IMPORTANCE OF INNOVATION AND CREATIVITY

·       Reduces cost of production and distribution due to new and cost effective methods and processes of production.

·       Improvement in Quality and Quantity.

·       Customer satisfaction.

·       Corporate image

·       Customer loyalty

·       Competitive advantages

·       Motivation to Employees

·       Expansion of Business

·       Financial rewards

·       Achievement of team goals

·       Sharing mental models e.g. for others to be innovative

·       Increase performance in terms of market share and profitability

METHODS OF ENCOURAGING PEOPLE TO BE INNOVATIVE;

·       Encouraging open communication between bottom and top management

·       Training employees

·       Rewarding employees appropriately. Link reward to innovative capacity and contribution to the organization in terms of new ideas

·       Recognition of innovative employees to encourage others. Creating scenery periods and recognize innovative people before others in big gatherings.

·       Promotion of employees.

·       Facilitation and support during innovation process

·       Recruitment of innovative employees

·       Creative training

·       Empowering employees to be innovative

·       Idea capture schemes

·       Management support

INNOVATIVE CAPACITY

This is the ability to continuously absorb, accumulate and create new knowledge necessary to spur a new idea through environmental screening to identify new ideas, promote idea generation and adopt useful innovations.

HOW TO ENHANCE INNOVATIVE CAPACITY

Ø  Create a fluid notion of organizational boundaries and an open market for talents

Ø  Transform an organization’s strategy- create strategic or business plans on an ongoing basis

Ø  Create an open market for capital investment and reward innovative, strategic thinking and support useful innovations.

Ø  Manage the risk; In creativity and innovation, it is trial and error. Thus the strategy must be sufficiently valid to allow organizational flexibility.

Ø  Create a culture and structure that promotes innovation. Spend a significant amount of time looking for opportunities outside the business or organizations.

Ø  Deconstruct the dominant mental models and mind sets; eg those who think that business or trade is a bad or poor investment.

Ø  Open up innovation opportunities to all staff.