Summary 

There has been reference to a number of organisational areas or processes in addition to Innovation Management, these include customer information management systems, knowledge management systems, customer feedback, and continuous improvement programmes. This has been the case because the innovation management process cuts both laterally and vertically through the organisation. Innovation impacts directly on every process within the organisation.

A skeleton framework for the innovation management process might look like this:

• Develop a culture of innovation and idea generation both from employees and stakeholders (including customers)

• Train staff in innovation techniques and strategies

• Develop a process for assessing ideas that are submitted

• Reward employees for their ideas and improvement suggestions

• Measure the outcomes of your innovation initiatives.

“The most important lesson from all this is that business leaders must change how they think about innovation and must change how their company cultures reflect that thinking. Innovation can be bolstered anywhere if people are given opportunities and rewards for taking good ideas, as long as no laws are broken – from all sources inside or outside the company. The image of the lone genius inventing ideas from scratch is romantic and engaging, but it’s a dangerous fiction. Innovation and creativity are far less mysterious than that image implies. They are a matter of taking developed ideas and applying them in new situations. If your company has the right connections and the right attitude, it works” (Hargadon and Sutton, 2000)

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