WEEK 1 – INTRODUCTION TO CONCEPTS 

Today’s complex business environment is calling for clearer decision making and innovation at all levels of the organization. What do we mean by Innovation? Where does it come from? Is there a way to focus our innovation efforts to yield the highest results? Where once creativity and innovation were relegated to the R & D departments, they are now skills expected of all employees and solid critical thinking is a must.

This week we will begin to our foundational knowledge of the key concepts of innovation and the role creative and critical thinking play in organizational performance.

Today’s complex business environment is calling for clearer decision making and innovation at all levels of the organization. What do we mean by Innovation? Where does it come from? Is there a way to focus our innovation efforts to yield the highest results? Where once creativity and innovation were relegated to the R & D departments, they are now skills expected of all employees and solid critical thinking is a must. 

Personal Expansion Reflection Post

Objective: To begin to explore the ways we personally define creative and critical thinking and approach these processes in our lives

Begin: This is a reflection post so no research is required, share only that which you are comfortable.

Construct a Discussion Post that identifies how you define and use critical and creative thinking in your life. Again, no formal research required. Share how you see yourself relative to each concept, and to the extent comfortable, what has influenced your assessment of yourself and your thinking processes.

Finish with an evaluation of what you would like to expand in your thinking processes and how that might benefit you. 

Create a 200 word response to at least 1 peer identifying what you actually learned from their post and how you see it impacting organizations. 

Elisabeth Tudor

Discussion Week 1 – Elisabeth Tudor

COLLAPSE

In today’s world, organizations must stretch their thinking and sometimes their pocketbooks to be truly innovative and competitive. There are so many companies who are investing in new markets and new products that, to remain stagnant, would be considered poison in many industries. Not only must companies look within at their own culture and how their employees react to decisions and growth, but they must look outside as well and understand their competitors and market in order to stay abreast of any change. When it comes time to innovate, even executives who deeply appreciate the discipline that modern management science has produced in finance, marketing, or logistics seem willing to tolerate all sorts of nonsense. (Keeley, et al, 2013)

In the book “Ten Types of Innovation: The Discipline of Building Breakthroughs”, the authors explained various methods organization should focus on when considering new innovation and creative thinking. Two of the ten include “service” and “customer engagement” which, in a way, go hand-in-hand because of how you support your offerings and how you engage in customer interaction. You can’t have a service to offer without having a customer to offer it to. Service innovations ensure and enhance the utility, performance, and apparent value of an offering. (Keeley, et at, 2013) Organizations can create a product or service that allows their current and potential customers to try with the hopes of continued enjoyment. Connecting with customers is always important for growth within an organization and the four pillars that help drive customer service and support include getting connected, process orchestration, knowledge and insight, and resource management. (Gibson, 2022) Connecting with a target audience and have a thorough process in promotion and innovation will ultimately result in higher sales and profits.

After gaining excellent resources and knowledge from the launch of a company’s service, executives can truly focus their attention on customer engagement which is all about understanding and enhancing the needs of a company’s customers and users. Today’s customers want to be in control of their needs and wants. It seems that they now require immediate answers while demanding personalized support. Just less than half (46.5 percent) of North American retailers believe in the high impact value of insights on their businesses. Their experience tells them that the revenue and growth of their organization are closely tied to these insights. (White, 2022) Many companies are starting to realize that if they want to maximize their investments and truly grow their product line, they must invest in real-time analytics and also focus more on their marketing campaigns by making them customer centric. Organizations will learn that effective customer engagement will be followed up with continued success in their market and higher profits.

Understanding the customer journey and gaining insights into buying decisions are two ways an organization can provide new innovations and stay at the top of their industry. Investing in new services and products, having strong partnerships, ensuring a mighty foothold in the marketplace will allow an organization to continue innovating and providing new services and products to their growing list of customers. If we’ve learned anything over the last four decades, it’s that every innovation, however wonderful, contains its own opposite…We never seem to grasp that our strengths inevitably transform into weaknesses. (Pesce, 2022) Every organization must learn to listen, research, invest, and innovate so they continue to success in an ever-changing world.

Works Cited:

Gibson, Kathy. “These Technologies Are Driving Customer Service Innovation – It-Online.” IT, 19 Aug. 2022, https://it-online.co.za/2022/08/19/these-technologies-are-driving-customer-service-innovation/.

Keeley, Larry, et al. Ten Types of Innovation: The Discipline of Building Breakthroughs. Wiley, 2013.

Pesce, Mark. “Every Innovation Contains Its Dark Opposite.” The Register® – Biting the Hand That Feeds IT, The Register, 20 July 2022, https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/20/mark_pesce_40_years_in_tech/.

White, Meagan. “Retailers Need to Dive Deeper into Customer Data.” Total Retail, 7 Sept. 2022, https://www.mytotalretail.com/article/to-capitalize-on-customer-engagement-retailers-need-to-dive-deeper-into-customer-insights/.