2010

What is Innovation

TANVEER AHMED
NED UNIVERSITY KARACHI
10/4/2010
 What is Innovation 2010

Contents
ABSTRACT: ............................................................................................................................................... 3
INTRODUCTION: ..................................................................................................................................... 3
What is Innovation: .................................................................................................................................... 3
Innovative organizations: .......................................................................................................................... 4
Reengineering and Innovation: ................................................................................................................. 4
Creativity and Innovation:......................................................................................................................... 5
2. Types of Innovation: ........................................................................................................................... 5
2.1. Nature of Innovation:.................................................................................................................... 5
Product innovations .................................................................................................................................. 5
Process innovations .................................................................................................................................. 5
Procedure innovations .............................................................................................................................. 5
2.2. Class of Innovation: ....................................................................................................................... 5
Incremental innovations ........................................................................................................................... 6
Distinctive/ Radical Innovation innovations ............................................................................................. 6
Technical Innovation: ................................................................................................................................ 6
Breakthrough innovations ........................................................................................................................ 6
3. Sources of Innovation: ........................................................................................................................ 6
3.1. Intrinsic ......................................................................................................................................... 6
The unexpected. ....................................................................................................................................... 6
The incongruity. ........................................................................................................................................ 6
Process need. ............................................................................................................................................ 6
Changes in industry or market structure. ................................................................................................. 7
3.2. Extrinsic: ........................................................................................................................................ 7
Demographics. .......................................................................................................................................... 7
Changes in perception, mood, and meaning. ........................................................................................... 7
New knowledge. ....................................................................................................................................... 7
3. The Process / Cycle of Innovation: .................................................................................................... 8
S-curves ..................................................................................................................................................... 8
The Failure to Innovation: .......................................................................................................................... 8

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 What is Innovation 2010
How Innovation Helpful in Future For Textile. ....................................................................................... 9
References:................................................................................................................................................. 11

ABSTRACT:
Innovation is not straight way of changes as we know that “necessity is mother of invention” but
now innovation encapsulate it as ‘innovation is necessity of all inventions’ because now people
can’t realize in historical inventions. In all over the world current business strategies and
economies are rapidly changing for their protection in context of voice of customer (VOC) as we
known as democratizing the changes whenever innovate the product. It is necessary for every
enterprise to locate its position and consistency in the relevant innovative field to maintain their
stability in current competitive environment. Objective of this study to evaluate the innovation in
different perspective as how it can be helpful in future to stand against the old myths and provide
problem solving and solution oriented enterprise products, services, strategies, capabilities as
well as systematic approach for process and procedure. It is also some little reference about the
textile future innovations are mentioned in this study.

INTRODUCTION:
Innovation in every field of life is implementing and as a result changing the life style of people.
So those organization and business units are adapting this methodology are existed to face the
innovative competitive environment and those not accepting are vanish from market as natural
phenomenon. Innovation is like a compass by which the business entities would set their
directions and would adopt it as a core business strategy for going forward. From marketing
point of view innovation is a tool to face the competition from competitors. The concept of
innovation is another milestone in modern international marketing strategy because in today’s
dynamic and competitive market environment many senior managers have become increasingly
concerned with the need to be first, fast, and on time (Wong, 2002)1 .

What is Innovation:
Innovation, according various definitions, includes “incremental or evolutionary and
revolutionary changes in thinking, products, processes, or organizations.” In many fields,
something new must be substantially different to be innovative, not an insignificant change. The
goal of innovation is positive change, to make someone or something better. Innovation leading
to increased productivity is the fundamental source of increasing wealth in an
economy.2“Innovation entails investment aimed at producing new knowledge and using it in
various applications. It results from the interaction of a range of complementary assets which
include research and development, but also software, human capital, design, marketing and new
organizational structures – many of which are essential for reaping the productivity gains
and efficiencies from new technologies”. OECD3

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 What is Innovation 2010

As Peter Drucker explained about innovation that: Innovation is the specific tool of
entrepreneurs, the means by which they exploit change as an opportunity for a different business
or a different service. It is capable of being presented as a discipline, capable of being learned,
capable of being practiced. Entrepreneurs need to search purposefully for the sources of
innovation, the changes and their symptoms that indicate opportunities for successful innovation.
And they need to know and to apply the principles of successful innovation, and also Peter
Drucker functionalized the whole business into only two basic functions: Marketing and
innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results. All the rest are costs. Mr. Drucker
conceptualize the systematic innovation so according to him Systematic Innovation consists in
the purposeful and organized search for changes, and in the systematic analysis of the
opportunities such changes might offer for economic or social innovation4.

