innovation is a critical business imperative. Executives realize that radical change is needed, but do not feel equipped to be able to make those changes.
– Disruptions in the business environment allow new entrants or forward-thinking established players to introduce innovations that transform the way companies do business and consumers behave.
– Disruptive changes that might serve as the source of innovation include technology shifts, new business models, industry dynamics, global opportunities, and regulatory changes.
And finally Where can I find innovative solutions?, see Open Source Science: A New Model for Innovation, looking at practices in the open-source software community that might inform corporate innovation practices.
