The current prolonged global economic
downturn has revealed what economists and other design-thinkers have asserted
for years: economic imperialism, sometimes labeled `glocalization,' is simply not sustainable.
Efficiencies in development, production, and distribution have been largely squeezed
from products by massive international corporations. Limits to scale have
already been achieved, so global companies have
been forced to engage in what they have labeled `reverse innovation.' Focus by
multinationals on models used to develop products,
services, ideas, processes, and environments, has increased because of the current
financial meltdown. At the same time, there have
been numerous positive changes in innovation capacity which already have occurred
in emerging markets. In many less developed countries, members of a burgeoning
middle class have become sophisticated consumers, largely because of
the worldwide availability of information. Workers in developing
countries increasingly have been educated in
foreign universities, trained in Europe or the US by multinational corporations,
and informed by a dynamic, highly-accessible Internet. An explosion of
successful entrepreneurs in developing countries
has provided rich models for their countrymen to emulate. While many persons
have chosen to remain linked to the remarkable financial and administrative
resources found within multinational companies to accomplish their innovative efforts,
more and more entrepreneurs are utilizing their skills and deep knowledge of local
markets to start their own companies and fulfill the needs of their countrymen.
Regardless of the existing economic environment, protracted,
successful innovation is essential for corporate competitiveness. As Stanford
University Graduate School of Business Professor Anthony Davila noted,
"Superior innovation provides a company the opportunities to grow faster, better,
and smarter than their competitors - and ultimately to influence the direction
of their industry…. In the long run, the only reliable security for any company is
the ability to innovate better and longer than competitors." While `getting better' at
what others are doing may produce positive results, continually `getting different'
is a surer path to organizational success. But where can small start-up companies
in developing countries find the innovative ideas essential to their
competitiveness? Before markets can be penetrated
with innovative ideas, organizations first must be innovative, and before
organizations can become innovative, they must tap
into a powerful source of fresh, innovative ideas within company employees.
Regardless of size or seeming insignificance, the heartbeat of innovation is already
alive and at work somewhere in the organization. Leaders in national companies must
seek out, recognize, and support `underground' innovation methodologies
already successfully at work in the organization.
While there is no universal template guaranteeing successful
corporate innovation, there are specific
attributes present in all organizations that
successfully innovate. Five important strategies
that help ignite and focus corporate innovation are now further explored. |
