Introduction to Innovation at UCC

Introduction to Innovation

• UCC (University College Cork) lecture on innovation
• Emphasis on independent thinking
• Organizations innovate for growth and sustainability, currently or in the past.

Fundamental Questions

• Key questions to consider in innovation: Who, Why, When, What, How, and Where.
• Visualized as a mind map.

What is Innovation?

• Process of introducing new elements that add value.
• Contributes to organizational knowledge store (O'Sullivan and Dooley).
• Innovation is a process, not a single event (Goffin and Mitchell).

Innovation Complexity

• Innovation = Creativity + Exploitation
• Involves exploration and exploitation phases.
• Measurements include beneficial and economic output.
• Novelty is in the eye of the beholder.

Innovation Context: SMEs

• Categorized by size (Medium, Small, Micro).
• Defined by staff headcount and turnover/balance sheet total.
• Industry categorization: High-tech, Medium-tech, Low-tech (by R&D spending).
• Firm categorization: High R&D, Medium R&D, Non-R&D (by R&D capabilities)
• Innovation's context varies across company and industry types.

Innovation's Key Dimensions

• Degree of novelty (incremental or radical).
• Platforms and families of innovations.
• Discontinuous innovation (game-changing).
• Level of innovation (component or architecture).
• Timing or innovation life cycle.

Kondratiev Cycles

• Long-wave cycles in economic activity.
• Key phases and overlapping periods.
• Associated with technological innovations like steam engine, electricity, petrochemicals, and IT, AI and psychosocial health.
• Time periods are presented, covering the 1800's - 2000's.

Why Organizations Innovate

• Goals like sustainability, return on capital, better quality/productivity, market share expansion, cost reduction, and faster lead times.
• Achieving goals is impacted by time, people and resources, and sometimes has significant barriers. Innovation process can involve substantial wasted resources and personnel resistance.

Effective Strategy: Key Questions

• Create value & deliver value along with capturring value in the innovation process
• Key questions for organizational strategy
• Thomas Edison quote about hard work and learning from failures to reinforce importance of persistent effort and trying new ideas.

SME Context Variations

• High-tech SMEs: Young, experienced management, small/larger firm, adequately financed, focus on technological novelty, global perspective, higher profits, open to exit strategies, value of growth.
• Low/medium-tech SMEs: More established, family/regional management, larger firms but conservative growth, bootstrap financing, tight profit margins. Importance of sustainability, possibly region/identity constraints.
• SME innovation literature reflects focus on high-tech firm models.

LMT SME Innovations

• Examples of innovations in the Ireland-based companies in the low-to-medium technology sphere (manufacturing, agricultural, and food).
• Companies present in examples include animal feed, metal products, food manufacturing, and other similar industries.
• Key constraints noted are limited financial resources and markets that tend to commodify products.

This quiz explores the concepts of innovation as discussed in the University College Cork lecture. It covers key questions surrounding innovation, the processes involved, and its relevance to small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Dive into the complexities and definitions that drive innovative practices.