Innovation as a competitive advantage

Without new ideas, businesses and individuals will never succeed. How many times have you had the Eureka moment only to find that the idea has slipped away? It’s amazingly annoying to find that your brain just can pull back that idea, and you will always feel that was the idea that will make you money.

Demands for organizational innovation and technological advantage are increasingly crucial for the firms to remain competitive. Most firms face serious competitive challenges due to the rapid pace and unpredictability of technology change. Global strategies are dependent in large part on accelerating the speed at which innovation reach the market place. These conditions have led management theorists and practitioners alike to call for more creativity in management practices, products, and production processes that a firm employs.

Several common themes emerge repeatedly across studies to suggest that the link between innovation activities and competitive advantage rests primarily on four factors.

- One, Innovations that are hard to imitate

- Two, innovations that accurately reflect market realities

- Three, innovations that enable a firm to exploit the timing characteristics of the relevant industry

- Lastly, innovations that rely on capabilities and technologies which are readily accessible to the firm

As the global playing field becomes increasingly level; Logic, linear thinking and rule-based analysis-- will remain important, but are no longer sufficient to succeed in the global economy.

One of the biggest impediments to innovation continues to be the "constraints of the product development lifecycle". Recognizing that product development cycles are longer than recessionary periods, and any opportunity to shorten the development life cycle could mean real rewards.

My take: Innovation is gradually moving from an occasionally interesting sideshow that is not focused and not strategic, to becoming a key focus of senior executives as they realize that only innovation can help the firms continually grow and differentiate. Innovation is rapidly becoming a capability or enabler that strengthens and focuses the corporate strategies, and should over time become a key enabler to many corporate goals and strategies

God Speed..!!!

Mervyn Lewis

W-I-P inventory

Propagator

Grab the Talent!!

In these days of globalisation and the ‘’competitive environment’’, change is the only constant. Surely, now the tides are turning in the corporate world, gone are the days where a person would join an organisation in his early age and stay on servicing that company till retirement. Today, young professional hop jobs especially during the first 4-5 years of their work life. Times have changed and now people cannot be rooted at one place for long time. It is therefore now proved, that with the advent in technology and knowledge, talent is on the hot seat. Now it’s for one who possesses it dictates and not the one who pays for it.

As Jack Welch says: "Any strategy, no matter how smart, is dead on arrival unless a company brings it to life with people—the right people."

Therefore, now the challenge is how to acquire the right talent and even bigger question is how to retain best talent? While there is no set map or wonder formula to manage talent, the trick is to locate the right talent in the organisation and encourage it. As Tom Friedman puts it across, that in order to compete in this ‘’flat’’ world, one needs to have (well) rounded people. Becoming a well rounded talent requires immense learning and development of skills. Organisations that aim to achieve that, must invest time and energies towards creating enriching workplace environment if they wish to attract and retain the high calibre talent.

It is now the duty of the global HR community to work upon building talent management strategies thereby nurturing the talented workforce. Talent must be spotted, well nurtured and most importantly preserved in the healthy environment.

Right talent for the right job – is the new mantra for organisations.

By Haider Jasdanwala
Proud Trendsetter