Innovation can be a harbinger of great things to come or the first sign of a firms weakness. Which of the two very much depends upon the vision of senior management and how they have integrated innovation into their long-term goals. Historically it has been shown that more than 90% of all innovation is introduced by individuals outside of an industry. Why? In MBA classes we discuss one of the primary causes of management reluctance to embrace innovation. We term this rigidity to change "Core rigidity" and how it impacts the innovative process within an organization.
For the corporation to remain successful senior manager must be able to balance their organizations effectiveness in current business operations while implementing the changes needed to ensure the firm remains competitive in the future. This is not an easy task nor one that is procedural in nature. Core rigidity is a natural human response to change so it is the responsibility of senior management to develop a vision that forces the organization to blend innovation with core competencies and thus reduce the rigidity to change. This is much easier stated then implemented, as you can see from the following sample company list:
- IBM – DEC
- DEC – IBM
- Motorola – Nokia
- Nintendo – Sony
- CNN – Fox
- Kmart – Wal-Mart
- UNIX – Windows
- Tape – Disk manufacturers
- Honda – Harley
It has clearly been shown that core rigidity and corporate reluctance to change will allow new entrants into an industry and in some cases change the industry dynamics to such a degree that the firm is no longer an industry leader. The goals of our workshops are to discuss current innovations and how they can be integrated into your future plans and visions. Once you are comfortable with understanding the generic benefits of an innovation then it becomes much easier to embed its capabilities into the direction you wish to take the firm.
It would be impossible for these workshops to provide you with the detailed knowledge on how to employ the various technological advancements being discussed. Training programs are offered by the various firms that produce these products and geared towards individuals that will be specifically employing them. Our objective is to provide you with a level of comfort to discuss the implementation of these tools into your organization by giving you sufficient knowledge of the benefits the innovation can provide your firm. Armed with this general understanding of the capabilities you can guide the development of a vision incorporating these innovations.
We have four workshop formats to choose from:
- in person workshops
- on-site workshops
- online synchronous (online real-time) workshops
- weeklong summer sessions in Greece