This lesson explains technology – enabled innovation and the factors that businesses must consider when they are planning innovation. There are two innovation types, Sustaining and Disruptive. With sustaining innovation the goal is to improve existing products or service while disruptive innovation involves introducing a brand new product or service that is different from what the business is currently doing.

There are two forms when it comes to organizational change. The first is Total Quality Management (TQM), which is making changes continuously and in small increments so that it will not be impact the organization an unsettling manner. The second form is Business Process Reengineering (BPR), which is a more extreme method of introducing change, it is introduced when organizations recognize that they are in a crisis and make changes in a short period of time.

The need for innovation is to keep an organization competitive and to provide a method that could give an advantage in the marketplace. To encourage innovation the organization must provide incentives. Individuals do not want to take risks if there is a chance of failure. Providing rewards for the risks will give individuals motivation to tackle strategic IT experimentation. Building an infrastructure to support strategic IT experimentation is another key element in creating and testing innovative ideas. Dedicating time and a budget will show the commitment that the organization has towards strategic IT experiment. Managing strategic IT experimentation is also very important so that individuals don’t have free reign over ideas and that there is value for customers and the organization when doing these strategic IT experiments.

The next stage for organizations is to take the experiment and to make it into an innovation but organizations must be careful they do not set themselves up for failure during this stage. Organizations can try to avoid failure by setting attainable targets to measure success when it comes transition. Extensive testing should be conducted to prevent rushing the experiment into the market. When dealing with new technology organizations should be cautious, they must understand if this technology can hinder their progress or be the next big thing. Design experiments that individuals learn from and can provide valuable information.

Innovation is generated to through ideas, testing and transitioning. When organizations provide support for their employees to generate ideas and provide an infrastructure to experiment and test those ideas, I believe it will help organizations to stay competitive and allow for the organization to grow. When organizations support innovation they are showing confidence in their employees, which makes employees feel valuable to the organization. Organizations must provide rewards to show recognition to employees as well as to inspire them to participate in providing innovative ideas. Having direction during the experimental phase by ensuring that employees are gaining knowledge through trial and error and not doing the experiment just because they can is important. I think it is an excellent idea for organizations to look internally to generate innovation.