Innovation

The purpose of the learning is for you to develop your own learning. There are a number of tasks that you should complete before you undertake the next section. You can work through this section at your own pace. It is expected that you would take up to 3 hours to complete this section. You must complete this section before you move to the next section.

Task 1

Open the presentation “Unit 2 Review ” and listen to the commentary. 

This commentary summarises the previous Unit and enables you to see the links between the units.

Task 2

Watch the video “2020”.  Then answer the questions in your workbook.

Understanding how innovation is influenced by economic growth is critical to developing a strategy towards innovative behaviours.

Task 3

Read the article “The Changing World 1”. Then answer the questions in your workbook.

This article places some social aspects from the video into context around innovation.

The Changing World 1

The previous video made a number of predictions about the future.  Assuming some of these predictions eventuate, the need to innovative is clearly something we need to be involved in.  The video looks at the social and demographic changes that are influencing our lives and the need to innovative in order to deal with the problems that these social changes are creating.  Things like increased life expectancy means that people will need to work longer, have different healthcare needs and look for more diverse entertainment.  Over the years we have seen changes in the way we live and work as a result of innovations.

As this diagram shows the changes we experience are all interlinked.  The changes are also interdependent on each other as well.  For example, a change in economic conditions affects technology causing it to change.  This in turn affects social and demographic factors causing them to change as well.  Each aspect profoundly affects the others in such a way that it is impossible to clearly see which aspect has the greatest influence.  This also has a tendency to accelerate changes as each factor responds and influences that next.

The world you grew up in is changing faster today than at any other time in the history of man.  In my grandmother’s lifetime she witnessed the emergence of the telephone that was first seen and a passing fad that would never catch on, to become one of the most widely used personal electronic items.  The telephone that my grandmother first saw in 1910 bears no resemblance to the smart phones of today, yet fundamentally they are unchanged in what they do – instant communication.  From 1960 to 1989 my grandmother regularly travelled to the USA from the UK to visit family.  When she started to travel it took 10 days by ship.  By the mid 1970’s it was taking her just 6 days by ship.  The very last trip she took was just 3.5 hours by aircraft.  In just 30 years the time it took to get to get from the UK to the USA shrunk from over 1 week to just a few hours.

 I was a keen photographer and in the space of just 2 years I witnessed the almost universal disappearance of film photography and the emergence of digital photography.  I witnessed the birth of the PC and the later emergence of laptops and now tablets.  When I introduced computers into my business the effect was profound.  I no longer needed 3 secretaries and two accountants.  My turn over increased substantially.  The introduction of the internet meant that I no longer sent letters.  I virtually stopped writing by hand.

Jobs have disappeared and others emerged to replace them and there are more and more changes in the way we work on the way.  Recent reports suggest that up to 40% of current jobs will be automated.  Many jobs that were once highly skilled are becoming less so.  For example, many suburban mass transport systems are driverless.  Not so many years ago Pharmacists where highly skilled mixers of chemicals to make medicines for sick people.  Today liquid medicines are extremely rare with most people taking tablets in place of liquid medicine.  This means the all the Pharmacist has to do is select the correct package of tablets.  People are living much longer with illnesses that once would see them die.

The changes I have seen are far too numerous to discuss here. It will be the same in your lifetime.   Thinking about these changes, you need to answer the question in your workbook .

Task 4

Read the article “Changing World 2 ”. Then answer the question in your workbook.

This article places some economic aspects from the video into context around innovation.

The Changing World 2

Just over 500 years ago in Western Europe just about everyone was involved in some form of enterprise.  Most people were either self-sufficient or worked in self-sufficient communities.  Any surplus that the individual or community produced was sold in the local markets.  Then the industrial revolution came and today almost no one can produce enough food or clothing to meet their most basic needs.  However, there are significant changes occurring in the way we do business

In the previous document we looked at some of the social and demographic aspects of change.  We mentioned how interlinked each factor is and as a consequence as a change occurs in one there is a flow on effect.  In this document we will look at some of the economic changes and technical changes that have occurred and then link all four aspects to innovation.

The video mentions the emergence of supranational companies.  Supranational companies are massive global organisations that have no geographical boundaries.  As they are bigger than multinational companies they occupy positions of great power.  The growth of supranational companies will cause changes in the way we do businesses.  Previously the underpinning structure was to have hundreds of businesses serving millions of customers.  Of course there were many small businesses but they tended to also serve fewer customers overall.  These changes are forcing many people to become more innovative in how they earn a living.  No longer do we have lifetime careers.  The need for multiple streams of income is becoming normal for many people.

As a result some predict that we are moving to a two tiered structure with a few supranational companies service several millions of customers and millions of small businesses serving just hundreds of customers.  An example of this is the appearance of businesses like Amazon, Airbnb and Uber.  Amazon has thousands of smaller retailers selling products through the Amazon web site.  It often appears that it is amazon, when in fact Amazon is just a conduit.  With Uber and Airbnb you have a supranational company that provides millions of micro and nano businesses with the opportunity to sell their services.  These changes are turning many people into business owners.  The emergence of small and micro businesses are causing a shift, and the forthcoming emergence of nano-businesses will turn almost every one back into an entrepreneur.

Opportunities for business are growing all the time as these changes take place.  Ideas are plentiful, inventions and innovations are also plentiful, but the not all of them are successful.  Finding how to be successful is covered in later modules, but what is critical here is determining how to be innovative.  The changes mean that in order to be successful you need to implement innovative behaviours at different levels within your business.

The changes to the way business is structure are far too numerous to discuss here. Thinking about these changes, you need to answer the question in your workbook 

Task 5

Open the presentation “Constructing an Approach ” and listen to the commentary.  Then answer the question in your workbook.

Task 6

Quick quiz

You should undertake further reading on the topics in this section.  We recommend that you read and watch the following:

Guillen, M. & Ontiveros, E., 2016, Global Turning Points: The challenges for business and society in the 21^st century, 2^nd edition, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge UK

Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation; International case studies and practices, 2016, Ken Banks Ed., Kogan Publishers, London

The Oxford Handbook of Creativity, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship, 2015, Edited by Christina E. Shalley, Michael A. Hitt, and Jing Zhou, Oxford : Oxford University Press

The next section is Unit 3 OLL 2