While Donna Prestwood & Paul Schumann reference described that Innovation endows
resources with a new capacity to create wealth or creates a resource. Innovation is the procedure
of implementing new ideas, of turning creative concepts into realities. Innovation can occur in all
areas-Technical, Social, Political, Economic. Innovation in one area always affects the other
areas. Innovation can cause change or exploit change. Systematic innovation which exploits
change is generally the most effective. And Theodore Levitt said Creativity is thinking up new
things. Innovation is doing new things. Description by Watts Humphrey about Innovation is the
process of turning ideas into manufacturable and marketable form. George Freedman also
describe same concepts as: Innovation is the process of implementing new ideas, of turning
creative concepts into realities. For our purposes, there is a more meaningful concept, that of
"effective innovation," which can benefit business. Effective innovation is the timely and
efficient implementation of new ideas that result in significantly increased revenues and profits.5

Innovative organizations:
Ricky W.Griffin describe the Innovation with respect to organizational Innovation that is
managed effort of an organization to develop new products or services.6And these invention
and innovation encompass the totality of processes by which new ideas are conceived, nurtured,
developed and finally introduced into the economy as new products and processes; or into an
organization to change its internal and external relationships; or into a society to provide far its
social needs and to adapt itself to the world or the world to itself ,'I (Department of Commerce
Report, Technological Innovation: Its Environment and Management, January 1967, P9m 2)7.
A shared vision is the enabling force that drives an organization. If this vision encompasses the
commitment to leadership and embraces innovation, it can be used to develop an innovation
strategy; to do that, the innovation opportunity must be developed through understanding the
markets. It is through a management style called teleocracy, described by Mobley and McKeon,
that the vision can be established. Organizations have gone through three fundamental styles of
management over time -- autocracy, bureaucracy, and entrepreneurship (or intrapreneurship).
Each has its place in history, its organization, and environmental conditions. In the current
environment, teleocracy is more appropriate for most organizations.8

Reengineering and Innovation:

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 What is Innovation 2010
Basically reengineering is derived from the innovation mythology which means the radical /
complete redesign of all aspects to achieve major gain in cost, service, or time. Reengineering
required a systematic and comprehensive assessment of the entire organization.
Creativity and Innovation:
In Brief, Creativity is the ability to make new combinations; the creative process is the means to
make them. The new combination is termed an innovation. High creativity is the ability to make
innovation of specially great social worth.9

2. Types of Innovation:
New ideas and creative development is challenging job and this task can be evaluated through
innovation process. Innovation process categories the innovation as nature of innovation and
class of innovation relative to the nature. So
analytical way of study for interrelationship between
nature and class can be observed on the innovation
grid. The Innovation Grid shows nine different types
of innovation. Along one axis is displayed the
nature of the innovation. The other axis shows the
class of the innovation. The nature of the innovation
is classified into one of three categories:
2.1. Nature of Innovation:
Product innovations involve the way things interact
with things. Product innovations are those involving
the function provided to customers or the form that
function takes. Examples include improvements in
industrial machinery, consumer goods, software, and component parts.

Process innovations involve the interaction of people with things. Process innovations are those
that involve the way a product is developed, produced, and provided. Examples include
improvements in manufacturing, distribution, and development systems.

Procedure innovations involve the way

people interact with people. Procedure
innovations are those that involve the way
in which products and processes are
integrated into the operations of the
enterprise. Examples include improvements
in marketing methods, administrative
methods, sales terms and conditions, and
requirements generation.
2.2. Class of Innovation:
The second dimension of the classification
structure -- the class of innovation --

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 What is Innovation 2010
indicates how great a change from present practice the innovation represents.

Incremental innovations are those that provide a new product that modifies a existing one.
These are advances that are a little better, a little faster, or a little cheaper.

