July 30th, 2009 by Bruce

Consider this… What if instead of the compact and featherweight mobile phone that you use today, you had to carry around one of those huge phones prevalent in the early 1990′s? You can relax – it was just something to think on; courtesy of all those innovators who invested so much of their lives, creating these “miniature toys” for all of us around the world.

However, this did not come easily. Innovation has to be incorporated into an organizational culture if such revolutionary and landmark achievements are what we are aiming to achieve.

In ideal terms, a culture is considered to be a group of opinions, attitudes, norms, beliefs, and values, while innovation is the direct result of the creativity, knowledge and understanding of the motivated people working within an organization. Unfortunately, just coming up with an idea for something which is “out-of-the box” isn’t any indication that it will actual come to full fruition – usually due to the organizational circumstances at the time, because even though a brilliant innovation can be brought into our world, there are still such an incredible variety of things which can stop amazing ideas from ever getting to the production stage. With the passing of time, innovation has gone far beyond the concept of simply generating creative ideas; it’s something which can now be seen as the culture of a business. This innovative culture can easily “tip the scales” toward the success or failure of an organization. Such a culture strives toward developing an attitude of continuous learning and improvement in the employees. All organizations have their own unique cultures which set them apart from their competition, and the success or failure of any of these companies primarily depends on the level of development of this culture. An organization with a well managed innovative culture almost always expands more rapidly than an organisation without this understanding. In the case of an organization with a poorly managed culture, integrating and linking with the innovation of an existing culture is not an easy task, as this requires careful consideration, consistent motivation and an unwavering pursuit toward improvement.

Here are a few factors organizations should utilize for the integration of innovation into their culture:

1. Intellectual Property – This is the most important ingredient of an innovative culture. Regularly bringing up ideas in discussions or debates creates a continuous process of refinement, and these brain storming sessions infuse the members with enthusiasm, thereby stimulating the participants to come up with even more “never thought of before” solutions.

2. Technology – Ownership of “tech” and the process of upgrading these technological advancements are both other aspects which need consideration. This structure acts as an interface between knowledge and products, and is therefore responsible for the materialisation of concepts from paper into tangible and intangible services.

3. Effective Leadership – Effective leaders are those who, in the organization, continuously integrate and motivate the creative thinking of their peers and subordinates.

4. Proper Communication – Proper communication is essential for making correct information available, at the right place and at the right time. Regular involvement with business coaching can help you to prevent mis-communication at the smallest level, which in an organization could play havoc with even the most brilliant innovative ideas.

To be competitive in our changing business world, businesses require their individuals to develop innovative ideas consistently. The intensive pursuit of higher levels of innovation, paired with management training, can make all the difference for just about any organization when it comes to traversing unpredictable downturns in business, as organizations can sell off specific innovative ideas in a recession, and reap the incredible rewards which these resources provide in times of good business.

Alan Gillies is the Managing Director of the L2L Group, specialising in providing Executive Coaching, Training and Consultancy Services to Businesses across the Globe. Want to learn more about these business success strategies? Get Alan’s popular FREE Business Pack today!

Business Marketing Organization, Creativity, Managing director, Organization Of Marketing, Organizational culture, Technology