Integrating Management Functions to Advance Innovation

Abstract

Innovation is an essential element for any organization in order to survive, grow and significantly influence the direction of any industry. Development does not; however, guarantee success, but most be followed up with successive streams of innovation and change, from the incremental to the radical. This report seeks to integrate management functions to advance innovation. A healthcare organization is taken as a case study where innovation is implemented. At the end of the paper, some reflections are also carried out related to innovation lessons learned.

Table of Contents

Introduction4

Problem6

Innovative Strategies6

Experience Design6

Toyota Production System (TPS)7

Six Sigma Approach9

Conclusion10

References14

Integrating Management Functions to Advance Innovation

Introduction

Innovation is an essential element for any organization in order to survive, grow and significantly influence the direction of any industry. Development does not; however, guarantee success, but most be followed up with successive streams of innovation and change, from the incremental to the radical. The most reliable way to be successful in the industry is to innovate better and longer than the competitor, leading companies develops innovation portfolios that they can use to help sustain growth over the long term (Uljin 2003).

Innovation and change is an essential part of any business activity, but only some people recognize its importance and significance. Often, management fails to notice the implication of innovation and change, which becomes the reason of the change failure (Sutton 2001). There have been many researches and theories on innovation and change for leaders in business today. Leaders consider innovation and change as a crucial element to bring success in the business and yet they adopt an ongoing approach to the management, leadership, encouragement and required implementation of the successful change. Some of the theories based on innovation and change are discussed below (Uljin 2003)

The new and improved techniques of doing things right at work is known as innovation (West et al 2003). Peter Drucker said, “Innovation is the specific instrument of entrepreneurship... the act that endows resources with a new capacity to create wealth (Drucker 1909).”

The above quotation is a well understood summary of how innovations are accepted in the work place. Former quotation is more likely to be applied in the financial and energy trading markets, where innovation is critical to the on-going evolution in order to keep profitable business models. As markets reach maturity, margins of profitability decline and opportunities of arbitrage lessen. Innovations have the ability to ensure that the profit opportunities are still possible, and the chances of loss are minimized. (Uljin 2003) Silber has observed that financial innovations are typically viewed as a by-product of regulations. This could be sympathetic to the theory of discontinuous innovation.

Problem

As a consultant, I was approached by the manager of ABC hospital to suggest the innovative initiatives to streamline the organization once again. The overall organizational situation of ABC hospital is very declining. The frame of mind, as a whole in ABC hospital is to be fairly pessimistic, unenthusiastic and lethargic. Even in the press, there are criticisms of bad services ...