What Is Known About the Relevance of Creativity and Its Promotion to Successful Product Innovation?

1.0 INTRODUCTION

One major question that often arises in the study of innovation is:

What is known about the relevance of creativity and its promotion to successful product innovation?

In order to answer this question, it is necessary to break this question down into the three main sections.

Firstly, it is found necessary to understand the concept of innovation - essentially what is it? According to Thomson (2001:467), 'Innovation takes place where an organisation makes a technical change e.g. produces a product or service that is new to it, or uses a method that is new or original'. From this it can be gathered that innovation is not always something that is invented but can be anything that 'adds value' to an existing product as perceived by the market. There is also a relationship between process and product innovation, which vary along with the industry life cycle. For example Utterback (1994: vii), states that 'innovation in an industry is a process that involves an enormous amount of uncertainty, human creativity and chance'. Having said that, it has been proven that there are patterns of successful industrial innovation that have emerged over time. This brings us on to a deeper look at what makes a successful innovation and will be looked at in regards to the opinions of various academics. It is hoped that this will allow us to understand the concept of creativity and its relationship with innovation more easily.

Secondly, this brings us on to the concept of creativity in innovation. The aim of this section is to give a general understanding of what exactly creativity in innovation is, what it consists of and ways in which creativity can be promoted in an organisation. The term creativity is defined followed by approaches in which an innovative idea may arrive. This pushes for further discussion on whether or not a creative idea is like a bolt of lightning from the sky to the innovator in its initial stages or is it something that needs to be planned? Lastly a look at 'ingredients' for successful creativity in an organisation is put forward in terms of creative people, an environment receptive to new ideas, and the use of problem solving techniques.

The last section is an evaluation of the effectiveness and promotion of creativity in successful product innovation drawing conclusions from the literature in the preceding two chapters.

2.1 Innovation and the innovation process

Thomson (2001:467) gives a sufficient definition of innovation being:

Innovation takes place where an organisation makes a technical change e.g. produces a product or service that is new to it, or uses a method that is new or original.

For example, if a competitor has already brought out the product into the market, it is then an imitation rather than an innovation. It is innovation that gives organisations an edge. Thomson (2001: 466) goes on to explain that the aim of innovation is to 'add value' for the customer by reducing costs or differentiating the product or total service in some sustainable way. Thomson also highlights the four main forms of innovation.

The first form is a new product which are radically new or which extend the product life cycle. Second are process innovations, which lead to reduce production costs and affected partially by the learning and experience effect. Thirdly, innovations which are within the umbrella of marketing which hope to increase differentiation. The last form is organisational changes, which reduce costs and improve total quality.

As can be noted from above, one could argue that it is not just the issue of product innovation, but also of process innovation in the study of innovation as a whole. In order to understand innovation, it is necessary to understand the relationship between these two factors.

William Abernathy and James Utterback between the years of 1975 and 1879, published a model of the dynamics of innovation. This model is illustrated wonderfully by Utterback (1994: xvii) who highlights the inherent relationship between product and process innovation. The model 'hypothesises' that the rate of major innovation for both products and processes follow a general pattern over time. This has not to be taken as a predictive way of ensuring success, but as a starting point of understanding the relationship between product and process changes, the apparent level of evolution of an industry and the industry's environment - all of which determine the level and scope of innovative activity in a firm or industry.

Utterback (1994: 90-97) distinguishes between three time phases: fluid, transitional and specific.

The fluid phase represents the phase an industry would go through in its formative years. Utterback (1994: 90-96) highlights that in this period "the rate of product innovation in an industry or product class is at its highest and a great deal of experimentation with product design and operational characteristics take place amongst its competitors". Due to the intensity of product innovation at this stage, processes by which the product is made is given less priority. One could argue that this stage reflects the formative years of the typewriter industry. The first typewriter 'Remington No 5' was an expensive machine which appealed to a niche market or 'lead users'. It was an innovation which enabled words to be put on paper faster than anyone could write but still was made up of existing technologies such as clockwork parts, telegraph keys, a sewing machine pedal and piano hammers. The new machine was not flawless and the industry seen waves of competitors intrude with their versions of the best machine in hope that they would win in the market. Today the transition has moved forward with the basic typewriter being taken over by electronic typewriters and PCs - both of which have carried over the standard technologies from the early typewriter.

Utterback (1994: 96) points out that eventually the industry will move on to the transitional phase in which the rate of major product innovation slows down and the rate of major process innovation speeds up. "At this point, product variety begins to give way to standard designs that have either proven themselves in the marketplace as being the best form for satisfying