Management Innovation and New Technology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Management Innovation and New Technology - Essay Example However, modern theories are moving away from this inventor mythology to more holistic approaches that are often based on complete processes and this has led to successful commercialization of new products and processes. An individual can confidently state that product innovation is a complex process rather than a one-day event. This means that there is a lot that is involved in product innovation. A number of insights are evident in the product innovation complexity. To begin with innovation starts and ends with invention (Wield & Rhode, 82). Invention refers to the discovery of new and intelligent ideas and artefacts. Despite the fact, that creating new idea is the baseline of innovation, it is noteworthy that the idea must be sorted out as to whether it is workable and or applicable into the societal context. In other words, innovation takes into consideration adapting the newly found ideas into practical productive application in particular work processes or product markets of a particular firm. The applications should not only be to specific firms but also to the entire economy and into the society. This proposition can be justified by the fact that despite Spencer Silvers discovering the Post-it brand adhesive before 1970 this noble invention was only commercialised in 1978 after the company (3M) had ignored for that long owing to lack of practical applicability (Ketteringham & Nayak 427). Silver’s moment of discovering the Post-it brand adhesive began in 3M’s Central Research Laboratories under program dubbed â€Å"Polymers for Adhesives† in 1964. It is unfortunate that despite the fact that silver came up with unique form of adhesive his new idea could not be taken seriously by the management because Silver could not find a problem to apply this great idea. It was until Arthur Fry a 3M chemist, a choir director and an amateur mechanic found a problem to Silver’s idea when he came up with the paper to paper application of the adhesive. According to Wield & Rhode (84), the complexity of product innovation can be understood by withdrawing the assumption that innovation takes a â€Å"linear flow†. It is noteworthy that successful innovation has no straight line considering that it does not spring from scientific invention all the way to develop a competitive edge. The nature of the link between a scientific invention and the technological development is in itself very complex and because of this reason, the link has often been confusing. Individuals need to understand that scientific invention benefits a lot from technological development in a number of ways that include but not limited to transfer of knowledge, network of profession, skills and instruments. In the case of 3M, it is evident that the company boasts of a poll of skilled scientists that range from chemists and engineers who worked tirelessly in 3M’s Central Research Laboratories to come up with new inventions. The idea that led i nto development of one of the best selling product of 3M named Post-it Note Pad resulted from a series of technological developments that took approximately 10 years (Ketteringham & Nayak 425). Successful product innovation is also a matter of interaction between a number of factors within and outside the organization (Wield & Rhode, 84). Studies indicate that those factors that key determinant to the commercial success of a product are found outside the areas which are commonly associated with the with the