To generate new products and services
The innovation process necessitates the deployment of necessary and suitable resources (Leseure, 2010). Management approaches and activities engaged in such a process are referred to as innovation management. In contrast to design, which involves the finished product, innovation entails the elicitation, selection, and incremental refinement of ideas until the final product is attained. To thrive in the marketplace, organizations that face strong competition, such as the pharmaceutical industry, must embrace proper innovation management.
Innovation encompasses three major categories
Incremental innovation, next-generation innovation, and radical innovation. The three scopes stated above denote slight upgrades, large changes, and completely new goods, in that order. Entrepreneurs intending to enter into a new or an already-existing market must be aware of the scope of services or products they plan to deal in. Also crucial in innovation management are the product lifecycle and product planning. Product lifecycle contributes significantly in making accurate estimations. For instance, innovators rely on product lifecycle to estimate the cash flows and quantities, possible effects of competitors, and the probable duration of various stages of a product. On the other hand, product planning entails the decisions on matters of design, production, introduction, improvement, and retirement of a particular product from the marketplace.
Upon laying down the innovation plans
And implementing the appropriate activities, there is the need to conduct an innovation performance assessment to determine the progress. Here, three major categories to be considered include process-focused measures, product-based measures, and business-level measures. Leseure (2010), postulates that proper organization for innovation requires a balance between freedom and control to ensure smooth operations. Notably, the invention stage should be characterized by informal control while there should be formal controls at the innovation stage. Finally, concurrent engineering is key to organizing for product or service innovation – innovators should capitalize on collaboration and relationships to remove the possible barriers to invention and innovation.
Reference
Leseure, M. (2010). Key Concepts in Operations Management. California: SAGE Publications Ltd.
