The construction industry is currently in a state of turmoil – as the economic situation begins to improve, we are finding that the challenges of securing contracts and motivating people throughout the recessionary period are being replaced with different challenges including retaining people, maintaining the business ethos and controlling growth in what remains an incredibly competitive industry. Through recession and as we exit, a strategic approach to business management is key to longevity and sustainability of an organisation. In the context of Read Construction Holdings Ltd (the writer’s organisation), there are significant changes currently underway – a new business plan targeting significant growth over 3 years, new directors and …show more content…
According to Blayse & Manley (2004) a broadly accepted definition by participants and academics within the construction industry is the definition of Slaughter (1998) who suggests: Innovation is the actual use of nontrivial change and improvement in a process, product or system that is novel to the institution developing the change.
Featured in this and many of the other theories and definitions for Innovation, are two strong common elements. Firstly the notion that innovation involves something new, original or improved and secondly the suggestion that this creates value and generally refers to an idea that changing processes or improves effectiveness or efficiency of a product, process or organisation. For businesses, this could mean implementing new ideas, creating dynamic products or improving existing services. Innovation can be a catalyst for the growth and success of a business, and help to adapt and grow in the marketplace.
Being innovative does not only mean inventing. Innovation can mean changing the business model and adapting to changes in the environment to deliver better products or services. Successful innovation should be an in-built part of a business’s strategy to create a culture of innovation and lead the
Alongside the entrepreneur spirit, Innovation is the process of taking new ideas and implementing them into the market. Key word being “new”, an innovation can be sometimes viewed as the application to better solutions that meet new demand-requirements, inarticulated needs or existing market needs. Innovative ideas range from: goods, services, products, processes, services, technologies or ideas that create value for which customers will pay for. For an idea to be an innovation, it must be replicable at an economical cost and must satisfy a specific need. This means is that one must be ready and willing put their new idea to the test. On the other hand, there is recognition that “innovation is also critical to cultural, environmental, social, and artistic progress as well” (Bullinger, 2006). With this stated, high-tech innovation is ultimately the reason why we can be thankful for the many new conveniences of the 21st century. Although we might see the forefront of innovation being very prominent in today’s world, innovation is truly nothing new. From the start of modern man times, innovative ideas have paved the way for civilization to advance and develop into what we are today and at the same time, we have barely begin to chip away at the tip of the iceberg of our true human potential. Some scholars believe that innovation is a
Innovation within my organisation is about creating and successfully applying new ideas in this particular field. This could be in the form of such as creating and bringing a new product or service to market, or a series of smaller
The word ‘innovation’ is derived from Latin word ‘innovare’, which means “to change something to new”. In other words, we may say that ‘innovation’ means changing the regular way of doing things and involves doing the regular things in a novel way.
Innovation is what gives an organization the competitive advantage the business will need to be successful in the market. Innovations are ideas that can impact the strategy, process, products and services that an organization has to offer to its customers. Three organizations that have an enormous impact on innovation are United Parcel Service (UPS), Hewlett-Packard and The Coca-Cola Company.
Tidd et al (2000) states, “the innovation is a business process of revolving opportunity into new ideas and of putting these into widely used practice. In term of the nature, there are five major types of innovations: novelty, competence shifting, complexity, robust design and continuous improvement. While in term of the extent of change, innovations can be divided into incremental, radical and
Innovation is the process of using ideas within a company to create new products, services, technology, or processes. Myths used to acknowledge that innovation was the idea of one individual with no support from others. In reality, innovative ideas that become new products and services require the support and knowledge of a significant amount of individuals. The individuals involved in the innovation process become involved in an array of business functions ranging from manufacturing, marketing, sales, and distribution. Companies will
Goggin and Mitchell (2010) states that “Comparing the various definitions of innovation, it can be seen that there are several common elements what is changed (such as product or process changes); how much is changed (whether it is completely new or only perceived as such); the source of the change (sometimes technology); the influence of the change (for example, its social or commercial value)”
Why is innovation in construction so important? The rapid development of the global construction market provides more and more business opportunities for construction enterprises. However, the unpredictable nature of the global construction market?s business environment requires contractors to constantly improve their competitiveness to survive and prosper (Moohamm et al., 2014). In reality, researchers and practitioners have found that innovation is motivated by competition
Innovation is the practical application of cutting edge ideas and/or research to bring creativity in an organisation. Different people perceive innovation differently. Introduction of something ‘new’ in any domain such as business, science or society which is better than existing process or object. Innovation is used in various contexts and sometimes can be misleading. It is a highly unpredictable process and depends on internal as well as external focus (Hayashi, 2013).
Innovation refers to finding new ways to improve the existing products, services, processes, technologies, and employee performance in an organizational setup. In today's competitive business environment, organizations have to focus on bringing innovation in each and every aspect of their business operations; like products or service offerings, enterprise resource planning systems, marketing and promotional efforts, and organizational structure. The market challenges and competitive pressures also force organizations to use a blend of all these innovation processes in their business activities. Therefore, it is vital to give an equal focus on product innovation, process innovation, marketing innovation, and organizational innovation within the limited organizational resources and capabilities.
For surviving in the present complex market the need for innovating is a product or a product development plan is revolutionary. Innovation plays as a key role in sustainability and growth of a company in a long run. Innovation is evolution, development, and
Innovation is the key factor to defeat path dependency and stay competitive in today 's economy. Yet, Innovation is not necessarily about new technology, excessive research and development or about creating completely new ideas. Most of the time innovation is learning from others and re-inventing. Most of the successful firms adapt, refine or combine the innovations. They also apply creative imitation.
Innovation is the process by which ideas are created, selected and implemented to bring about profitable change to organisations. Innovations come as a result of an identified need for organisations to change their current processes, activities or operations. Andriopoulos and Dawson (2009) explain that organisational change is ‘new ways of organizing and working’. They explain that change occur in two dimensions – movement of state and scope of change.
Innovation offers the companies a competitive advantage. Presently and within the future, more than any time in history, the key to competitive advantage is innovation. However innovation will facilitate businesses meet all of their strategic challenges, not simply competition; to illustrate, in confronting accelerating rates of change, globalization, apace advancing technology, a additional numerous workforce, associated a modification from an industrial to a knowledge-based economy. Meeting all of those challenges helps the firm attain competitiveness, and meeting these challenges suitably depends on innovation. Innovation allows a firm to workout its challenges in distinctive ways in which build competitive advantage either through relative differentiation, a relative low-priced position, or few acceptable level of each. Innovation cannot assure success, however success cannot be achieved within the end of the day without it.
Every invention is faced by challenges and opportunities, which need to be taken into consideration. Innovation doesn’t only look at having an idea but solving a solution to a problem and adapting ideas, which have already existed. “Innovation is the specific tool for entrepreneurs, the means by which they exploit change as an opportunity for a different business or service”. (Joe Tidd, 1997)