Distinctive/ Radical Innovation innovations are those that provide a new product or technology
that completely replaces an existing one.10

Technical Innovation: A change in appearance or performance of products or services or the

Physical processes through which a product or service passes.3Technological Knowledge
involved in a technological innovation does not itself has to be new. These are countless
instances in which technological knowledge that has been in existence for many years eventually
produce a technological innovation. Some times, of course a new technological knowledge leads
fairly rapidly to a technological innovation.11

Breakthrough innovations are those that are based on fundamentally different technologies and
approaches, and that allow the performance of functions that were previously not possible, or the
performance of presently possible functions in a manner that is strikingly superior to the old.12

3. Sources of Innovation:
Before starting the innovation process it is necessary to describe about the sources that working
as lever for the innovative process. We have two basic classes of innovation sources called
‘Intrinsic’ and ‘Extrinsic’ that are further divided into total seven branches known as “Drucker
Seven Sources of Innovation”

3.1. Intrinsic: Most innovations, however, especially the successful ones, result from a
conscious, purposeful search for innovation opportunities, which are found only in a few
situations. Four such areas of opportunity exist within a company or industry:
The unexpected.
First, the easiest and simplest source of innovation opportunity: the unexpected. The unexpected
failure may be an equally important source of innovation opportunities. Unexpected successes and
failures are such productive sources of innovation opportunities because most businesses dismiss
them, disregard them, and even resent them.
The incongruity.
An incongruity within the logic or rhythm of a process is only one possibility out of which
innovation opportunities may arise. Another source is incongruity between economic realities.
For instance, whenever an industry has a steadily growing market but falling profit margins - as,
say, in the steel industries of developed countries between 1950 and 1970 - an incongruity exists.
The innovative response: minimum .An incongruity between expectations and results can also
open up possibilities for innovation.
Process need.
What makes the system work for automobiles and trucks is an adaptation of the reflector used
on American highways since the early 193os. The reflector lets each car see which other cars

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 What is Innovation 2010
are approaching from any one of a half-dozen directions. This minor invention, which enables
traffic to move smoothly and with a minimum of accidents, exploited a process need.

Changes in industry or market structure.

Managers may believe that industry structures are ordained by the good Lord, but these
structures can-and often do - change overnight. Such change creates tremendous opportunity for
innovation. When industry grows quickly Established companies, concentrating on defending
what they already have, tend not to counterattack when a newcomer challenges them. Indeed,
when market or industry structures change, traditional industry leaders again and again neglect the
fastest growing market segments. New opportunities rarely fit the way the industry has always
approached the market, defined it, or organized to serve it. Innovators therefore have a good
chance of being left alone for a long time.

3.2. Extrinsic: Three additional sources of opportunity exist outside a company:

Demographics.
In the outside sources of innovation opportunities, demographics are the most reliable.
Managers have known for a long time that demographics matter, but they have always
believed that population statistics change slowly. The innovation opportunities made
possible by changes in the numbers of people - and in their age distribution, education,
occupations, and geographic location - are among the most rewarding and least risky of
entrepreneurial pursuits.

Changes in perception, mood, and meaning.

"The glass is half full" and "The glass is half empty" are descriptions of the same
phenomenon but have vastly different meanings. Changing a manager's perception of a
glass from half full to half empty opens up big innovation opportunities. What
determines whether people see a glass as half full or half empty is mood rather than fact,
and a change in mood often defies quantification. But it is not exotic / unusual. It is concrete.
It can be defined. It can be tested. And it can be exploited for innovation opportunity.

New knowledge.
Among history-making innovations, those that are based on new knowledge - whether
scientific, technical, or social - rank high. They are the super-stars of entrepreneurship;
they get the publicity and the money. They are what people usually mean when they talk of
innovation, although not all innovations based on knowledge are important. Knowledge-
based innovations differ from all others in the time they take, in their casualty rates, and in
their predictability, as well as in the challenges they pose to entrepreneurs. Like most
superstars, they can be temperamental, capricious, and hard to direct. They have, for
instance, the longest lead time of all innovations. There is a protracted span between the

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 What is Innovation 2010
emergence of new knowledge and its distillation into us-able technology. Then there is
another long period before this new technology appears in the marketplace in products,
processes, or services13.

