Creating Competitive Edge through Continuous Innovation
Sunday, February 12, 2012 15:38Organizations around the world have claimed that they are ‘innovative’ businesses as they are creative (Papers4you.com, 2006). Even so to gain a competitive edge, it is imperative to recognize that innovation often implies 1 step ahead of creativity where later is only an essential component of innovation. Creativity is merely an capability to combine ideas in a unique way or to associate ideas in uncommon manner , nevertheless innovation on the other hand is the ‘process’ of taking a creative idea and turning it into a helpful product or service ( Robbins & Coulter, 2002). Such process entails inputs like creative individuals, organization and groups that can carry transformation by means of creative method and situation to give creative goods as outputs (Woodman et al, 1993). Furthermore, it is also essential to recognize that such method need to be on continuous basis as accurate innovative marketing entails regular efforts to gain real improvements in all dimensions related to products and services (Kotler & Armstrong, 1999).
There can be quite a few examples of organizations that came up with new innovations and get a enormous competitive edge and attracted large number of buyers (Papers4you.com, 2006). For Instance, years ago, diabetic patients were deprived of tasting sugar in tea or coffee etc. Suddenly low calories sweetener goods like ‘Canderal’ came up with an innovative concept to give diabetic and fat conscious patients taste of sugar in numerous items without disturbing their sugar level. Such goods captured market of diabetic patients all over the world. Example of Procter & Gamble’s Liquid Tide is argued as 1 of the finest cases of innovation in US marketplace. Initial endeavors to compete years of Lever Bros market leading liquid detergent item ‘Wisk’ turned out to be massive failure. Nevertheless by adopting creative concept of adding 12 cleaning agents (that are double than typical) , a dirt trapping molecule in wash water and by giving same color to bottle that is trademark of Tide powdered detergent ( for maintaining brand awareness) and then transforming it into item ‘ Liquid Tide’, P & G challenged numerous profitable years of ‘Wisk’ by capturing equal market share in just 18 months (Kotler & Armstrong, 1999).
Apart from obtaining edge, there are particular other advantages of innovation. It helps in creating flexible and much more adaptive company processes with changing business environments, faster and accurate actions are possible as it demands real-time choice making and due to normal analyses and control, it permits companies to greater anticipate disruptions in day-to-day enterprise operations that helps in taking proactive and quick measures to enhance outcomes (IBM, 2006)
Hence it could be concluded that instead of relating innovation with creativity only, organizations can get competitive edge and success if they take innovation as a continuous process of product, services and operations with creativity as a key component.
References
IBM (2006), ‘Transforming businesses for innovation and improvement’, New York: IBM Corporation
Kotler, P & Armstrong, G, (1999), ‘Principles of Marketing’, Eight Edition, New Jersey: Prentice- Hall Inc
Papers For You (2006) ” C/OM/33. Does innovation necessarily lead to commercial success? “, Obtainable from http://www.coursework4you.co.uk/sprtopem3.htm [19/06/2006]
Papers For You (2006) ” S/B/86. The changing role of innovation S/B/86. The changing role of innovation”, Available from Papers4you.com [19/06/2006]
Robbins, S, P & Coulter, M, (2002), ‘Management’, Sixth Edition, New Jersey: Prentice- Hall Inc
Woodman, R, W, Sawyer, J, E & Griffin, R, W, (1993), ‘Toward a Theory of Organizational Creativity’, Academy of Management Review, April, 1993: 309