Innovation. From the Latin innovare which means new ideas and inventions. Literally novelty or renewal, in colloquial and general usage, the concept is used in an unspecific way in the sense of new ideas and inventions and their economic implementation. In the strict sense, on the other hand, it is said that ideas can only result in innovations after they are implemented as new products, services or procedures and that they really find a successful application by imposing themselves on the market, through diffusion.
For Mario Bunge, innovation has been described and defined as a term that belongs to the social sciences and other formal sciences.
Joseph Schumpeter argued that innovation was like the irreversible historical change of doing things and calls companies the relationship of new combinations and entrepreneurs to which they direct said achievement; this is expressed as a change in the function of production.
However Peter Drucker relates innovation as a provision of more and better goods and services but that it is not enough for the business to provide any goods and services, they must provide them better and cheaper.
D. James establishes that innovation is creating and introducing original solutions to existing needs and new ones that arise, it must be the central theme of society and for management in the coming decades.
Over time for consumers innovation means better products in terms of quality, price, more efficient services and as a result a better quality of life. For companies, it results in better remote terms derived from producing differentiated goods and services, preferred by their clients or from using more productive techniques that are more efficient than their competitors.
Currently, those companies that generate permanent capacities in the field of innovation have sufficient and necessary knowledge to respond quickly and effectively to competitive threats. All of this translates into the possibility of sustained growth, generating more and better jobs, increasing wages and improving working conditions.
One of the main reasons to analyze this topic of innovation in modern organizations is to try to distinguish the factors or needs that influence modern organizations to innovate in their processes or products.
Since this can be the preamble for a company to grow, generate greater income, position itself at a high level or stay where it is and remain there for many years; or, that it causes its cracking.
Innovation transforms companies and brings benefits for it, this innovation most of the time is related to technological advances.
It is evident that if the sector in which we work changes and evolves, our company must also begin to grow at the same time as the sector, in order to satisfy the needs of consumers. If our competitors innovate and offer new products, customers demand these novelties, that is where we must meet this need and stay at the forefront.
We must take into account that for a company to be innovative or to be in the process of beginning to innovate, it must know the market trends, to know what is currently being demanded by customers and adding a plus may have greater impact; detect where you can innovate, whether in products, goods or services. And without leaving aside the analysis, if the company began to innovate, it would have the financial solvency and technical capacity to establish improvements and have relevant results and benefits.
We know that in this globalized world competition is increasing and it is necessary for any type of company to innovate, develop and improve, in order to maintain its competitiveness.
The phases of innovation are six:
- Identification of latent needs that may exist in our market Generation of ideas to meet those needs Selection of ideas generated Transformation of those ideas into characteristics Implementation of models Application of the model
Each company could take or apply these processes differently, all according to their needs and skills.
Some others wonder how an innovative company can be. In this regard, the main innovation capital in a company is the staff who work in it, who must be encouraged and diagnosed to know their skills, creativity, initiative and everything they are capable of risking for the company.
Another strategy would be to train staff so that they can develop their skills and focus them towards a common goal, developing their thinking, doing new things, letting ideas flow and in this way we will innovate.
The person who is creative and innovative must have unique competencies or abilities. When an employee is committed, a great deal can be expected of him; The company can carry out innovation and renewal programs, to be part of the cultural evolution and gradually become a flexible company, open to change and that little by little innovation is a daily part of the company, regardless of the costs in those incurred. It is important that each of the new ideas and innovations within the organization are patented to prevent the ideas from being plagiarized by other companies or people.
In Mexico we can find different companies with these characteristics, according to CNN Expansión magazine, companies such as Universidad Panamericana, BBVA Bancomer, Grupo Financiero Banamex, Controladora Comercial Mexicana, among others; commenting that "Innovation should be interpreted as the enabling of a strategy, through the creative and avant-garde use of information technologies, which is reflected in clear and quantifiable benefits for the company."
This is just one example of the different companies that care about working on these strategies, but like them there are many more; be they well structured organizations or some SMEs in which they develop their processes, improve or change their products.
The impact of innovation is located in the course of research and development, and is carried out through the launch of new products, new services or procedures. The development of innovations requires a particular culture. The culture generated around the research processes, integrating the human environment, is made up of objective elements such as research laboratories, equipment, offices, corresponding furniture and subjective elements such as rules, laws, norms and values. Organizations with innovative strategies and goals have gained competitive leadership and only think in terms of one simple product at a time. These companies usually improve based on successive small successes in an incremental vision and not on the achievement of great success.
"You must take risks to innovate in companies" with this phrase SE concludes that in our hands is to grow, innovate and go further, to seek better opportunities, to go along with the globalization in which we are living day by day day and thus find the best way to satisfy the needs of our customers.