3. The Process / Cycle of Innovation:

The innovation process consists of developing, applying, launching, growing, and managing the
maturity and decline of creative ideas. On developing stage the organization evaluates, modifies,
and improves on a creative idea, further the organization uses the developed idea in design,
manufacturing, or delivery of new products, services, or process in applying stage. Now
launching new products or service to the marketplace by the organization as product launched
demand for new products or services grows until maturity where most competing organizations
have access to the idea. At the end of the innovation process decline point started in which
demand for an innovation decreases, and substitute innovations are developed and applied.

Through understanding innovation lifecycles, it becomes possible to address the following

questions:
• Which products, services and technologies are most vulnerable to competitive disruption?
• Where are the greatest opportunities for breakthrough innovation and growth?
• What specific growth strategies are appropriate across the portfolio?
• What organizational strategies – leadership, structure, processes, and metrics – best support
businesses, products, and services at different points across their maturity?
S-curves
S-curves visually depict how a product,
service, technology or business progresses
and evolves over time. S-curves can be
viewed on an incremental level to map
product evolutions and
opportunities, or on a macro scale to
describe the evolution of businesses and
industries. On a product, service, or
technology level, S curves are usually
connected to “market adoption” since the
beginning of a curve relates to the birth of
a new market opportunity, while the end of
the curve represents the death, or
obsolescence of the product, service, or technology in the market.
Usually the end of one S-curve marks the emergence of a new S-curve – the one that displaces it
(e.g., video cassette tapes versus DVDs, word processors versus computers, etc.).14

The Failure to Innovation:

Organization may fail to innovate for at least three reasons
1. Lack of resources in terms of dollars, time, and energy.

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 What is Innovation 2010
2. Failure to recognize opportunities
3. Resistance to change 15.

How Innovation Helpful in Future For Textile.

In future, to use innovation successfully every company should develop some new talents both
for individual and for company level. One of the main talents is identify the right solution from a
huge number of solutions available. Generally every person is trained to solve a critical problem
which they can solve more easily but it is a little bit difficult to find out the actual beneficial
solution for one’s company. This happens because now there is a trend to go to the solution
without a clear knowledge of the actual problem. And obviously in this context framing an
effective question is also equally important. If any company takes care of all these actions then it
can make a great benefit from innovation in future.

Although ‘technical’ textiles have attracted considerable attention, the use of fibres, yarns and
fabrics for applications other than clothing and furnishing is not a new phenomenon but it is
helpful for future growth. What is relatively new is a growing recognition of the economic and
strategic potential of such textiles to the fibre and fabric manufacturing and processing industries
of industrial and industrializing countries alike. In some of the most developed markets,
technical products (broadly defined) already account for as much as 50% of all textile
manufacturing activity and output. The technical textiles supply chain is a long and complex one,
stretching from the manufacturers of polymers for technical fibres, coating and specialty
membranes through to the converters and fabricators who incorporate technical textiles into
finished products or use them as an essential part of their industrial operations. The economic
scope and importance of technical textiles extends far beyond the textile industry itself and has
an impact upon just about every sphere of human economic and social activity. And yet this
dynamic sector of the textile industry has not proved entirely immune to the effects of economic
recession, of product and market maturity, and of growing global competition which are all too
well known in the more traditional sectors of clothing and furnishings. There are no easy paths to
success and manufacturers and converters still face the challenge of making economic returns
commensurate with the risks involved in operating in new and complex markets. If anything, the
constant need to develop fresh products and applications, invest in new processes and equipment,
and market to an increasingly diverse range of customers, is more demanding and costly than
ever.16

Although intelligent textiles and smart clothing have only recently been added to the textile
vocabulary, we must admit that the industry has already for several years focused on enhancing
the functional properties of textiles. New chemical fibres have been invented. By attaching
membranes on textile substrates, fabrics were made breathable and yet waterproof. Three-
dimensional weaving technology paved the way for new exciting technical textile developments.
These are some examples of a textile-based approach for improving the properties and

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 What is Innovation 2010
functionality. Wearable technology, the electronics-based approach, started to add totally new
features to clothing by attaching various kinds of electronic devices to garments. The results,
however, were often bulky, not very user friendly and often very impractical. The garment was
truly wired with cables criss crossing all over, batteries in pockets and hard electronic devices
sticking out from the surface. The piece of clothing had become a platform for supporting
electronics and was hardly wearable in a clothing comfort sense. The current objective in
intelligent textile development is to embed electronics directly into textile substrates. A piece of
clothing remains visibly unchanged and at the end of the day the consumer can still wash it in the
washing machine without first removing all the electronics. This of course is very challenging.17

Innovation helps in future is really acceptable as it is enlightened vision through current

continuously process for improvement in every field from science, Business, economics and
digital world. As in textile perspective innovation is occur in high level of developments this
change is technical textile so introducing our upcoming textile. In the technical textile
technological revolution is changes the basic concepts and reduce the overall costs, increase
functionality and more attractive clothing for the people. To innovate the product creating
something that can be perceived as new: for its look, for its characteristics (e.g. touch), for its
performances (e.g. perspiration capacity) and to innovate the process: to reduce costs, to obtain
an "ecological compatibility”, to obtain flexibility, elasticity, speed.

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 What is Innovation 2010

References:
1. International Journal of Business and Management February, 2009 volume-4
No.2 Exploration of Niche Market and Innovation in Organic Textile by a
Developing Country Muhammad Abrar School of Management Huazhong
University of Science and Technology Wuhan 430074, China
(www.ccsenet.org/jounal.html)

2. Investing in the Future to Secure a Future Innovation Why, What and Where?
www.textileinsight.com/articles.php?id=536

3. Innovation Taskforce Report of the Innovation Taskforce March 2010

PUBLISHED BY THE STATIONERY OFFICE DUBLIN www.taoiseach.gov.ie.

4. Peter F. Drucker, Innovation and Entrepreneurship

5. http://www.archive.org/ The Innovation Advantage The Integration of Innovation

Into Strategy Donna C. L. Prestwood & Paul A. Schumann, Jr.Glocal Vantage, Inc.

6. Management by Ricky W.Griffin 5th edition, Chapter 12 ‘managing organization

change and innovation. Page 350

7. THE PROCESSES OF TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVRI!ION :

A CONCEPTUAL SYSTEMS MODEL by ELLIS MOTTUR Prepared for the Office
of Invention and Innovation Department of Commerce and khe Arms Control and
Disarmament Agency Department of State January 1968.p 11.

8. http://www.archive.org/ The Innovation Advantage The Integration of Innovation

Into Strategy Donna C. L. Prestwood & Paul A. Schumann, Jr.Glocal Vantage, Inc.

9. THE PROCESSES OF TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVRI!ION :

A CONCEPTUAL SYSTEMS MODEL by ELLIS MOTTUR Prepared for the Office
of Invention and Innovation Department of Commerce and khe Arms Control and
Disarmament Agency Department of State January 1968.p 15.

10. Management by Ricky W.Griffin 5th edition, Chapter 12 ‘managing organization

change and innovation. Page 350

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 What is Innovation 2010

11. THE PROCESSES OF TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVRI!ION :

A CONCEPTUAL SYSTEMS MODEL by ELLIS MOTTUR Prepared for the
Office of Invention and Innovation Department of Commerce and khe Arms
Control and Disarmament Agency Department of State January 1968.p 11.
12. http://www.archive.org/ The Innovation Advantage The Integration of Innovation
Into Strategy Donna C. L. Prestwood & Paul A. Schumann, Jr.Glocal Vantage, Inc.
13. Peter F. Drucker is the Marie Rankin Clarke Professor of Social Science and
Management at Claremont Graduate University's Peter F. Drucker Graduate
School of Management in Claremont, California. He has written more than two
dozen articles for HBR. This article was originally adapted from his book
Innovation and Entrepreneurship: Practice and Principles (Harper & Row, 1985).
14. http://www.archive.org/ and www.innovation-point.com Innovation Lifecycles
Leveraging market, technology, and organizational S-curves to drive breakthrough
growth by Soren Kaplan, Managing Principal, InnovationPoint LLC
15. Management by Ricky W.Griffin 5th edition, Chapter 12 ‘managing organization
change and innovation. Page 350
16. HANDBOOK OF TECHNICAL TEXTILES Edited by A R Horrocks and S C
Anand p 22.
17. Intelligent textiles and clothing Edited by H. R. Mattila CRC Press Boca Raton
Boston New York Washington, DC WOODHEAD PUBLISHING LIMITED
Cambridge, England iii p 20.

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